Skimmer help

[Shu]

Ok, just a quick question. I just bought the cpr bak pak and its working great. I have had it on for about 48 hours. At the rate its going it will fill the cup in a couple of days. Is this a good thing to fill this so fast? It looks like I will have to empty the cup every 4 to 5 days?

[Rychek]

That sounds about right. Depending on your bioload, the skimmate production may drop off after a few days.

[Shu]

yeah before I had put the skimmer in there my nitrates where through the roof. now I am sitting in between 10 to 20ppm

[ballardjr2000]

I have to empty my cup about every 2-3 days, of course its reated for 65 gallons and i have it on a 90g tank, so its working its but off. I am told here soon i will get a maineland one rated for 100g so that should help out with having to dump so often.

[Shu]

By the way man that stuff smells so bad. I opened mine up and almost puke.

I have question for people that have the cpr bak pack do you keep the bio media in yours or take it out? If you take it out what do you replace it with.

[ballardjr2000]

not sure on the cpr's mine doesn't have any media in it just the chamber and cup if its foaming fine i would say leave it in.

[Squiers007]

Skimmers will not reduce your nitrates. All they will do is slow the build up of them by removing excess organic material from the water. If this material is not removed over time it will be converted into nitrates. The only effective way to reduce nitrates without empolying a very elaborate system is via water changes. The % water change = % reduction in nitrates. So if you have 50ppm of nitrates and you do a 50% wc you will effectively have 25ppm nitrate. There are other ways of removing nitrates, but none are as efficient or cost effective. Hope this helps.

[Shu]

I am aware of that. I just miss worded it. It will help in reducing the biological waste though like you said that contributes to nitrates.

[CoryDude]

IMHO, don't use the included media on your cpr. It traps detritus and can work against your goal of lowering NO3 levels. Let your tank take care of the biological filtration.

[Shu]

Are you not using them?

[sharkboy]

small live rock rubble won't hurt...

[uriah]

This is not completely true. If you have a refugium or any other algea/ plant life it will effectively remove nitrates from your system. In addition, if you are skimming to a level where your bio-load cant keep up with the fuge, the skimmer WILL help to remove nitrates from your system...

Skimmers will not reduce your nitrates. All they will do is slow the build up of them by removing excess organic material from the water. If this material is not removed over time it will be converted into nitrates. The only effective way to reduce nitrates without empolying a very elaborate system is via water changes. The % water change = % reduction in nitrates. So if you have 50ppm of nitrates and you do a 50% wc you will effectively have 25ppm nitrate. There are other ways of removing nitrates, but none are as efficient or cost effective. Hope this helps.

[Squiers007]

This is not completely true. If you have a refugium or any other algea/ plant life it will effectively remove nitrates from your system. In addition, if you are skimming to a level where your bio-load cant keep up with the fuge, the skimmer WILL help to remove nitrates from your system...

You are correct and that is why I mentioned there are other methods, but they are either more expensive (ie denitrator) or not as efficient (mangroves/macroalgae) at removing nitrates. Now I am not advocating the sole use of a skimmer and water changes to deal with nitrates, because I myself use a refugium with mangroves and macro, but all things being equal, water changes are the quickest and cheapest.

[justahobby]

I had issues with crud getting trapped by the Bio Bale. I solved the problem when i added the pre-skimmer box and left the bio bale in. Its a nifty little thing you can make yourself with some acrylic and the right saw.

The color of the skimmate should determine if you need to adjust your collection cup. I keep mine on a 80 gallon system and empty once a week with dark tea colored skimmate and nasty thick goop through the neck. I recently added an air pump and stone and still tuning the thing. It's not the big improvement people claimed, but for $15 it was worth it!

[ballardjr2000]

I use to know of some plans online to build a deitrator with some bioballs/pvc/and tubing. if i run across them i am sooo building one...experiment.

[aggman]

here is a link to one of the many diy denitrator plans. this one happens to be written failry plainly and is not confusing at all. and based on his plan, you could probably build this unit for less than $50. not including pump of course.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diydenitratorplans/ss/sbscoildenitrat.htm

~alex

[ballardjr2000]

Yeah i saw that agg, i could probly build it for less since i have the tubing and extra pump pwr head, and pvc clue i would just have to get a ball valve and the pvc

[Shu]

I had issues with crud getting trapped by the Bio Bale. I solved the problem when i added the pre-skimmer box and left the bio bale in. Its a nifty little thing you can make yourself with some acrylic and the right saw.


What is this pre skimmer box you are referring to.

[Squiers007]

What is this pre skimmer box you are referring to.

Here is the link to them on marinedepot.

http://www.marinedepot.com/CPR_Bak_Pak_2_Combo_Box_Accessories_for_Aquarium_R eef_Protein_Skimmers-CPR-CR1121-FIPSAC-vi.html

[Shu]

2 questions. Do you think it will be an issue if I put my heater where the biomedia is. Also, do you think I can put a filter sock on the return to reduce micro bubbles?

[ballardjr2000]

I don't see a problem with the heater there if you don't have bio media there, also for the sock i have seen people put them on there over flows going to the sump so i don't see a problem with it.

[Shu]

so i should take out the bio media if I put my heater in there?

[ballardjr2000]

I would

[diego]

Take out the bio media and add live rock rubble.

[Squiers007]

I wouldnt add live rock rubble. It is just as bad as the bio media and can trap detritus and actually increase your nitrates over the long run. Let the LR you have in your display take care of the biological filtration, thats what its there for anyway. If you want to reduce microbubbles, I would definately look into getting the prefilter. It contains a section for the return that has a bubble trap that works pretty well. That way you dont have an ugly filter sock in your tank.

[Shu]

doesn't the prefilter attach to the intake on the skimmer so this is pretty ugly and big as well?

[uriah]

If your nitrates are at 50PPM, there is an underlying problem with releasing nutrients back into your system. Either you are feeding too much, your bioload is too great, your skimmer is too small, etc. I agree water changes are the quickest fix, but not always the right answer. You may be spending too much time changing water and not enough time addressing the root of the problem. Also salt gets expensive (depending on the water volume) and it is actually cheaper to manage your system the right way. Look for the reason why your nitrates are high, not what is the easiest fix. You dont need a fancy denitrator, just common sense and patience.:)


You are correct and that is why I mentioned there are other methods, but they are either more expensive (ie denitrator) or not as efficient (mangroves/macroalgae) at removing nitrates. Now I am not advocating the sole use of a skimmer and water changes to deal with nitrates, because I myself use a refugium with mangroves and macro, but all things being equal, water changes are the quickest and cheapest.

[Squiers007]

If your nitrates are at 50PPM, there is an underlying problem with releasing nutrients back into your system. Either you are feeding too much, your bioload is too great, your skimmer is too small, etc. I agree water changes are the quickest fix, but not always the right answer. You may be spending too much time changing water and not enough time addressing the root of the problem. Also salt gets expensive (depending on the water volume) and it is actually cheaper to manage your system the right way. Look for the reason why your nitrates are high, not what is the easiest fix. You dont need a fancy denitrator, just common sense and patience.:)

Uriah, I completely agree. You definately need to find the source of the problem and fix that in addition to lowering your nitrates. Thanks for pointing that out. This is why forums work so well, when one person forgets to mention something there is always someone else to jump in. Yeah teamwork!

[Shu]

What is the best course of action to find the source?

[Squiers007]

Generally excess nitrates come from one of two sources. Either you have a bioload that is too great for your tank at present. Meaning you either dont have enough live rock, or you added too many fish to your tank to fast and did not let your bacterial populations catch up. The other common source is from feeding too much, too often. If you have food making it to the bottom of the tank without being eated then you are more than likely feeding too much and that leftover food is being broken down and ultimately forming nitrates. There could be a potential other source if you are using tap water for you topoff of water change water. A lot of times tap water is high in nitrates and phospates so you should try and use RODI if at all possible.

[uriah]

Agreed. Too much feeding, too great of bio-load, tap water does add phosphates. How often do you feed? What type of food? What livestock are you housing? Are you using tap or RO/DI? The skimmer helps to keep free waste out of the water column and ultimately prevents waste from turning into amonia then nitrates. What you should realize is there are many pieces to the puzzle and just need to start asking questions...