IS SKIMMER TO LARGE???

[excal]

I have 80 gallons total water volume in my system. skimmer only works right after tank is feed.. can a skimmer being to large pull out trace elements.

Fish
6 Blue Green Chromis
1 One Spot Foxface
1 6 line wrasse
2 cleaner wrasse
4 spotted cardinal

WATER PARAMETERS
Salinity - 1.025
pH - 8.3
Temperature- 78° + or -1
Phosphate - .03 PPM
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
HAVE YET TO CHECK Alkalinity, Calcum or Magnesium

DISPLAY - 65 DSA Reef Ready
SUMP - 15 gallon of water volume
TATAL WATER VOlUME - 80
SKIMMER - Precision Marine Bullet 2 Protein Skimmer Rating 250gal.
SKIMMER PUMP- Iwaki MD-40RXT (Japanese Motor) 1344GPH
WASTE COLLECTOR - Precision Marine WC410
REACTOR - NextReef SMR1 Solid Media Reactor
MEDIA - BRS GFO High Capacity
RETURN PUMP - Hydor Seltz L40 Pump 740GPH
POWERHEAD - Hydor Evolution-1400 1500GPH

http://i1313.photobucket.com/albums/t541/Excal85/98277723-79F2-48F3-BE4A-1EC8B6559BC5_zps2e5k07tz.jpg (http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/Excal85/media/98277723-79F2-48F3-BE4A-1EC8B6559BC5_zps2e5k07tz.jpg.html)

http://i1313.photobucket.com/albums/t541/Excal85/DD274DF1-5CFA-4E6A-8808-6DB8563CAF64_zpsg0xw75al.jpg (http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/Excal85/media/DD274DF1-5CFA-4E6A-8808-6DB8563CAF64_zpsg0xw75al.jpg.html)

http://i1313.photobucket.com/albums/t541/Excal85/C8F95820-1DA4-436A-9502-151D0B430D8E_zpsso607hqh.jpg (http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/Excal85/media/C8F95820-1DA4-436A-9502-151D0B430D8E_zpsso607hqh.jpg.html)

[rrasco]

Technically, yes, but I don't think yours is. Typically if its rated a lot higher than your tank, you would just empty the cup less often, but it is *possible* to have a giant skimmer that can't fractionate the foam correctly because of the neck diameter, etc.

I'm assuming you've adjusted it to skim wetter?

[Zack]

I'd say no, but I'd feed more if you think it'd be an issue, especially if your keeping zoas, i feel your water can be "too clean".. when I ran my 200 gallon skimmer on a 10 gallon, I noticed a lot of my zoas pasteled out

[Big_Pun]

i would say adding more nutrients via food is a bad idea. getting an appropriate sized skimmer would be a better idea. what else are you running off that pump for the skimmer

[excal]

I'm running my reactor off the pump... The pm is hard to tune.. How would I get dry skim...? air in tube is ran outside to help keep my ph at 8.3

[excal]

Can I just dose trace elements ect.. ?

[rrasco]

Sounds like you need to run it wetter, not drier.

[excal]

so the way it now is fine..?

[rrasco]

Ideally it should be skimming something almost constantly, assuming there is something to skim. If you want it to skim more, you need to run it wetter. If you want it to skim less, you skim drier. Totally up to you.

[excal]

Skipper is consistent but after feeding skims more.. I guess when there is nothing to be pulled it's just bubbles at consistent rate not overfilling collection cup.

[kkiel02]

It's probably from the oils and fats in the food. When Maast made fish food a while back mine would skim crazy afterwards. We used a lot of stuff similar to what tuan just made.

[excal]

got you im only using brine shrimp and nori...

[excal]

http://i1313.photobucket.com/albums/t541/Excal85/FD27CD43-929C-4FD4-B0DA-F6BC7A1CB370_zpsd9td3fks.jpg (http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/Excal85/media/FD27CD43-929C-4FD4-B0DA-F6BC7A1CB370_zpsd9td3fks.jpg.html)

[Big_Pun]

that looks like some good skim


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[ramsey]

I have a couple of thoughts. First, it depends what coral you want to keep. If you're going for SPS you're going to want a beefy oversized skimmer. If you're going for softies, you could get by with less. The other option could be to run your skimmer throughout the day and not constantly. From looking at your skimmate, it looks like it's doing great.

[excal]

i want to keep a mixed reef. sps lps softies ect.. i have a monster skimmer for my system im guessing i can pull more out by skimming wet so a dry skim should be fine...