Very low bio load in tank (?)

[itsme123]

Hi everyone,
I've got a 75 gal with a 48 day old Bamboo Shark (hatched from an egg sack), a Tomato Clown, a Golden Head Goby, a Soldier Fish, a 4" clam, some mushrooms, and a duster. There is about 25 lbs of cured live rock with about 2.5 inches of substrate at the bottome. Is it possible to have such a small bio-load in the tank that the protein skimmer does not producte much foam/waste at all? The skimmer is a Titan driven by a Mag 5 and also got an Eheim Pro Wet/Dry along with an Eheim canister. The tank is about 6 month old and all equipments are all maintained and cleaned every month. The skimmer basically stoped producing foam (still shoots out a lot of bubbles from the venturi) about 3 weeks ago. Only dose calcium once a week. Can't figure out why, for the exception of a very small bio-load in the tank. BTW, I feed everyday, once a day. Does anyone else every experience this?

 

[danmhippo]

What you feeding to the shark? BTW, I wouldn't call your tank "light load".

You need to adjust either increase the pump size, or raise the water level inside the skimmer. Just curious, you do know how fast and how large the baby shark is gonna get right? And you do know what he is gonna eat when he gets older (e.g. his tankmate?)? And Why are you dosing calcium in the FO tank?

 

[danmhippo]

Just did an search on your old post last week You obviously should know that your skimmer is pretty lousy. You might want to get a good brand/model. Get the best that you can afford.

 

[2poor2reef]

Dang, hippo, are we going to have to send you back to charm school again?

I run a small tunze skimmer on an sps tank with absolutely no fish or inverts other than snails and I still get a cup of skimmate every week so I too would look at your skimmer and not assume there aren't enough organics in the water column. You could test it easily enough by looking at your nitrate levels. If you do upgrade your skimmer be sure to think ahead because I can't image how big a skimmer you're going to need for your future shark pool.

 

[itsme123]

Thanks for the reply guys. I went ahead with the Titan because I just thought it looked liked an interesting/unique design, which looked liked it might of worked. Heck, it did pretty good untill then. It produced a very dry foam consitantly, which was very suprising to me. My original idea was to have an AquaC EV180 in a 20 gal sump, but did not have much time to put the project together, so I took the lazy route with a HO skimmer. Now with my vacation coming up, I am going to put that project in motion

.

As for the shark, I hand feed it chopped squid, shrimp, and krill combo. From my experience, they just about double their lenth in about a 2-3 years of time. She is at about 5 1/4" right now, so that will give me some time to plan for my next set up

.

The reason for the dose of calcium, is for that 4" clam that I've got in there. Its one of the few things I kept from a 30 gal mini reef that I used to have. Plus making sure coraline algea is spreading on the live rocks...

Mike

 

[itsme123]

BTW, my nitrate shows only about 40 ppm. And as a backup, I had my water tested by my trusted LFS to make sure and he had about the same result. That's why I am scratching my head over this no foam in the skimmer thing.....

Mike

 

[2poor2reef]

Mike, have you always had that cannister filter on there? By chance did the skimmer shut down at the same time it was added? I would imagine it's possible the cannister filter is shutting the skimmer down. At 40ppm nitrate there is clearly a ton of organics in the water that could of been skimmed but wasn't. That is to be expected when that much feeding is required.

 

[danmhippo]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 2poor2reef:
<strong>Dang, hippo, are we going to have to send you back to charm school again?</strong><hr></blockquote>

I apologize, but it's just being me again. No, I don't need charm school, but I probably have to finish my anger management class first!

Anyway, I don't believe his tank has such a low bioload that the skimmer is picking up nothing. i do not have experice with Titan but there is always modifications he can do to it. I believe yours is a hang on model, right? Just for experiment sake, if I were you, I would get a deep bucket, fill it with your aquarium water, and put your skimmer in it to see if higher water level is going to yield more skimmate.

Have you ever cleaned your skimmer? Check the riser tube and make sure there isn't blockage there. I still think its a malfunctioned skimmer.

 

[SPC]

I agree with Dan, that bio load ought to be producing plenty of skimmate. Btw, I would agree that your bio load is high IMO.
Steve

 

[itsme123]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by danmhippo:
<strong>

I would get a deep bucket, fill it with your aquarium water, and put your skimmer in it to see if higher water level is going to yield more skimmate.

Have you ever cleaned your skimmer? Check the riser tube and make sure there isn't blockage there. I still think its a malfunctioned skimmer.

</strong><hr></blockquote>

The skimmer gets cleaned every 3-4 weeks and the collection cup every week... I did try to raise the water level in the skimmer, because the return pipe does have a ball valve to raise and lower the water level in the skimmer. Actually, that ball valve, if not carefully adjusted or monitored after adjutment, will cause the skimmer to overflow....haven't happend yet to me, but could see it happen. I should get my AquaC EV180 and my sump in by next week, and I am sure the EV180 should produce quite a bit of foam...

As for the canister theory, it may just work too good shutting down the skimmer. The canisters and the Titan both was on the tank at the same time from the beggining. I do have a DIY skimmer box built for the Ehiem intake tubes. It skimms the surface better that small skimmer cup that the Titan comes with.

I guess over all from everyone's feedback, my bio-load is not exactly small

, but a lesson in not to buy a D&D Titan... Thanks for your help/feedbacks guys

I'll keep everyone posted once I get me EV180 working to see how that goes.