Serious help needed.

[jhale]

3,500 ha, no it's 35,000 of pure cooling power, but it costs an arm and a leg to run.


I have a/c's in every other room, so I stay in my office when I'm home.
my loft is basically a greenhouse with a 20' ceiling. cooling it is no joke.


so I'm leaving it up to my 1/2 hp chiller to keep my tank alive.

I looked at those plans they did not work that well as I'm home sometimes during the day, the daytime regular rates were high.

enough about my temperature problems lets get back to helping Sam :grouphug:

 

[samksy]

No wondering your bill goes up to $400 plus, luckly i don't pay electric bill here, so i definetly should get an AC up.

 

[samksy]

-I'm going to setup my canister filter to run phosphate remover.
-Brought a bottle of nitrate remover at New World aquarium and now it's in my sump.
-Got an extra big fan under the tank belowing.
-Mixing 20 gallon water to do water change tonight.

Skimmer in action pictures.

Skimmer Setup

Skimmate for one day

Skimmer water level set point

 

[jhale]

wish I had that deal :wow:

 

[jackson6745]

Sam, I don't see the skimmer foaming in the pics.....how much skimmate do you get per day? Is that the iwaki 55 pump running it?

Jonathan, I feel your pain about the electric bill. I'm usually around $200 in the summer but my last bill was a little above $400.... I like to keep my apartment freezing though

 

[samksy]

Link fixed.

It's the GenX PCX 55HP

I get like a cup of skimmate....the plastic 8 oz cup, but skimmate are sort of watery. Is there anything that i should do?

 

[jhale]

re: the electric bill, I am going to sign up for the level billing plan, they said it would about $200 / month looking at my past bills. but that could change with this new monster a/c and the tank

Sam that looks like a great set up, I like the skimmate collector, I do about the same thing have to keep an eye on it.

 

[jackson6745]

Sam, you should be getting more skimmate than 8oz per day.

1)Open the drain gate valve all the way
2) open both air valves on the injectors all the way
3) set the initial water level just below the throat of the skimmer
4) *most important* watch the skimmer closley for the next few hours to make sure it doesn't skim too much water out of the tank. Sam, you should definitely have a pressurized water collector like the aquaC or PM ones. They will shut your skimmer down if it the collector fills up......that will protect you against floods if your skimmer freaks out for some reason which becketts do from time to time.

 

[jackson6745]

One more thing....how long has the skimmer been running on the tank?

 

[samksy]

Sam, you should be getting more skimmate than 8oz per day.

1)Open the drain gate valve all the way
2) open both air valves on the injectors all the way
3) set the initial water level just below the throat of the skimmer
4) *most important* watch the skimmer closley for the next few hours to make sure it doesn't skim too much water out of the tank. Sam, you should definitely have a pressurized water collector like the aquaC or PM ones. They will shut your skimmer down if it the collector fills up......that will protect you against floods if your skimmer freaks out for some reason which becketts do from time to time.

Rich,

If i open the gate valve all the way, then i won't be able to set the initial water level below the throat of the skimmer, or did i misunderstand your point?

The air valves is already fully open
I just adjusted the water level at the throat level, had to close the gate value a little bit more and put a larger bucket for skimmate incase it goes crazy. For now, i'll just use a big bucket for security, i have reached my spending limited alredy, so i'll leave the waste collector for now.

The skimmer has been running the last 4 days if i remember correctly, i have been trying to play with it. I try to raise the initial water high, the skimmer went crazy, so i lowered to the level on the picture and just readjusted to the neck level.

Rich is this the point you talking about, neck level.....pic below
It's not an update pic, just to see if that's the point u talking about.

 

[jackson6745]

Yes that is the point that I am talking about. As you watch your skimmer, if you see it skimming too much water out gradually close both air valves until you get a consistant greenish skimmate.

 

[jackson6745]

Sam to give you an idea, here's a pic of my skimmer running. I get about 20oz of greenish brown skimmate per day. I have 12 fish and my Nitrates are 0

 

[samksy]

I got you Rich, the skimmer is overflowing now and i am doing just what you said turning the air value to control the skimmate that flows out of the skimmer. Thanks so much. And thanks to everyone for your valuable feedback and time Hopefully my skimmer/nitrate remover/phosphate remover is gonna drain up all nitrate soon.

Wow 20oz of skimmate and 12 fishes! That's a lot, i only have 7 fishes and my nitrate is at ~40ppm.

 

[jhale]

sam, how's the tank doing?

temperature wise?

 

[inline6]

sam,

a few weeks ago a good friend of mine shared some of the cheato algae & stuff you were giving away. I could'nt help but notice some pests which could be causing stress to some of your corals. I found 2 sps eating starfishes within the algae.

Check out what I found @ http://garf.org/
under Sps Eating Starfish

I hope this info helps.

 

[nanoreefer22]

I have tons of those things in my tank, they dont bother anything. I always see them in algae patches on the glass.

 

[inline6]

i don't know who to believe. I've seen them munching on algae also, but I wonder if they really do any damge to corals or is it just a ploy to buy a shrimp from them.
?????

for now i'm playing it safe.

 

[samksy]

sam, how's the tank doing?

temperature wise?

Thanks for asking Jon

Temperature is still high, i just put a twin window fan directly on top of the water, it dropped a degree lower, but still high....ooooooo man, it's a hot day after all. I might have to find an alternate solution to lower the temperature. I tried a frozen 2 litter soda bottle, melts really quick....lolz.

 

[samksy]

sam,

a few weeks ago a good friend of mine shared some of the cheato algae & stuff you were giving away. I could'nt help but notice some pests which could be causing stress to some of your corals. I found 2 sps eating starfishes within the algae.

Check out what I found @ http://garf.org/
under Sps Eating Starfish

I hope this info helps.

Sorrie, i thought those are good starfish....and i see a lot of them sticking to the side of my tank. hardly see see them on rocks and none on coral, at least in my observation. Anyone else experience starfish eating of sps?

 

[samksy]

Sam to give you an idea, here's a pic of my skimmer running. I get about 20oz of greenish brown skimmate per day. I have 12 fish and my Nitrates are 0

Rich, how much do you feed and how frequently do you feed your fishes? and the siezes of your fishes? My fishes are mostly small, except for the yellow tang. I feed them lightly everyday.

As for the skimmer, it's not producing much skimmate, skimmate are very waterish......does it take several days for the skimmer to kick in? I do see a tons of micro bubbles flowing up....hmmmmm