protein skimmer & water changes

grandmarm

Member
hi,
we have a protein skimmer and are getting about a quart to a quart and a half of dirty water coming out daily. We have ro/di water coming direct to the tank in to replace this water and any needed water.
Do we have to still do water changes?
Thanks for your help.
 
E

essop3

Guest
wow, that is alot of skimate. You may have your skimmer adjusted too wet. But to answer your question you still need to do water changes.
 

salty cheese

Active Member
IMO I would say yes, that's only about 2 gals per week. What is your salintity at? The skimmer pulls out saltwater and you are only replacing it with fresh.:thinking:
 

grandmarm

Member
protein skimmer is a home made job, we bought the whole system used. The protein skimmer is very hard to adjust it so that it runs dryer but works great. We recently added the ro/di filter and the water is very clean now except for the red slime which we cannot get rid of.
As far as the salt goes, what should that be at? lots of live live and a few corals with 4 fish.
 

salty cheese

Active Member

Originally posted by grandmarm
As far as the salt goes, what should that be at?

IMO 35 ppt. Have you checked your salinity lately? The reason I'm asking is if the skimmer is pulling out saltwater and you are replacing it with just freshwater your salinity is going to be really low.
 

woodymdt

Member

Originally posted by grandmarm
we keep checking salinity and adding salt - keeping it about 1.023 is this ok?

That is within norms, but most on here I've noticed prefer salinity to be 1.024-1.025 to better mimic ocean water.
 
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