Skilter??

[jden092901]

I have a 30 galllon reef tank. Im using a skilter 400, which has been doing well. However, I think I may be feeding too often due to my nitrates being around 10...sometimes I have seen as high as 20. For the most part they stay 5-10. My question is how do you or what is the best way to clean the skilters? There is some crap in the bottom of it, like some sand or something. Should I just rinse it off with tank water when doing water changes? I just cant figure out why my nitrates wont go below 5. Im pretty dang sure its my feeding.
Thanks so much,
Joshua

 

[fishyfrenzy]

It's because of your skimmer!
You need a better skimmer.
Soon.
Remoras and BakPaks are excellent!
2 25% Water changes a month.
Good luck!

 

[tizzo]

Originally Posted by jden092901
I have a 30 galllon reef tank. Im using a skilter 400, which has been doing well. However, I think I may be feeding too often due to my nitrates being around 10...sometimes I have seen as high as 20. For the most part they stay 5-10. My question is how do you or what is the best way to clean the skilters? There is some crap in the bottom of it, like some sand or something. Should I just rinse it off with tank water when doing water changes? I just cant figure out why my nitrates wont go below 5. Im pretty dang sure its my feeding.
Thanks so much,
Joshua
So, cut back on your feeding...
Water changes should be an accumulated 1% per day or more. (Rounded up to) 15% every 2 weeks. That's only 4.5 gallons. Or again, rounded up to 5 gallons.
Another methos is more biofiltration. How much do you have in the way of live rock?
And what is your bioload ie how many fish? I don't care about corals or inverts.

 

[jden092901]

I like how your to the point..

....My life rock, I have lots..im not sure to be honest, a lot of it was given to me...I would guess about 50-60 pounds in my 30...I have a 2-3 inch sand bed. My fish, I have 2 clown fish.

 

[tizzo]

Thats it?? 2 clowns in a 30? Thats awesome.
Another cause of trates is liquid foods (or suspension foods).
Do you add ANY supplements of any kind??

 

[jden092901]

I have a scallop...I cant remember the name...its like one drop per 50 gallons, its a phytoplankton of sometype. I dont use this very often, maybe once or twice a week...Should I stop using that in general?

 

[tizzo]

If you ever have to scrape the film off of your glass then you do not need to add phyto. That is for herbivore critters and they get what they need by what already grows in your tank.
I had a flame scallop for over a year, I didn't even know I had it, he was a hitch hiker, and he did fine in my tank and I never added phyto. Finally I gave him away and he was big and beautiful so he grew and thrived with out dt's.
Phyto is dead algae. DT's claims to be live. But regular phyto is dead and everything dead, rots and causes trates. I wouldn't add it.
But I have read about plenty of people who do add it and have no trates. So it may not be enough to make a difference as far as trates go.

 

[muggiwhplar]

Why are you so determined to get your nitrates below 5? I don't think that you're going to do any damage to anything at those levels. Without a significant population of anaerobic bacteria, I'd think it would be difficult to keep your nitrates below 5. You really can't avoid having them produced in your tank. If you really want to get them lower, you could increase the depth of your sand bed to about 5" or so. The sandbed on my 20 is about 5-6" with two clowns, 20 lbs of LR and some inverts, and I've never measured a detectable level of nitrates.