LF Skimmer Advice

[jostafew]

Hey everyone, I'm currently battling an algae / cyano problem that's going on about two years. Granted my efforts were pretty half ass early on (new house, other priorities) but long story short it's been a long haul. The system itself is about 4 years old and in that time there always seemed to be some form of nuisance in the tank whether it be cyano, algae, dino (that sucked)... I feel like it's been an uphill battle for way too long based on other people's experiences and I'm starting to question my equipment. Right now my system is 50gal total volume, display tank is shallow so I'm light on LR / gal, DT has fine sand bed, light bio load (6 small fish, inverts), very few corals at the moment sadly... The fish are not over fed, if anything they could be fed more. Water comes from a 5 stage RODI which at its worst was showing 1ppm on the output side before changing all elements about 6 months ago.

I used to run carbon in a TLF150 reactor but now I run Rowa in there to attempt to correct the current issue. Skimmer is a Remora Pro with the Mag 3, I skim wet (tea) and I might get a quarter of the collection cup full after a good week. In my mind something just doesn't add up, if excessive nutrients aren't going into the tank via food or water (or salt), then the only alternitive is that they are not being efficiently removed from the system which brings me to my question; should I be considering a different skimmer? I have a sump and the Remora hangs off the side of that saving space, and I got it for cheap way back when so I've just run that. Now though I'm thinking about trying to pick up an Octopus NWB-110 or something like that to see what it'll do in my system because my Remora has never produced a lot of skimate and nuisance algae has almost always been a problem (much more recently though)...

I've done a lot of reading (both in print and on the web) and I don't think I'm making any big mistakes, yet the issue persists... I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter and whether I should try to find another skimmer, thanks in advance

[Aquattro]

What is your water change regime?

[jostafew]

The last few months it's been 5gal (10%) every 2-3 weeks. Before that was the same every month or so. First couple years using IO, but switched to DD H2Ocean after a bad bucket of IO wiped out nearly all livestock in the tank. (didn't fiure out the cause of that one till it was too late)

[hfp75]

-Any chance the sun is hitting your tank?
-Skim a darker skimate...
-Rowa is good, but how much are you using and how often do you change it? Keep your PO4 at 0.1 +\- 0.05, if your running lots of Rowa and your po4 isn't dropping just keep running it, maybe your rock or sand is saturated and your slowly unsaturating it - making the system healthier.
-Google : Red Slime Remover by UltraLife. It's good stuff but shut off your skimmer till it's done it's job. I end up running it once a year'ish.
-you got a sand bed? If so how healthy is it ? Ie: what's the sand turn over rate? (Sand star, sifting goby, snails, ect) Sand shouldn't just sit......
-Ever considered running a biopellet reactor? It'll eliminate your no3.
-snails in the tank? Turbo? Turbin? Ect that consume algae?
-what's your lighting?
-if your running ro/di I'd skip the carbon.
-Your skimmer doesn't really remove no3 it removes DOCs that will break down into no3, if there's no3 in the water the best way to eliminate it is either water changes or denitrifying bacteria.

Lots of stuff to consider...

[jostafew]

Thanks for the input and the interest in my struggles. hfp75 I'll attempt to touch on the points you mentioned

- 75% of the year there is no direct sunlight on the tank, though in mid summer it does get about 15 min in the evening

- skim darker skimate... Not sure how to address that one, my Aqua C Remora's only adjustment is the height of the collection cup, and that pretty much only changes how much water it pulls out of the system. Lower and I get more watered down skimate, higher and it really doesn't pull much of anything.

- the Rowa I'm experimenting with. Currently running a TLF 150 half full, this is the 3rd batch that I've put in it in a few months. I'm still learning about measuring and removing phosphates, hence my other post regarding measuring phosphates for the purpose of algae prevention

- I will look at red slime remover. If its anything like chemiclean I have done a couple treatments of that, the first one cleaned up my tank very nicely but despite big water changes after it turned into wicked algae growth followed by more cyano.

- yes I have a sand bed, fine sand (but not the sugar), about 1-1/2" deep on average. There is not a lot of turnover there, only really done by a few smaller nassarius snails and the occasional mischievous fish. I would love to have a sand sifting star but I don't believe the system is big enough to support one. Same thing with a sand sifting goby, the display tank is about 35 gal (30" x 24" x 12") so I worry about starvation.

- no I've never considered running a bio pellet reactor, but I will now

- snails have always been a challenge for me. The most success I've had have been with the nassarius snails who live in the sandbed unless they smell food, followed by astrea and cerith snails, but it seems in both my tanks the astrea and cerith eventually die off after a few months presumable due to lack of food (because the algae gets covered in some other pest). After the recent outbreak of hair algea I brought in a lawnmower blenny which gorged itself on the algae at first, then slowly was eating less and less and eventually perished after about 6 wks, approx. the same time the latest wave of cyano came on again. The latest wave, more brown color, didn't respond to the Chemiclean like the first and heavier reddish wave did.

- lighting consists of a 250w halide and 2 24" t5's. I've been running a couple different 10k MH lamps because I like the mid-sunny day look (reminds be of being under the wanter in Hawaii), but recently changed back to a 14k lamp, though it still looks pretty close to 10k. The T5's are on for 12hrs a day, the halide about 8. The fixture is a good 18" above the tank at the moment. 300w is a lot of light over a 35gal shallow reef but I wanted to have a lot of light for when I could get things back in order and safe to have clams again. The tank used to be the same footprint at 30" x 24" but it was 24" tall and when I downsized I re-used the light fixture and just lifted it higher above the tank to reduce intensity.

- yes I run RO/DI, but if I skip the carbon isn't that just asking for premature wear on the more expensive RO membrane?

Hope these details will be helpful. I've been at this so long it would be nice to finally have a clean tank to work with again. Thanks again

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by jostafew

The last few months it's been 5gal (10%) every 2-3 weeks. Before that was the same every month or so. First couple years using IO, but switched to DD H2Ocean after a bad bucket of IO wiped out nearly all livestock in the tank. (didn't fiure out the cause of that one till it was too late)

I would change at least 25% with that skimmer, and double that until the algae was taken care of.
I came home from out of town to a tank full of hair algae. 2 weeks and a couple 50% water changes, it was gone.
I have no algae issues with 25% regularly every 2 weeks with a high end skimmer.

[Aquattro]

Oh, and I get 3 hours of direct sunlight every day in the tank. It does not pose any problems.

[TimT]

If your rocks and sand are saturated with Phosphate the easiest, and cheapest, method to remove it is Foz Down.

Cheers,
Tim

[jostafew]

Sorry Brad, just want to make sure that I understand. Are you suggesting that I just increase the water changes or also change the skimmer for something else?

Tim, I've been watching the posts about Foz Down. Want to read a little more about how it works and how to apply but will likely be in touch.

[Skimmin]

I'd like to suggest vinegar dosing. My tank is completely void of nuissance algae. I believe keeping kh stable between 8 and 9 and keeping up with my vinegar dosing has been the biggest help of keeping algae in control. It also helps keep phosphate down. That being said a good skimmer is strongly recommended for dosing and help with nutrient export. I personally use a re-circ skimmer. I also prefer to skim wetter then dryer. Similar to weak coffee. A little darker then tea.