LF Skimmer Advice

[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...

[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.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by 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?

I would A, increase water changes just as a practice. B, I would consider bigger water changes to make up for poorer performance from the skimmer. Honestly, I found the biggest thing you can do to fix almost anything is change water. Some exceptions, but in your case, I'd be doing some 50% changes.

[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.

[reef-keeper]

I have just a quick question.... Have you been testing your water parameters to see if everything is within the desired levels? If you have how often and did you record it? Recording just show when everything went Ka-flewie and can set you on the right path.