Reef Mat to effective, No skimmate!

[Robin777]

Hey Guys!

I’ve got a 80gallon mixed reef tank with a good amount of fish, it’s got a Reef mat 500 and a Red Sea RSK 300 Skimmer.
It’s been running for about a year now and I feed twice a day!
No3: 10
Po4: 0,07
I’ve never had a good skimmate, even though there should be enough waste in the tank!
Is it possible the reef mat is just too good and manages to remove all the waste before it reaches the skimmer?

Thanks!
Robin

 

[Formulator]

Yes. They are both mechanical filtration and the reef mat is very efficient. If you don’t need the skimmer to keep pH up, you might consider just eliminating it. Or the reef mat could be eliminated since you do get the added benefits of gas exchange with the skimmer. Or just leave them both running, but don’t expect much skimmate.

 

[Robin777]

Yeah that makes sense I guess!
One thing I don’t quite get is that even though I’m not getting any skimmate the nitrate keeps rising, although nothing that weekly water changes can control, but regardless! Isn’t one of the main jobs of the skimmer to pull nitrates from the water so if there is enough of it in the tank, how come the skimmer won’t foam up?

 

[exnisstech]

Maybe try shutting the reefmat down at night. I used to do that when my nutrients got too low. I wasn't running a skimmer and only had a couple of fish so I didn't feed much.

 

[Robin777]

Maybe try shutting the reefmat down at night. I used to do that when my nutrients got too low. I wasn't running a skimmer and only had a couple of fish so I didn't feed much.

Yeah but I don’t have a problem with low nutrients though, they are just fine, and if I shut down the mat at night bigger waste fill flow into my sump that the skimmer can’t take care of…
All I wanted to know really was if anyone has experienced this as I’m not sure if the skimmer is malfunctioning or not, but sometimes it’s producing some skimmate although not a lot, so that’s why I think the reef mat is just pulling out waste quicker than it can degrade for the skimmer to pull out if that makes sense!

 

[C_AWOL]

The skimmer isn't malfunctioning. When a lot more material is exported before it can fully break down theres less organics for the skimmer to pull out.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hey Guys!

I’ve got a 80gallon mixed reef tank with a good amount of fish, it’s got a Reef mat 500 and a Red Sea RSK 300 Skimmer.
It’s been running for about a year now and I feed twice a day!
No3: 10
Po4: 0,07
I’ve never had a good skimmate, even though there should be enough waste in the tank!
Is it possible the reef mat is just too good and manages to remove all the waste before it reaches the skimmer?

Thanks!
Robin

Yes, absolutely.

I only have to empty my skimmer cup about twice a month.

Before the roller mat it was every day or two.

 

[BryanM]

Hey Guys!

I’ve got a 80gallon mixed reef tank with a good amount of fish, it’s got a Reef mat 500 and a Red Sea RSK 300 Skimmer.
It’s been running for about a year now and I feed twice a day!
No3: 10
Po4: 0,07
I’ve never had a good skimmate, even though there should be enough waste in the tank!
Is it possible the reef mat is just too good and manages to remove all the waste before it reaches the skimmer?

Thanks!
Robin

Is the skimmer installed at the proper depth for it to work? This is a common problem. I have a Reefmat500 and DC Skimmer 600, and I get plenty of skimmate.

 

[robanister]

Don't fix what is not broke! If everything is good keep it! It will pull when the water is really over loaded and save you aka snails or something else spawning in your tank

 

[Formulator]

Yeah that makes sense I guess!
One thing I don’t quite get is that even though I’m not getting any skimmate the nitrate keeps rising, although nothing that weekly water changes can control, but regardless! Isn’t one of the main jobs of the skimmer to pull nitrates from the water so if there is enough of it in the tank, how come the skimmer won’t foam up?

The skimmer doesn’t remove nitrate, it just removes tiny organic particles and detritus, which if not removed would decay and release nitrate. So if you have a nitrate problem and getting no skimmate, that just means the organic particles and detritus are settling or getting trapped somewhere to decay before they make it to the skimmer. To some degree this is inevitable, and why we still have to employ other nutrient export methods like water changes or carbon dosing, and why its good to vacuum out the sump and blow off your rocks now and then.

 

[Snoopy 67]

The rule of thumb is to downsize by 1 skimmer size when using a roller mat because it does such a good job.

 

[Pod_01]

As the poster above mentioned, you need to use smaller skimmer when using roller mat.
Unfortunately Red Sea recommendations are odd they recommend oversized roller/skimmer combination.

As was mentioned skimmer removes organics, if these don’t get to the skimmer you end up with oversized air stone.
Growing corals also act like a filter so over filtering is definitely possible.

For my system I only use skimmer for filtration and my NO3 is 1-3 ppm. Usually below 1ppm.

Good luck,