Some aquascaping questions

[ahiggins]

I have a skimmer-I try to run it very concentrated (less wet). Its hooked up to my nitrate reactor. I dont know why, but Ive always heard to skim more concentrated vs wetter.
If you do put the skimmer back on, you could eliminate the one powerhead blowing on the surface. Plus, having that will take the junk off the surface of the water :) win win
I think it was a good thing to pull out the canister. Those just build up nitrates unless you clean it every other day or so. Have you tested your water?
The big ones are:
calcium and alkalinity-goes hand in hand-inverse relationship
magnesium-basically keeps the calcium in the water so it doesnt precip out.
Nitrates
phosphates

Do you use RODI? thats one thing I skimped on originally, now that I use it....Ill never go without it again. It led to so much algae growth.
Good to hear about the refractometer too-make sure you get calibration solution and calibrate it every time you use it. I forgot once and ended up with 1.030 in my tank.

 

[Be102]

I never really thought of it that way, however that might be a reason my surface is so cloudy.. is that me breaking up the water on the surface causes the protein skimmer to not be able to keep up. I actually just switched to RO/DI last weekend. I was previously getting bottled ro/di from the grocery store and it was a pain. I bet that was a huge reason why my tank went through so much algae. I also was over feeding by a LOT so it was just an all out lose / lose/ lose situation. I am really curious to see what the SG is of my tank. I was not sure about my wet skim , it just seemed that when its more concentrated, I feel it NEVER gets filled and I think that it just is all going right back into my tank. at least with it coming out wet it seems to pull a lot of stuff out. Not really sure.. I would love to get some sort of reactor for carbon / gfo however can't seem to find a decent hang on back one, and the whole sump set up is really confusing to just jump right into.

 

[ahiggins]

I totally get the sump thing-I dont have sumps in any of my tanks because I have no idea what Im doing when it comes to that. The one pictured is an all in one so I can hide equipment.
You can run the skimmer how you want really, wet or less wet lol as long as its pulling out stuff, youre fine :)
I would stay away from running carbon on smaller tanks though. I only use it when I do maintenance on the frag tank and the zoas release their toxins.
You will learn as you go.
I had high nitrates (50-60) for a while before I got the nitrate reactor. best investment. I run it next to the skimmer and it pulls out so much stuff. I feed heavily too, mostly feeding the corals.

 

[Be102]

I totally get the sump thing-I dont have sumps in any of my tanks because I have no idea what Im doing when it comes to that. The one pictured is an all in one so I can hide equipment.
You can run the skimmer how you want really, wet or less wet lol as long as its pulling out stuff, youre fine :)
I would stay away from running carbon on smaller tanks though. I only use it when I do maintenance on the frag tank and the zoas release their toxins.
You will learn as you go.
I had high nitrates (50-60) for a while before I got the nitrate reactor. best investment. I run it next to the skimmer and it pulls out so much stuff. I feed heavily too, mostly feeding the corals.

Honestly I've heard of every reactor except nitrate which is quite interesting. I agree with the carbon and whatnot tho. I am unsure what I would even need for a simp so I am staying away from that.. water out of my tank and going back up is quite freighting considering it would have to be an external overflow.. already flooded my floors once not too sure how great a second time would go over :rolleyes:

 

[ahiggins]

The nitrate reactor very simply takes nitrates and condenses them so the skimmer can take it out. Now that my nitrates are low I may move it to another tank.