Thoughts on skimmer? (pic for attention)

[tworegtdi]

I am currently running two nyos 160 on a heavily stocked 250 gallon tank (50 fishes). The nitrate is around 40ppm and phosphate is around 0.9ppm last time I checked. It is a mixed reef tank, believe or not, corals do not seem to be bothered at all, LPS and SPS. I know the wisdom of the hobby is "if it ain't broke, don't fixe it". I am not a fan of using any chemicals to control the NO3 or PO4, and fishes are my weakness so lowering bio load is not not an option either.

Upon doing some research, it appears skimmer could be an area of improvement. I'm thinking of replacing two nyos 160 (rated 75 gallon each for high bioload) to one Reef Octopus Regal INT300 (rated 400 gallon for high bioload), do you think this would do a dent on the high nutrients problem i'm trying to solve?

(note even the skimmer rating is much higher for reef octopus than nyos, but looking closer at the technical details, it appears the air draw of two nyos 160 is higher than one reef octopus, nyos does not disclose gph of the pump but i'm assuming two nyos pump would turnover more water than one varios 6.0 pump)

Reef Octopus

• Air Draw: 1200-2400 LPH / 42-84 SCFH*
• Power Consumption: 35-70W
• Voltage: DC 36V

Nyos 160

• Air Draw: 1500 LPH
• Power Consumption: 18W
• Voltage: AC 120V

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Lots of people run mixed reefs with #s similar to yours. Nothing wrong with that.

I'm not familiar with nyos but are you happy with their performance? If not then go for the uograde, I'm sure you'll be happy with the reef oct

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nuisance is a great unit
Start off low and dial up skimmer every few days until desired infractionation.
For mixed reefs, run chemipure blue as lps and sps will release toxins that affect each other

 

[tworegtdi]

Lots of people run mixed reefs with #s similar to yours. Nothing wrong with that.

I'm not familiar with nyos but are you happy with their performance? If not then go for the uograde, I'm sure you'll be happy with the reef oct

Nyos pulls out a lot of junk but because they are rated for 75 gallons only for heavy bioload, just doing math here two of them are probably too small for my 250G heavy heavy bioload tank. This being said i don't know how much I can trust the "skimmer rating" from the manufacturer, just purely based on air and water flow rate, it seems two nyos is on par with one reef octopus int 300, even though manufacturer rates them very differently.

 

[tworegtdi]

Nuisance is a great unit
Start off low and dial up skimmer every few days until desired infractionation.
For mixed reefs, run chemipure blue as lps and sps will release toxins that affect each other

yup not quite chemiclean but I do run carbon

 

[Pistondog]

I am currently running two nyos 160 on a heavily stocked 250 gallon tank (50 fishes). The nitrate is around 40ppm and phosphate is around 0.9ppm last time I checked. It is a mixed reef tank, believe or not, corals do not seem to be bothered at all, LPS and SPS. I know the wisdom of the hobby is "if it ain't broke, don't fixe it". I am not a fan of using any chemicals to control the NO3 or PO4, and fishes are my weakness so lowering bio load is not not an option either.

Upon doing some research, it appears skimmer could be an area of improvement. I'm thinking of replacing two nyos 160 (rated 75 gallon each for high bioload) to one Reef Octopus Regal INT300 (rated 400 gallon for high bioload), do you think this would do a dent on the high nutrients problem i'm trying to solve?

(note even the skimmer rating is much higher for reef octopus than nyos, but looking closer at the technical details, it appears the air draw of two nyos 160 is higher than one reef octopus, nyos does not disclose gph of the pump but i'm assuming two nyos pump would turnover more water than one varios 6.0 pump)

Reef Octopus

• Air Draw: 1200-2400 LPH / 42-84 SCFH*
• Power Consumption: 35-70W
• Voltage: DC 36V

Nyos 160

• Air Draw: 1500 LPH
• Power Consumption: 18W
• Voltage: AC 120V

The varios pump on the octopus is quiet and speed adjustable. Get it. If it doesn't get you all the way where you want to be, you might look at carbon dosing.

 

[tworegtdi]

The varios pump on the octopus is quiet and speed adjustable. Get it. If it doesn't get you all the way where you want to be, you might look at carbon dosing.

Thanks! In my old tank I did nopox, it was great at controlling nutrients however over long term i noticed significant build up of bacterial "clumps" in the sump and piping, that's why I shied away from using it in my current tank.

 

[Dan_P]

I am currently running two nyos 160 on a heavily stocked 250 gallon tank (50 fishes). The nitrate is around 40ppm and phosphate is around 0.9ppm last time I checked. It is a mixed reef tank, believe or not, corals do not seem to be bothered at all, LPS and SPS. I know the wisdom of the hobby is "if it ain't broke, don't fixe it". I am not a fan of using any chemicals to control the NO3 or PO4, and fishes are my weakness so lowering bio load is not not an option either.

Upon doing some research, it appears skimmer could be an area of improvement. I'm thinking of replacing two nyos 160 (rated 75 gallon each for high bioload) to one Reef Octopus Regal INT300 (rated 400 gallon for high bioload), do you think this would do a dent on the high nutrients problem i'm trying to solve?

(note even the skimmer rating is much higher for reef octopus than nyos, but looking closer at the technical details, it appears the air draw of two nyos 160 is higher than one reef octopus, nyos does not disclose gph of the pump but i'm assuming two nyos pump would turnover more water than one varios 6.0 pump)

Reef Octopus

• Air Draw: 1200-2400 LPH / 42-84 SCFH*
• Power Consumption: 35-70W
• Voltage: DC 36V

Nyos 160

• Air Draw: 1500 LPH
• Power Consumption: 18W
• Voltage: AC 120V

If you aren’t running the skimmers wet, try that for a month and see what happens to nitrate level. By wet I mean approach as close as practical 1% of total volume of the system in skimmate per day.

I doubt skimmers can have much influence on nitrate level.

 

[Greg P]

IMO, your 2 Nyos units will out-perform the Reef Octopus, just based on the air draw specs. 3000lph total vs 2400lph.
Possibly your current units aren't running as efficiently as they could and getting them running better may help with nutrient control, but won't be a total fix.

Consider instead spending money on an airflow meter to help adjust your current units.
I found my skimmer was most efficient with a max airflow which was 'not' bouncing in the meter, thus no pump cavitation. I had to detune my unit as it was drawing too much air thus interrupting it's ability to flow air well.

I used a Dwyer RMA-22-SSV airflow meter (up to 1500lph), but you'd need the 23-SSV to handle up to 3000lph
These meters have a valve you use to fine tune the flow.

Home

Dwyer Instruments

www.dwyer-inst.com

 

[Greg P]

I left mine attached to the air intake and always used it to adjust the skimmer intake, so my idea requires you buying 2 meters. Costly, but effective

 

[Rmckoy]

I believe a over rated skimmer will pull almost too much from the water .
and believe that’s my issue .
I have higher phosphates but nitrates are undetectable.
I have tried 3 different tests this morning and can’t get a reading for nitrates.

It’s a 230 gal tank .
I wouldn’t say it’s heavily stocked but close to .
Only having 9 fish .
4 of them being 4-6”

I am using the external Mrc MR2 skimmer with
9000l jeabo dc pump