Wet skim

[Bthomas]

How wet is too wet? I've been trying to adjust this slowly but so far I can't get my skimmer to skim and dryer then this and it looks like I'm just taking out brown water.
It used to skim alot dryer but I changed sumps and now the skimmer is in deeper water then it was before. I can't raise it any higher due to the pvc pipes running across the top of it.
Is this still effective skimming or am I just taking out water?
Pics are what I collected after about a 2 week period and the water level on skimmer in sump

 

[Jay Z]

That doesn’t look bad at all for 2 weeks. I usually have more than that. Mine was like that before at first. As my system matured it started becoming green.

How’s everything in the tank look?

 

[Bthomas]

Most everything looks OK. My acans have been closed up for over a month but that happened right after the addition of a filefish.. I had in my head that maybe he was picking at them but I could be wrong?
Although my gsp that I glued to the back wall has been slowly dieing and today my toadstool is closed up but I know they do that sometimes so that could be nothing.
Here's a full tank shot from just now

 

[Bthomas]

The tank has been running for about 2 years now with this skimmer and the sump was changed (water level raised) about 6 months ago

 

[Dan_P]

Wetter skimming removes more organic material from the aquarium per hour than dryer skimming. Skim as wet as you like. I remove about 0.5% of my fish only system’s volume every 24 hours. Think of it as a daily water change only more effective at removing organic waste.

 

[GThompson]

Mine looks similar to what you collected with the exception of mine has that much in two days not weeks. Right now I’m dry skimming so mine is really dark

 

[Bthomas]

So am I ok then? I will note too that my nitrate and phosphate are pretty high. Nitrates usually test around 50 and phosphate has started reading higher then my Hanna checker can read so I'm not sure exactly how high it is. (it maxes out at .6 ppm)
I try to do water changes every other week which hasn't had much effect on nitrate and phosphate levels

 

[GThompson]

So am I ok then? I will note too that my nitrate and phosphate are pretty high. Nitrates usually test around 50 and phosphate has started reading higher then my Hanna checker can read so I'm not sure exactly how high it is. (it maxes out at .6 ppm)
I try to do water changes every other week which hasn't had much effect on nitrate and phosphate levels

I would think it would depend on what you have in your tank. I’ve had my nitrates up around 50 before and phosphates at 2.0 for a short time and knock on wood haven’t lost anything

 

[Bthomas]

I would think it would depend on what you have in your tank. I’ve had my nitrates up around 50 before and phosphates at 2.0 for a short time and knock on wood haven’t lost anything

At the moment I don't have much as far as corals.. Couple hammers, frogspawn, elegance, trumpet, zoas, toadstool, acans, monticaps
Strangely enough I've been seeing more growth from the montis then anything else..