Very little skimmate?

[tb27272]

My 180 houses a lunar wrasse, a spotted hawk, a spotted grouper, a maroon clown, a yellow tang, a PBT, a huma huma, a niger, a blue damsel, a porcupine puffer and a large volitan. The tank has several hundred lbs of LR between the display, sump and refugium. The fuge has a 6" DSB. The skimmer is a MRC MR3R. Since the fuge has been up and running the skimmer produces nearly no skimmate. I don't have to do large water changes and the nitrates stay under 20 ppm. Does my skimmer need to be tweaked? or removed? I just purchased a Blueline 70 HD pump to upgrade the BL 55HD (1750 gph/39' head instead of 1100 and 29'. I bought the large skimmer as I know these guys will need a bigger home sooner or later. Thanks tommy

[T Man]

With that load of fish... a skimmer should be producing a dark heavy skimmate that accumulates slowly - even with the new refugium. Tinker with the skimmer and find this dark heavy skimate, I adjust mine about an hour after feeding, by this time the water column will be trashed and the skimmer is up to bat.
Your 180 sounds like fun.........I bet it's nonstop entertainment, do you have the rocks affixed somehow? Post some pic's of your fish, and skimmer if you can. T

[tb27272]

The fuge has been up and running for quite some time. I have tinkered and tinkered. The BL 70 will be here Friday. Hopefully another 650 gph and the increased head pressure will help. I have followed the instructions given to me by Andy at MRC. Crud accumulates on the walls, but the only time I can get anything to the collection cup is if I put a bit of slime coat in the tank.

[luke33]

Your skimmer should be pulling out atleast a cup a day of dark black skimmate or two cups of brown skimmate with that bioload. I've got a 125g with three very small fish and 150ish lbs of lr and i get atleast a cup to a cup and a half of black skimmate per day. I would try to get your skimmer to skim wet, teagreen or teabrown and adjust slowly from there until you get dark brown to black. If that doesn't work then i'm not sure what to tell you. That skimmer should be pulling lots of gunk......unless its less than a month old ; )

[tb27272]

the tank has been up for almost two years. The skimmer has been there almost as long. How would you explain the nitrate level if their were proteins to be skimmed?

[luke33]

20ppm in nothing to be proud of bud. Not sure why your skimmer has stopped skimming. A good cleaning and soaking in white vinegar should help alot. The fuge is helping all it can and keeping the trates down, but that does not mean there s no DOC's to remove. Have you added any new equipment lately and how long has your skimmer been acting like this. What was it pulling before your fuge was added.

[tb27272]

It did much better when their was no skimmer. 20 ppm is not a problem at all for a fish only system. There are people on this forum reporting 200 ppm on their fish only systems with no problems. The consensus I have found it anything under 80 ppm is acceptable as long as angels are not involved.

[tb27272]

checked nitrates this morning, 10 ppm in the tank, 0 if you catch water coming out of the fuge. Again, the larger pump will be here today or tomorrow, so we'll see what it does. T

[luke33]

If your trites stay that low, your fine. Like you said for a FO, not a big deal, even with corals 10-20ppm isn't a big deal. Just strange your skimmer isn't doing anything.

[Snaphook]

Did adding the Blueline 70 HD pump help? Just curious.

[Timinator]

I've got A MR2 and the 55 was not enough even for mine. I went through the same problem and addressed it with Andy but did not get a response on the recomendations that they give for pump size for the skimmers. Though in Andy's defense he is no longer there. I'm not sure that the 70 is going to do what you want and need to be honest. I hope it does since you already ordered it. It should get you close though if not there since it is another 650 gph. It does sound like a flow problem to me though. By the way does anybody know what went with Andy?

[Percula9]

I agree with Luke and try to wet skim and adjust from there. Basically bring the water height closer to the cup.

[luke33]

So is Andy in jail....or awaiting trial?

[Snaphook]

So Timinator, did you get a bigger pump? If so, what did you upgrade to?

[tb27272]

The upgrade from the 55 to 70 made an improvement. In the future when I upgrade to a larger tank I was planning on adding a riser. I am thinking that I would need a larger pump again at that point. I have read/been told that each beckett can handle 1100 gph each, but at what pressure? The BL100 is 1900 gph. So I guess one could go larger still. Tommy

[Snaphook]

I have an MR-3R as well....and I am have the same problem that you did. Would you go to the BL100 on the MR-3R?

[Timinator]

I used my Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC and it skims great now. In my opinion the pump recomendations from MRC is way under what they should be. I have mine directly off my sump with a bulkhead at around 1300 gph.

[Timinator]

I don't want to steal the thread but Luke is he in criminal trouble?

[luke33]

If rumors are correct, MRC is under new ownership as the last president was caught with an under age and in trouble with the law. Don't know all the tech, but things are changing with MRC

[rufio173]

That scoundrel. haha. Always knew he was a lady's man.

Well, hopefully things won't go too roughly for him.

I'd sell the beckett and just get a quality recirculating Needlewheel. Much more efficient to run and quieter.

I don't know what you have in your fuge, but if your skimmer is doing it's job, then it should be scouring your tank of all the DOCs so no algae should grow very well.

Peace,
John

[bergzy]

Originally posted by Timinator
I used my Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC and it skims great now. In my opinion the pump recomendations from MRC is way under what they should be. I have mine directly off my sump with a bulkhead at around 1300 gph.

not the same skimmer but, hopefully, same in 'concept'...you'll get the pun in a little bit...

i ran a reef concept 830 with an iwaki 55rlt and it barely pulled anything out...

it wasnt until frank suggested a 70rlt that i noticed killer results. foam city and skimmate country! for the first couple of weeks, it pulled out soooo much dark skimmate to make up for the underpower of the 55rlt. but after the large amount of doc's were removed...it was a lot harder to adjust and i grew tired of the constant tweaking a beckett required...

i also noticed that 'my' system found a balance of macro growth with skimmate production. again, with 'my' tank...read 'my'...i get about a gallon of chaeto growth per week in my fuge with one gallon to one and one and a half gallons of light skimmate per day on my current bermuda 5c. is it the same skimmer as a beckett...no...but i just said this to say that i found consistency with my system. not every tank is going to be the same. nitrates are about 2'ish and phosphates are undetectable on a cruddy ol' salifert. should get a hanna...but tank is lookin' gggrrreaaaaattt!!! (tony the tiger....for you young'ins...is the frosted flakes character). i attribute these low numbers to the effectiveness of my fuge for growing macro and the awesomeness of the skimmer i am running (literally set and forget).

i was getting 3 to 4 gallons of 'clearish' skimmate from my beckett per day...and this was running it just 15 hours per day. either i had no idea what i was doing with the beckett (high possibility) or i was just having a pain of a time trying to get that sweet spot. once i found that sweet spot. it disappeared and i went 'looking' for it again.

you know the saying...never adjust your beckett just before you got to sleep!

[Timinator]

Never thought of running my skimmate into the refug to feed the cheto. I might give that a try and see if the Cheto grows anymore than it already is. I think thats how I understood your post.