neon_hybrid
Aquarium Advice Regular
Ok, Im new to the whole saltwater fish tank thing, but I will give you some basics of what I have. I have a 55 gallon tank with a total of 5 fish. The 5 fish are a 2.5 inch clown fish, 3 inch yellow tang, 1.25 inch yellow tail damsel (2), and a 3 inch angel fish (cant remember the type), and 1 shrimp, and about 3 descent size snails. I am running a wet dry sump with bio balls, and my sump has a in built protein skimmer. I have live rock as well. I bought the tank used, and fully established, and the previous owner did regular water changes (10 gallons bi weekly). The tank has never had fish disease, and has only had 1 fish die in the tank which was about a year ago. After moving the tank (kept about 90% of the existing water), I bought a saltwater test kit which tests PH, amonia, nitrite, and nitrate. My Ph level is 8.2 which i understand is ok for the most part, my nitrite, and amonia levels are 0, and my nitrate level was 160 ppm 8O . After finding this, I started trying to determine what might be causing the skyrocketing nitrate levels. I have had the tank up and running for about a week now, and I amazingly havent lost any fish due to the high nitrate levels. I found that my protein skimmer did not seem to work properly, and was not collecting anything. I determined that my rio 800 was not pumping enough water. I took a used power head, and modified it so it works as a venturi style pump. After putting that pump head in, the protein skimmer seemed to be working, and I started getting foam inside the cup. After the foam settled, and turned back into water inside the cup, the color of the water was a yellow/brown color. My understanding is thats how its supposed to work, but after a day I cleaned out the skimmer, and now the bubbles stopped rising in the cup. I still get a small amount of the discolored water in the cup, but no bubbles actually rise inside the cup, and its not working like it did the first day that I put the pump head in. While trying to figure this out, I went an bought a different model protein skimmer that I can hang on the back of my tank. I have been told by multiple local shops that the built in style skimmers are not very good, and dont seem to work well. The new skimmer Link here I bought does not seem to be getting anything out of the tank. It does have a very very small amount of discolored fluid in the cup, but after running for 2 days, I still havent had enough to even notice. Even turning the air level up and down does not affect it. I have to take the cup off, and tip it sideways to see the water in it. I have also replaced the pad filter in the sump, and made a few corrections to the way I had the sump set up, as well as cleaned the over flow prefilter. The bio balls were fully submerged when I set the tank up, but now, only about 1/4 of them are actualy in water, and now the water actually trickles over the balls.
I have done a 12 gallon water change on the tank on wednesday of this week. The nitrate level seems to be between 40 and 80, which is better, but still bad, and I really need to get these levels down so I can start adding coral in the next few months. I am going to be doing another 12 gallon change in a day or 2 to try and lower the nitrate levels more.
Since I have 2 protein skimmers running and neither of them seem to be getting a large amount of protein from the water, is it possible that my tank just does not have enough waste to fill the cups fast, or should I be concerned. Is it possible that because the protein skimmer wasnt working properly that it got a large ammount out of the tank, and now has tapered off? I plan on running a 24 hour test that I am going to start tonight to see how much actually collects in the cup, and measure the amount.
I also feed my fish frozen food once a day, and only 1 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch piece. The people before me fed the fish more than I did, which also may have contributed to the high nitrate level. I feed them in the late afternoon/early evening when they are active that way the food gets eaten, instead of disolving and decomposing.
Does anyone have any suggestions, or advice?
I have done a 12 gallon water change on the tank on wednesday of this week. The nitrate level seems to be between 40 and 80, which is better, but still bad, and I really need to get these levels down so I can start adding coral in the next few months. I am going to be doing another 12 gallon change in a day or 2 to try and lower the nitrate levels more.
Since I have 2 protein skimmers running and neither of them seem to be getting a large amount of protein from the water, is it possible that my tank just does not have enough waste to fill the cups fast, or should I be concerned. Is it possible that because the protein skimmer wasnt working properly that it got a large ammount out of the tank, and now has tapered off? I plan on running a 24 hour test that I am going to start tonight to see how much actually collects in the cup, and measure the amount.
I also feed my fish frozen food once a day, and only 1 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch piece. The people before me fed the fish more than I did, which also may have contributed to the high nitrate level. I feed them in the late afternoon/early evening when they are active that way the food gets eaten, instead of disolving and decomposing.
Does anyone have any suggestions, or advice?
. You can get a better skimmer for about 210 dollars. Check out captive reefs they have the ASM skimmer, which are great! It may be a bit over powered, but the price is right and I think they are a "set it and forget it" type skimmer.
