I have replaced the Seaclone Protein Skimmer that I originally bought with a Coralife Super Skimmer 65G. I am having problems producing foam in the skimmer. There appears to be plenty of microbubbles. It has exceeded the period of time that it needs to break in - about 72 hours. It has been running for a week now. I'm getting frustrated because I can't determine if I bought another bad skimmer or if I have it adjusted incorrectly or if the lack of foam is due to a very light bio load that I have in my system. I also am having a big hair algae problem that I'm struggling with. Here are some quick stats:
Tank was set up in October and has completed cycling.
60 Gallon tank
2 250W Metal Halide bulbs
Coralife SS 65G protein skimmer HOB of DT
About 40 lbs of LR
5 blue legged hermit crabs
1 emerald crab
1 peppermint shrimp
1 margarite snail
1 small hitchiker snail that I haven't ID'd yet
A handful of small hitchikers like feather dusters, bristle worms, sponges and amphipods
The refugium is small - about 14 Gallons
Red Gracilaria Macro Algae
3 small hitchiker starfish - one small blue and one sandy colored brittle type and I believe an asterina - need to ID still.
about 15 mysis shrimp
I tested some basic water parameters this morning.
Ph is 8.0
Ammonia is 0
Nitrites is 0
Nitrates is 0
Salinity is 1.022 (which is on the low side and I need to adjust)
I've been keeping the tank on the cool side - 74 F
For the hair algae problem, I think that adding a larger clean up crew would handle the brunt of it? For now, I'm netting and siphoning it out manually. I've cut back lighting to 4 or 5 hours a day. I'm wondering if my lighting is just too bright. I'd like to eventually have mushroom coral and I don't know if my lighting is too strong. When I bought everything, I wanted sps coral - and I still do - but I really like some of the corals with lower lighting requirements.
Any advice about the protein skimmer? For those familiar with this type, I completely removed the sponge and tray portion of it because it seemed cheesy and annoying. Removing the tray didn't appear to have any effect on how the skimmer performed. I would rather deal with the microbubbles in the tank for some reason. Eventually, I would like to put some sort of elbow on it and direct the output but I don't want to modify this until I know that it works. I don't like how the return is in such close proximity to the intake. I'm totally new to the SW hobby but it would make more sense to me to have a greater distance between these two. But, this is my second skimmer and I really need this to be workable, if possible.
Any ideas?
Tank was set up in October and has completed cycling.
60 Gallon tank
2 250W Metal Halide bulbs
Coralife SS 65G protein skimmer HOB of DT
About 40 lbs of LR
5 blue legged hermit crabs
1 emerald crab
1 peppermint shrimp
1 margarite snail
1 small hitchiker snail that I haven't ID'd yet
A handful of small hitchikers like feather dusters, bristle worms, sponges and amphipods
The refugium is small - about 14 Gallons
Red Gracilaria Macro Algae
3 small hitchiker starfish - one small blue and one sandy colored brittle type and I believe an asterina - need to ID still.
about 15 mysis shrimp
I tested some basic water parameters this morning.
Ph is 8.0
Ammonia is 0
Nitrites is 0
Nitrates is 0
Salinity is 1.022 (which is on the low side and I need to adjust)
I've been keeping the tank on the cool side - 74 F
For the hair algae problem, I think that adding a larger clean up crew would handle the brunt of it? For now, I'm netting and siphoning it out manually. I've cut back lighting to 4 or 5 hours a day. I'm wondering if my lighting is just too bright. I'd like to eventually have mushroom coral and I don't know if my lighting is too strong. When I bought everything, I wanted sps coral - and I still do - but I really like some of the corals with lower lighting requirements.
Any advice about the protein skimmer? For those familiar with this type, I completely removed the sponge and tray portion of it because it seemed cheesy and annoying. Removing the tray didn't appear to have any effect on how the skimmer performed. I would rather deal with the microbubbles in the tank for some reason. Eventually, I would like to put some sort of elbow on it and direct the output but I don't want to modify this until I know that it works. I don't like how the return is in such close proximity to the intake. I'm totally new to the SW hobby but it would make more sense to me to have a greater distance between these two. But, this is my second skimmer and I really need this to be workable, if possible.
Any ideas?