Protein Shake

C

celebrityovernight

woke up this morning and felt like i needed a good power boost so i went to my skimmer to grab a shake.

Protein_Shake.jpg
alt=""> :lol:


is this a good amount of protein that should be skimmed from a 125 reef?


here a more specs...

125 reef tank
40 gallon sump
turboflotor 1000 protein skimmer (overflow style)
macro algea

Bioload:
salfin tang
yellow tang
blue tang
4 cardinals
2 clowns
3 damsels
six line wrasse
lawn mower blenney
royal grama
2 brittle stars
sand sifting star
mandarin

corals:
lps of various types
tenius (great colors after 2 months)
slimer (really brilliant green)

All my fish seem very healthy and fat and not alot of aggression. i feed about 2 times a day (formula 1, algea, frozen mysis, krill). the sps in my tank are not brown so i don't think i have much of a phosphate problem. i do have some algea growth, but most is red cyano. the tank has been up for about 3 months. i hope this is enough info. please let me know what i'm doing wrong. i really think i don't have enough skimmate (ammount was produced in about 2 days max)
 
i uploaded tkhe pic to nanoreef because photobucket is not letting me upload pics for some reason today. right click on the item next to the smiley and press show pic. thanks
 
I produce about 1/10 of that per day, so I would say that is great. I'm not sure if I am not running my skimmer correctly or if it is because I have such a low bioload.
 
thanks 737mech, i really appreciate that. i run my skimmer using direct water from my overflow. i heard that this is the only way to get alot of the scum out of the water. at first i did use the rio pump to feed water into it and was not happy w/ the results at all... i am using a rio pump for the needle wheel. in addition, i'm pumping in air w/ an air pump instead of just using an air line alone; this seems to approve the ammount of micro bubbles made. i'm just currious as how much skimmate i should be producing w/ my size tank and bioload. i never do water changes :sad: so i'm thinking i should produce about a cup a day. thanks for the responses and keep them coming.
 
one of the reasons i never did waterchanges was i never really saw any results when doing them. when i had my 29 gallon, i did water changes about 2 times a month and never really saw an explosion in growth or anything positive to that matter. i'm not trying to say doing waterchanges are bad, but to me, the goods of waterchanges never outweighed the cost for me (only a highschool student). would using tap water be a variable?
 
@celebrityovernight wrote:
one of the reasons i never did waterchanges was i never really saw any results when doing them. when i had my 29 gallon said:
Thats about the same logic as some kid saying I never change the oil in my car, I never see any good it does changing the oil anyways. Till you go long enough without changing it and then the engine seizes. Nothing is better for the long term health of your tank, than doing regular water changes with a good salt mix and ro/di water.
Click to expand...
 
would doing waterchanges once a month be sufficient? and as before i was donig water changes on my 29 gal for a couple of months before i gave up. as far as using r/o water goes, i'm sure it is hundreds of times better than using just tap, but r/o from the store is really a big hassle. as of yet, i haven't really come accross any major problems w/ using tap yet; on my old tank, i used only tap for 6-8 months until i took the tank down and really didn't have any algea problems in the tank. i'm thinking about switching to r/o once i get it installed. as far as salt goes, i know there has been much debate about that stuff and was just wondering, should i go w/ kent or instant ocean?
 
Go get a couple of 5 gallon containers. Walmart or sometimes you can find them on here. Take them to a Kroger or Walmart or other place that sells water that you can put in your own containers. At Koger or Walmart it will cos about $3.50-$4.00 for 10 gallons. Then go to

Petsmart

print out a copy of this page, take it to a local Petsmart and buy a 50 gallon bag of Instant Ocean for $10.99 plus tax. They will match the online price. Now for about $4.00 additional a month for the next 5 months you can do a proper 10 gallon water change. The tap water is not doing any good to your tank, so use at least use the store bougth water. If this is too much of a hassle, boy this hobby has some surprises for you.
 
According to that thread around here that someone posted the Inland Aquaics salt test in. Instant Ocean has about the same magnesium as the rest and more than enough for mos tanks.
 
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