Pies

Yep thanks Pete and Suphew. Its acutally been quite a good thread once people started to understand what I was asking. Very interesting about the 2 min dwell time for some organics. That alone pretty much answers my question. So what I need now is a 2nd skimmer. One going hard core, the other going slow for MEGA skimming Pie

Here is a pic of the skimmer sitting next to the refugium. Note the T off the back. Both the skimmer and the T are feeding directly into the refugium. The refugium drains into the sump via 2x 25mm Durso stand pipes. On the old tank it was fed by 2x Ehiem 1262s and 1x IWAKI 30RXLT, now fed by the single IWAKI 100. The overflows could not handle any more flow. I have had to 'hone' out the bulkheads to allow for the extra flow. Here is a zoomed out pic of the whole refugium: Here is the pic for Reef. Showing water exiting the skimmer into the refugium. It is fair ROARING through threre. This is the 32mm pipe and i've had to put rock in the bottom of the 650mm deep tank to stop it digging a hole in the sand: Note the light on the tank looks a little odd. I just turned on the halides to take the photos, they don't come on until 11pm for 12 hrs (reverse cycle of the main tank). So they were just warming up. FYI SteveA - Note your 2 carpet anemones are doing great. The Blue one was looking very touch and go for a while (the one that stung and stuck to you when you brought it around), but its recovered and both are doing great. Pie

Pic of how its T'd off. FYI. Pie PS: Hand on ill pop down stairs and take a few photos now. Back in 30. Pie

That photo was taken the day it was installed (new sump). Its fully open now. Pie

Cracker - hahaha your well of the mark man Get my drift? There is no water syphoning, its all being pressure filled, just by gravity not a pump. Makes no difference the result is identical. I've been running it FULL NOISE since Sunday. I'll take a photo of Sunday of the collection cup for you all too see. Then I will reduce the water throughput down by 50% (to approx 3000lph best guess) and let it run for a week and take another photo. I can put as much or as little water though as I want. I just want to know what is optimum. Maybee doing week FULL ON and a week in spec is the ultimte? Not sure if there really ever will be an answer. Piezola

Reef - Your right - I want to make sure I am skimming as efficiently as possible. Chimera - I my skimmer is more than large enough for my tank, however if I ever decided I needed to skim more I think I would more likley just add a 2nd skimmer of the same type. - Reef, thats starting to make more sense to me, talking about the air-to-water ratio. Like I said my math ain't good, so i'll have a think on it tonight but maybee thats the key. You can obviously push a lot more than 3000 litres an hr through the skimmer, but perhapps its because of the air/water ratio that sets 3000 as the optimum. I am happy to concede the Deltec have tested it, but I woundered if maybee they said 3000 because its hard to find a way to get more water through it without going into MEGA pump mode. And I just happen to have the MEGA pump. Like I said at the start. Happy with the skimmer, but want it to work as hard as is possible. Churp Pie

An IWAKi 100 can push 10000 litres an hr through a 25mm hole, so no problems there. Anyone is more than welcome to come and witness the through put. In the end its just a peices of plumbing, with a hole in and a hole out, not sure why Reef finds it so hard to belive. Pie

OK I understand that. But if the water is not 'as clean' what about the fact that it passed through the skimmer more often? Does that make up for the fact that the higher water flow makes it less efficient? Pie

I assure you it is possible I'm doing it. Do you want me to email you a short video of it? I would post it but don't have anywhere that has the disk space. But given that the water volume is finite, the same water is going to be passing through the skimmer more often. So it will spend the same amount of time in the skimmer, just on multiple passes, not single passes. Right? So if I have 10000 litres of water total. Is it best to pass the 50% of the water through the skimmer every hour (5000 litre hr) or 25% of the water through an hr (2500 litre hr)? If the 2500 25% skims 2x better than at 50% then isn't the net result the same? Pie

yah I know how that is.

Thanks. Chimera - ? Math is a real word Reef - There is so much water running through it that the water level is at the neck of the skimmer with no restriction. The 32mm output pipe is a solid stream of water and its litrally ROARING out of it its skimming a lot of shite though. Thanks for the Specs, i've seen that before but just wanted to know if there was any science in it. I guess one of the questions is that for 'dwell time'. If the skimmer is running 2500 litres and hr, and the dwell time is 30 seconds, do you get the same/better/worse effect from having 5000 litres and hr with a 15 seconds dwell time. Remember that because twice as much water is passing through the skimmer the overall dwell time remains at 30 seconds (just in 2 passes not one). Am I making sense? SteveA - The return pump that runs the skimmer does provide circulation for the tank, however I have it 'T' off, so it doesn't effect the flow through the tank. Thanks guys Piemania

What Cracker said is what I mean. My skimmer works fine, but water is ROARING through it, I guess over 5000 litres an hr. So I want to know what is optimal, higher water flow with less contact time (athough it will be contacted more times) or less flow with higer contact time (thus less times through the skimmer). Comprende? I am a retard when it comes to math, anyone able to interpret that article about coefficients and pi squared etc into something I can understand? Pie

Why is your PH probe in the tank and not in the sump? Pie

Nope, I waited until 7 other fished died and whatever fish were left built an imunity to it. Pie

I just mean it looks like hard work. My front glass needs cleaning about 3 times a week. I once had delusions about cleaning my back glass. It lasted, well, lets just say I never got around to it. I like the blue look too. Pie

I have a Deltec AP902. Good skimmer, no real complaints. My question is one governing how best to run it. I have a lot of water flow, so much so I can run more water through the skimmer than it can handle. Currently I am pushing as much water through it as it will take. My question is, whats the best configuration to run it it. Pushing as much water through it as possible? Or less? Is there a way to know whats optimim? You read about terms for skimmers like 'dwell time' etc. So I am not sure. Should I run less water though it and allow it to be skimmed harder, or more water through it, thus skimming more water? Anyone who has any science, links or info i'd like to know a little more than I do. Ta Pies

It looks brown in the pic. Pie

You can see the bleaching at the bottom of the coral. The top is just showing the typical low nuitrent look of 'wild' corals with just a thin dusting of colour. Introduction in the captive system its now going brown as the higer nutrients. At least thats what I think, its pretty typical behavior from corals that i've introduced into my own tank over the past we while. Good luck Chim, looks like it will become a nice coral once it beds in. Pie

Your tank looks excellent. How often do you clean the back glass? Makes me tired just looking at it Pie

No Zeovit here. Pie

All sorts of things moving along in the tank. Coral is starting to darken, which I think is a result of high nutrients from the flatworm exit a few weeks back. I am also seeing a 2 acros receeding from their base, it not RTN its more like slow bleeching from the base. 1 of these corals have done this before, I can stop it at anytime by appling putty, so I think its an infection. Maybee receeds 2-3mm a week. My IKS dosing pump failed (just stoped working). POS. I've ordered a new one (Aquamedic) so hope to get freshwater top off sorted soon, having to do it manually (12L a day) is a real chore. Some pics: One of my first corals. I got this from Reef in mid 2003. Its never done much for colour other than the nice blue/silver tips. Its had a hard life, been stung by anemones, aipstasia, and hynophora as well as being fragged several times yet is continues to grow: The same coral from above not long after I first got it: Blue Tang, survived whitespot/velvet from earlier on in the year. Looking good and no signs of the damage. There is a pic eariler on in the thread that shows how infected it was, I am genuinely surprised to see this fish has survived: The Sailfin also got a bad dose of whitespot/velvet but has made a great recovery. Pies

Doesn't look like a mantis to me, they don't really have the protuding feelers like that. I've seen doezens of them, they normally can be seen living in a burrow, not in a cave. If it is, i'll have it Mantis are way cool. Pie

No ROWA for me Pies

Because its cleaning the tank, dah!

How much flow comes out of your Sea Swirl? Mine have hammered the tank so much I have been forced to take the 2 nozzels of them just to stop them from digging holes in the sand. I also have my streams off at the moment as the Sea Swirls provide more than enough current through the tank. Be interest to know how yours is going. Pie