My new ATS Please Help

[dtyharry]

unmeasurable DOC at natural levels which is what corals have evolved to live in.

Good try.

Sublime... dirty harry has forgotten what he's read many times here... the oceans have very high doc levels, so you are fine.

Come on santa you know what I meant! I did not mean that doc was at an unmeasurable level, I said that hobbyists are unable to measure the level of doc in their system because the device used to measure it costs many thousands of gold coins. In the absence of knowing what your levels are apart from surface froth, slime etc which would point to it being a lot, what is the harm in using something like carbon or purigen, carbon was shown in those advanced aquarist studies to keep the doc levels roughly in line with what a coral would experience on a natural reef?
Carbon, purigen etc has no effect on the working of the scrubber so for me it seems like they would work together hand in hand and provide peace of mind and might even bring an end to all these doc discussions!!

[SantaMonica]

1. If you are dosing cal, alk, mag, and str, then everything else you need is in the food you feed. So, waterchanges are just removing food. And costing money. And adding metals.

2. They don't don't what does what. And/or, they are involved in the mfg or selling of skimmers. Bacteria will eat the "warfare", unless you have lots of softies.

3. How much is a lot.

[sublime]

1. If you are dosing cal, alk, mag, and str, then everything else you need is in the food you feed. So, waterchanges are just removing food. And costing money. And adding metals.

2. They don't don't what does what. And/or, they are involved in the mfg or selling of skimmers. Bacteria will eat the "warfare", unless you have lots of softies.

3. How much is a lot.

#2, So, I don't have to worry about my SPS dying without a skimmer as many other suggest out of fear and ignorance? So, the bottom line... I am completely safe removing my skimmer completely from the system TODAY? -- (Also, note that the ATS has only been setup as of Sunday.) What should I watch for to know if I need to install the skimmer again?

#3, I feed 3-4 cubes of frozen food daily. I feed 1 cube of frozen cyclopeeze 2 times per week. I spot feed the coral with additional food between one and three times per week. Mostly, I just feed the corals once per week. I also use selco and seachem fuel and some concentrated home cultured phytoplankton (.75ml 1-2 times per week and as little as once a month). Other than that, I try to feed 1/2 sheet of nori at least once a week possibly twice per week.

I would feed more if I could do it safely. Is this screen size oversized? Also, can I run it in "high wattage" mode only 9 hours per day given my current setup or would I need to double the bulbs up? (If so, I will just run it 18 hours because it will cost the same.)

Brandon

[kerry]

I have kicked my skimmer habit a long time ago and have never looked back!!!!! I do not think you screen is out of line at all. My 40G has a 9x6 ish or so and it does fine.

[sublime]

bump.

Can anyone wrap this up for me?

[Ace25]

This reply just going off your first and second post and your questions above..

Short answer: Yes, in my opinion you can remove your skimmer without any worry at all.

Long answer: This is because of your maintenance routine and your use of carbon. Carbon does the same thing as a skimmer and does it better in regards to taking out the bad things in the water. This biggest argument the skimmer side uses is "skimmers are a one time cost but carbon you have to always keep buying and will eventually cost more than the skimmer". While true, it would take many years to get to that point, in which time your skimmer would probably need some parts, or you would want to upgrade anyway, and the entire time the skimmer is doing 50% less than carbon and using power to do it. When using 42w CFLs I think doing the 9hrs per day may be better. I just switched mine over to that yesterday because I am not happy with the 18 hour results.

Question, do you have enough flow for your tank? 240lbs in a 90G tank is a lot, and needs some serious flow to keep clean.

[SantaMonica]

You are feeding a good bit, for a new screen. When you are getting some good thick green harvests, you can remove all other filters.

If you cut back your feeding to a cube a day, and stopped the liquid feeding, you could remove everything today. Then after you get thick green, you can up the feeding again. The liquid is what really puts nutrients into the water.

There is no indication for re-installing the skimmer. It does not remove any nutrients at all, so it would not help. But it would remove more food, if you want to buy more food.

No sps will die; they will grow faster.

There is no oversize, or undersize. There is only the correct size, for how much you feed. Use the guideline.

Carbon does the same thing as a skimmer and does it better in regards to taking out the bad things in the water.

GAC removes DOC's... Vitamins, Amino Acids, Carbohydrates, etc. Skimmers do not remove these very well. After you remove them, you'll need to buy and dose more Selcon in order to put them back in.

[sublime]

This reply just going off your first and second post and your questions above..

Short answer: Yes, in my opinion you can remove your skimmer without any worry at all.

Long answer: This is because of your maintenance routine and your use of carbon. Carbon does the same thing as a skimmer and does it better in regards to taking out the bad things in the water. This biggest argument the skimmer side uses is "skimmers are a one time cost but carbon you have to always keep buying and will eventually cost more than the skimmer". While true, it would take many years to get to that point, in which time your skimmer would probably need some parts, or you would want to upgrade anyway, and the entire time the skimmer is doing 50% less than carbon and using power to do it. When using 42w CFLs I think doing the 9hrs per day may be better. I just switched mine over to that yesterday because I am not happy with the 18 hour results.

Question, do you have enough flow for your tank? 240lbs in a 90G tank is a lot, and needs some serious flow to keep clean.

Thank you very much for your reply. Yes, I have ~7000gph of flow in the tank with all the powerheads, closed loop circulation pump spray bar and sump. I have water moving behind the rocks, next to the rocks over the rocks and in front of the rocks. Everything is doing great and I just tested my nitrates again today, undetectable using an API kit. I have a Salifert kit I am going to test with tomorrow.

Again, thanks for the answers, and lucky for me, they were the ones I wanted to hear!

[sublime]

You are feeding a good bit, for a new screen. When you are getting some good thick green harvests, you can remove all other filters.

If you cut back your feeding to a cube a day, and stopped the liquid feeding, you could remove everything today. Then after you get thick green, you can up the feeding again. The liquid is what really puts nutrients into the water.

There is no indication for re-installing the skimmer. It does not remove any nutrients at all, so it would not help. But it would remove more food, if you want to buy more food.

No sps will die; they will grow faster.

There is no oversize, or undersize. There is only the correct size, for how much you feed. Use the guideline.

Carbon does the same thing as a skimmer and does it better in regards to taking out the bad things in the water.

GAC removes DOC's... Vitamins, Amino Acids, Carbohydrates, etc. Skimmers do not remove these very well. After you remove them, you'll need to buy and dose more Selcon in order to put them back in.

Wonderful -- Thanks for the reply and I will put this to rest. I am not worried about the feeding right now because I can do water changes and most of the stuff in the tank has done fine with nitrates hanging around 15ppm and even up to 20ppm. However, I do not want that to happen again of course, my point is that the scrubber will catch up fast enough for me to not worry about things. However, I will cut back on a few things and not use any liquids for a while.

I appreciate the information and I am excited and anxious to step into the world of ATS!