brain in trouble

[Mrktplayer]

when people say "dialed in" does that refer to finding the balance of wet and dry skim?

 

[Jan]

good question! :lol:

For me it meant simply getting my skimmer to work properly where I was getting real skimmate (not tinted water), not having any overflows, etc., and consistency in skimmate production. In order to achieve this, I had to mess around with the bubble breaking level via adjusting the gate valve on the intake, and eventually I added an airvalve to restrict the air flow a bit. This combination finally worked for me after a long period of trial and error.

 

[jtmzrose]

Thanks Jan
I had not heard of replacing the bioballs before. Where do I get more? I am pretty sure I have the right pump. It is a high pressrue Iwaki mag drive (MD-55RLT/18.4 GPM and 26ft head) and it came with the skimmer from a guy with a nice saltwater tank. What is the water supposed to look like. When I thought my tank was working well I had solid build up in the top of the skimmer and a very dark blue/green water in my collection cup. Is that what I am supposed to get?

Marine snow is live zooplankton.

the sump was a good catch as well. I have gravel in my sump but I can not remember why. i will pull this out as it never gets turned over and is most likely a portion of my nitrate problem

 

[Mrktplayer]

i don't know much about bioballs, but without maintenance (whatever that requires) bioballs can cause nitrates to increase.

 

[Jan]

Bioballs have a reputation for becoming nitrate factories over time, however the ETSS skimmer forces water through them so fast that I'm not sure it applies...it's not like having a wet/dry filter sump with a huge bioball chamber for example. But the ETSS manufacturer recommends changing out the bioballs every 6 months so...might as well do it. I found my bioballs by doing a search on Google, either for bioballs or for ETSS skimmers and then the vendor also sold the bioballs. I think you'll have no problem finding some. I'd give you mine but I gave them away already.

OK. The gravel in the sump is probably loaded up with detritus so definitely get rid of it and clean out your sump. That will make a big difference I would think.

As far as your skimmate and what should it look like. It will look different depending on the amount of bioload in the particular tank. The way you described yours sounds reasonable, but you will improve performance by cleaning off the buildup of grunge at least once a week, preferably twice.