Skimmer

Ryan,

What you are asking is for the price of a good skimmer.

It looks to me like you missed the whole point of my post.

I asked you if you are sure it is a new skimmer that you need. I asked what is going wrong with your tank. I also suggested that you may be jumping up to go spend some money when that may not be the answer. Pistonfister asked similar questions. If you are going to insist that you know for sure that there are problems and that a new skimmer is the definite and only answer, then I had better just shut up.

Does anyone else see the misdirection here or am I just an old fart that should give up on trying to help people see the light?

Boy do I have egg on my face! I thought I lost the first post so I repeated myself unknowingly in a duplicate message. I get pretty excited about this stuff. I've been at it for 10 years and have seen hundreds of tanks as an active member of the club presidency for almost 10 years. I hate seeing the same mistakes being made over and over that I have spoken out about so many times. I don't have all the answers and my way is not the only way, but I've seen too many people throw away their money at the misdiagnosis of a problem.

BTW - I misspelled "condylactis" anemone

Mark I guess I assumed incorrectly that when I posted that question that people would also offer up good information in regards to what I presently have.  As well as what I asked - What do you feel the best skimmer for around $250 would be?  I never said I was going to do it or that I have a problem or that it was for me. I Just simply asked what people think the best skimmer is for around $250 and stated what I have.  Obviously I need to be a little more clear when I ask a question in the future.  Sorry for the confusion and getting you unecessarily excited!  Just trying to find out info. and what peoples opinions are.  I will post here in a few why I am looking at it.

Here is why I am looking at it.  Sorry Mark I should have put this info. in the first posting.  I've had my tank up now for about 18 months and have so far had pretty good success.  For some reason(yet to be determined), over the past two months I've started to have my first bout with Hair Algae.  Here are my water paramaters.  Ph 8.4, Alk. can't remember but normal, Phosphate 0, Nitrate 5-10, Calcium 440, Salinity 1.024 to 1.024, temp. 78 to 80.  From what I understand my paramaters are ok - I've never been able to get my Nitrates below 5.  I guess I am trying to determine where my excess nutrients are coming from to be feeding this hair algae.  I feed lightly to about 8 fish.  I also feed live phytoplankton about every two to three days.  From what I understand this should actually compete with the Hair Algae?  I have a 150 gal. tank, 3 to 4 inch Crushed Coral Substrate, and 150 lbs. of live rock.  This is what I am doing about it right now and thinking.  Please let me know what you think. 

Presently I have just a RO system - I am changing out the filters this week(they are 16 months old).  I am considering adding a DI system to this.  I have removed my mat from wet/dry(I wasn't diligent enough to replace it before it build up crap!)  I am daily pulling off what hair algae I can and getting it out of the tank.  I have reduced my photoperiod, I have also replaced all bulbs.  I have bought 40 new snails and two sally light foot crabs to combat it.  My cleanup crew now consists of probably 120 snails, 100 hermits, 2 emeralds, and now the two SLF crabs.  Wondering if a good virgatus tang, foxface, or rabbitfish would help?

I am also wondering if my crushed coral substrate is causing an increase in silicates that could be feeding the hair algae?

The reason I asked about the skimmer is;  I have limited space under my tank where my sump is and I had to make some major modifications to my Berlin Turbo Skimmer to get it to fit.  I collect 1/2 cup of junk in it probably every week.  I do have a second outlet from my sump that I could hook a pump up to and do a external skimmer if needed. 

I  think by having enough coral that uptake nutrients, plenty of pourous live rock and lots of surface exposed live sand it enables me to run skimmerless.  When I say surface exposed live sand what I mean is it's not being choked off by the placement of live rock that makes contact with the live sand.  I use a shelf that I constructed out of pvc that enables me to keep roughly 85 to 90 pounds of live rock in my 72 gal. and still keep plenty of exposed live sand bed. 

Also this allows excellent water circulation in the tank since the manner in which the rock is placed doesn't block the power heads.

I'm sure there is more to it but I don't want to try and act like I know more than what I do.  So I won't go on.  I just know that what's going on in my tank is working.