Skimmer not skimming

M

maddv

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Feb 3, 2007
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Guys have set up a 72 G SW - Have Aquamedic Turboflotor 1000 & a remora skimmer - Introduced some 20 pounds of live rock - all water conditons look OK - Havent introduced fish as yet - But the skimmers are not skimming anything - they have been clean for almost a month - is this unusual - is my skimmer not functioning - Dont know what to do.

Also somebody known to me is breaking their SW and offered thier live stock - 2 clowns, 2 skunk shrimps, 1 yellow tank, 1 firefish, 1 BiColor & some snails as a package. They told me that I coudl put them all together as they have been living together - can I put all of this one shot or shoudl i introduce them one by one
 
Did your aquarium cycle? Just adding live rock, particularly cured live rock that you purchased locally or had shipped overnight wouldn't necessarily create anything to skim. The algae in the rock will also need something to eat, or they will produce extremely little waste. No livestock and no algae/bacteria food source=almost nothing to skim.

Since it sounds like a new aquarium and there's no livestock in it, I wouldn't be concerned, but that's just my opinion.

I also would not add all of those fish and inverts together into a new aquarium with so little live rock in it. I would take a few from the established tank at a time and introduce 2-3 specimens every week or two if possible. If the person you're getting this livestock from needs to break down his tank right away, then I'd ask about taking some established rock/bio filtration media as well.

In any case, if you've only got 20 pounds of live rock, I'd get started right away with another means of filtration. You can only stock your 72G aquarium like it's a 20G, because you've only got the biological filtration for about that much. You'll need to triple live rock and/or add other filtration if you want to stock that 72G fully.
 
maddv said:
Guys have set up a 72 G SW - Have Aquamedic Turboflotor 1000 & a remora skimmer - Introduced some 20 pounds of live rock - all water conditons look OK - Havent introduced fish as yet - But the skimmers are not skimming anything - they have been clean for almost a month - is this unusual - is my skimmer not functioning - Dont know what to do.

Also somebody known to me is breaking their SW and offered thier live stock - 2 clowns, 2 skunk shrimps, 1 yellow tank, 1 firefish, 1 BiColor & some snails as a package. They told me that I coudl put them all together as they have been living together - can I put all of this one shot or shoudl i introduce them one by one
Click to expand...

As suggested above, they may just be nothing to skim..However, has the skimmer ever removed anything from the tank? the introduction of the live rock SHOULD cause skimmate to be produced....Was the skimmer new?

No, you should introduce all the fish at the same time. This will over-load the bacteria and it will not be able to cope with that ammount of ammonia...After the tank is cycled, you are looking at slowly introducing fish...1 every 3 weeks minimum..

I know you may think that an offer of all them fish is hard to refuse, but your tank will appreciate you more if you do it slowly.....

Niko
 
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