Hi all.
I never really had nitrate problems in my tank (usually 0 - 5) but I got a skimmer anyway. I reckon it's great insurance, and I can feed my pets heavily since I love to feed them.

The skimmer is DNWB-110 by Reef Octopus. I have seen great reviews.. but does anyone here have any experience with this? This is my first big skimmer, and hopefully it's as good as advertised. It's rated for up to 125 gallons.




My tank has 3 layers. Top tank is a 6 gallon tank, mid tank is 20 gallons, and the sump is 20 gallons as well. Total volume of water is around 30 - 35 gallons.



Will I have a problem with overskimming? My macro algae in my sump are dying..

you should be fine with the skimmer

correct me if im wrong but don't skimmers pull out DOC that cause nitrate but not the nitrate itself?

the must be a different reason your macro is dying...
what are your other water parameters?

I don't know.. everytime I test the nitrates are at bright yellow. I'm using API test kits by the way.

Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates are 0.
PH is 8.2
Calcium is 440
Alkalinity is 9
Phosphates are 0.5 - 1

The phosphates were my problem. For the longest time I didn't know why I had 2.0 phosphates even though I use RODI. I found out that my [black] sand was the one leaching PO4 in the water. It probably contained silica. I just changed the substrate yesterday so I'm hoping the PO4 reduces over time after WCs and Rowaphos in a reactor.

Chaeto was baseball sized when I got it. It's now the size of a jackstone.
I also have halimeda, halyimea [sic], ulva lettuce, grape caulerpa, and another one that turned white.

I have 5 budding red mangroves by the way.

what tyoe of light are you using to grow your microalgea?

I use 2 23w Daylight CFL.
I got the chaeto from a guy who has a drum full of chaeto.
He used a single bulb to grow his chaeto.

Anyway, I heard skimming also gets rid of coral food.. will [some of] my corals starve if the skimmer is too powerful?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry, I can't help you with your problem, but YESSSSSSSSSSS you have a tank(s) page!

EDIT: Do you have a tank page or something similar which describes your current setup? The older tanks page have different tanks that in the picture you've posted above.

no you can't over skim with that skimmer on that particular system. Gl with the new skimmer, i love it.

Sorry, I dont have a tank thread of my own in here.
Anyway, thanks for the responses. Greatly appreciated!

great skimmer, will pull out loads of poop. i own one and it works very well on my system and im runing a total of 82gallons.

i dont think its possaible to overskim, mabey we can get close but i dont think we have the technoligy to make a skimmer that efficent.

there is some debate over zoa growth in dirty water, you take out much more of the bad when you skim than you do the good. i ran skimmer less for a while and never will again and that was a clean system.

the cheato should grow well as long as it has enough light and water movment. it needs to turn so all of it gets light.

How many fish do you have and what size?
how much do you feed and what?

How long have you had your tank set up? Was it skimmerless until you got the new skimmer? The coral in the pics look like they're doing great. If they were thriving skimmerless and you weren't getting excessive microalgae growth, I don't see why you need a skimmer. IMO good coral growth and active fish = success, not 0 nitrate & 0 phosphorous. I see some sun corals - you might need to feed them more than before with the new skimmer to keep the same growth.

You state "Chaeto was baseball sized when I got it. It's now the size of a jackstone." I'm not sure how big a jackstone is, but the chaeto should be doubling in size every couple weeks or so, so its size at any particular time is dependent on how much and when you last harvested.

I noticed something similar as above where I was running my tank skimmerless/refugeless and not growing much algae on the glass I also had a average fish load then I hooked up a mrc I think a 200 watt plus pump and I started to lose color in my sps and my softies where not spreading or opening like they use to imo you can over skim maybe not to the point of killing everything all you have to do is start feeding more and get more fish