Aquapod 12 reef tank - to skim or not to skim?

[lmbeamon]

I have a fully-cycled 12 gal Aquapod. It was set up in February 2008. The inventory is 10 lbs. live rock, live sand, yellow-tail damsel, clownfish, algae blenny, a few small hermit crabs, single green mushroom, and a single red mushroom. I had an anemone, but it died 3 days after putting it in the tank. The chemistry is 0ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, 20 ppm nitrates (It gets as high as 40 ppm and I do a 5 gal. water change), 8.4 pH, 0 ppm phosphates, 380 ppm calcium, and 9 dKH (~161.1 ppm KH) carbonate. I use reef crystals wth distilled water. I want this to be a reef tank and the fishstore guy recommended a skimmer. I purchased a Fission skimmer. So the chambers set up is foam in the first, carbon in the second, skimmer in the third (more about that in a second) and the outflow pump with the heater in the last. The temperature is 77.5 to 80.0. I was using te skimmer but had a hard time keepint the water level where is needed to be and running it causd the submersible to blow fine airbubbles which made the tank look crappy, so The skimmer is off right now.

 

Question: Is the skimmer needed for a reef tank? How do I manage the water level for it t work properly? I do I keep the bubbles out of the submersible?

[jm82792]

First the primary reason you have such high

Nitrates is that you are running that sponge

is trapping detrius and it is a nitrate factory.

 

Second you need to feed just enough pellet by pellet(an expression)

You anemone died for probobly 2 reasons,

One your tank has to be more mature for it to live(4-12 months)

and Two your nitrates are pretty high.

So I'd ditch the sponge(s) they don't polish the water

and the biofiltration is the LRs job

 

Also I'd run some "glorious" cheato that'll suckup the nitrates,

don't need a fuge put it in the display tank in alot of flow and some light.

Or if you want do a fuge mod.

Those improvement will help you with your nitrates and 6 months from now you can

research and get a anemone(alot of factors are involved with nems)

[jm82792]

I know a double post.

Return the fissipon nano those are pieces of crude sorry.

Get a tunze,remora or diy one(check the diy section most popular diys)

I wouldn't buy one do water changes and your set.

Skimmers aren't needed but if you want one those are the ones to get.

I'd save your $$ and get your params in check then buy some more softies

[BKtomodachi]

Look into the Taam Rio Nano. They are a decent skimmer, but not expensive. Not good by any means, but they do actually skim, and are extremely affordable.

[lmbeamon]

Also I'd run some "glorious" cheato that'll suckup the nitrates,

don't need a fuge put it in the display tank in alot of flow and some light.

Or if you want do a fuge mod.

Those improvement will help you with your nitrates and 6 months from now you can

research and get a anemone(alot of factors are involved with nems)

 

 

I don't understand the "cheato" and the "fuge." What do you mean?

[jaybrewer]

I don't understand the "cheato" and the "fuge." What do you mean?

 

Yeah - what's with Cheato? Is it alive - newb here and It's been recommended for me as well.

[SulfurAcid]

Yeah - what's with Cheato? Is it alive - newb here and It's been recommended for me as well.

 

 

Chaeto is a macroalgae that reefers use to remove nutrients from the water. Because it acts as a "nutrient export", it helps to remove nitrates and fight nuisance algae growth.