OldReefer

Glad it worked for you. This is one of the more under-rated moves if Reefkeeping. Anybody that sets up fishroom should give some thought to bringing outside air to the skimmer.

I don't think you will have a problem pulling air through 20' of line if there are not tight turns or kinks. You be able to tell if there is. A restriction just by connecting and reconnecting it and watching for the skimmer to react. I think a John Guest fitting is a logical choice.

I normally go with a basic Maxijet 1200 and dial it back as required. They loose a lot of flow going through the reactor. They are sold under the "Cobalt" brand now.

You can also run Cuprisorb instead of carbon in your reactor for a month or so. Legit product. Not snake oil http://www.marinedepot.com/Seachem_Laboratories_CupriSorb_Copper_Remover_Copper_Remover_Chemical_Filter_Media-Seachem-SC3271-FIFMCHCR-vi.html Copper will continue to leach out of rick and sbstrate fo a while. . I lost a big mature SPS tank to copper once. Sorry for the troubles.

I had an EV400 and it was really difficult. Like Chad said, it was realy touchy about water quality. I found any needle wheel skimmer would out-perform it at a fraction of the electricity and noise.

You could go with Kalk, but dosing 2-part at night also raises the pH. It all depends on how much calcium demand you have. Some macro with a reverse photo-period would help in several ways.

I just broke down my frag system. I ran it completely isolated from my display system. It was all SPS, but I think the corals missed the nutrients that come from the fish. They did not color up as well as the display. I think if I set it back up I would go with a few small fish and a small skimmer. By the way I did need to dose a bit when I kept it full.

Coral Hind is wise. That EV400 would really benefit from outside air. I ran a 1/2" PVC line out the wall next to my fish room and the ran airlines from that to my skimmer. One of the better reef projects I have taken on. I picked up about 0.2 pH year round, and see less variation than I used to. I have an old scrubber laying around if you want to try that. I don't need it with the outside air now.

It is summer. Low pH threads appear during the first period of warm weather every year. It is almost always the result of increased CO2 in the closed room with the AC on. Try to get fresh air to the tank any way you can. It should help. The next thing will be an increase in nuisance algae threads. The increased CO2 levels in the water fuel rapid algae growth. A last resort consider a CO2 scrubber on the air intake of the skimmer. They are a pain, but very effective. I believe BRS sells them.

I ran a 4" inline fan with a humidistat in a basement fish room. It worked really well. I would go that way again. It also gave my pH a boost since it kept the CO2 from building up around the sump.

I ran mine out the wall. The line is easy to hide along the floor moulding. I had to drill through a brick wall but even that was easy given the small size of the line. Just get a good size top-off container because there will be the occasional week in the winter where it will be below freezing and you can't make water.

I used to run a G6, and like Coral Hind says, you are really going to want to do the gate valve mod on the outflow. The bigger ASMs move a lot of water, and the splashing on the stock outlet can be pretty ridiculous. Since your skimmer isn't hugely oversized, you might want to think about a Swabbie. Besides being convenient, they do help the skimming performance.

I agree with everything that Tom said. i started dosing Vodka all the way back in 2004. Needless to say I was a bit of a freak. I like pellets much better, but if you are willing to dose every day vodka works great. You know you are making progress when the skimmate goes black. While you can theoretically starve phosphate or nitrate to zero and create an imbalance where carbon dosing dies not work, but in practice it is pretty hard to do if you feed your fish well.

Here you go, parts, pictures and all... http://www.kenargo.com/lightLifter/index.php

It is definately time to start GFO. I am about to start a BRS Group Buy. Some GFO can't hurt.

I like external recirculating skimmers on big systems because at some point the skimmers get so big they are hard to contain in a sump. I ran an ASM G6 once in a sump and it was noisey and splashy. A big external recirc skimmer will run quietly and consistently for years.

I would give Dan or Justin an call. They built some monster skimmers back in the day. They may have an idea or two, and they will not sell it to you if it is the wrong skimmer. If they do not have a good solution, I would stalk the boards for a big re-circulating Deltec.

With phosphates that high, you will spend a small fortune in GFO. It may be best to bring it down first using Lanthium Chloride and a filter sock. Search the Reef Chemistry thread on Reef Central for all sorts of details. I control mine with a bunch of bio pellets, an oversized skimmer, a big pile of Cheato, and GFO. So the short answer for what to do to control phosphate is, "everything you can think of".

I have a huge Apex program. They are powerful but there is a learning curve. As another reefer " Aviation Guy". I would be happy to help.

Sorry, I have not been online much lately. There are a bunch if cites on this. I think I originally picked it up from Calfo's book. I think Borneman also mentions it but I don't have his book handy. The basic idea is that Iodine is utilized by corals for the synthesis of pigments, which allow them to adapt to varying light conditions and provide their tissue with protection from UV radiation. There is also some thought that excessive lighting causes oxidative stress that iodine helps mitigate. In simple terms, it seems like a good idea to top off your iodine levels when messing with your lights. It can't hurt much.

Reduce the photo period and add a little iodine. It helps corals deal with photo stress.

He will find something reall expensive and then emerge in top of it. My BTAs took a month to settle down after I rebuilt my tank. One hid in the dark for a couple weeks and it is just fine now.

No trouble switching them on at once. The water level in the skimmer settles right in.

I just got a "Y" cord to plug both the skimmer and the feed pump into one EB8 outlet.

I know Quantam has really stocked up on T5s. I got some 60" bulbs from them. Not everybody carries a lot of those.