Reef detective needed

[devocole]

I have dosed Red sea reefer Phosphate Nitrate remover consistently without skimmer issues.
Yesterday I dosed magnesium, Alk, Ca B-ionic, Red sea remover, Red sea reef energy A and B. And now my skimmer is overflowing like when I first set it up. I'm 2 months into the Salt water hobby. Any idea's what did it. I'm thinking a combination of the above.
Thanks for the help.
I plan on doing 30 gallon water change today and tomorrow. Its a 90 gallon. RO water.

[sde1500]

Might be, one question, why are you dosing all that stuff?

[Sk8r]

oils of some sort can cause foaming. Better skimmers are quite sensitive.

[devocole]

I also added a brightwell bio brick.

[Sk8r]

And, um, when chemicals go in together they can react together. If that's a new tank, the remover can cause issues on its own, and you don't need the Energy stuff, whatever it is. Always space additives 8 hours apart to avoid interactions.

[GimpyFin]

Agree with the above. It's fairly normal when adding certain supplements to the tank. There's the potential for causing the skimmer to misbehave temporarily. Nothing in itself to be worried about, though, I too am curious about all the dosing. It sounds like a fairly new tank? What do you have in it?

[sde1500]

Agree with the above. It's fairly normal when adding certain supplements to the tank. There's the potential for causing the skimmer to misbehave temporarily. Nothing in itself to be worried about, though, I too am curious about all the dosing. It sounds like a fairly new tank? What do you have in it?

Yea two month old first tank. All that dosing, to me, sounds like doing it because they read about others dosing all this stuff. And not actually understanding what they are dosing, or being able to say why. Might be wrong, just gut feeling, I mean no offense to OP if I am wrong.

[devocole]

I wasn't writing this to be critiqued on my set up or protocols. I have 2 university degrees and testing kits. I can make educated decisions and try whatever I please. I'm more then open to feedback on the above question.

[GimpyFin]

I don't think anyone is trying to be critical, just curious in order to provide help, especially since it sounds like a new tank. As mentioned, many things can cause the skimmer to overflow temporarily after being added to the tank, so it's fairly normal. (I've actually used Reef Energy before and it does say to temporarily turn off the skimmer while dosing.) Do you have a lot of corals in this tank?

[charlesgage]

I wasn't writing this to be critiqued on my set up or protocols. I have 2 university degrees and testing kits. I can make educated decisions and try whatever I please. I'm more then open to feedback on the above question.

What is the tank stocked with? To be honest you can run a mildly stocked tank without dosing anything and rely on water changes for trace elements.

I have a nano that has been running for 5 years that is full of softies and only recently started dosing 3 part (Alk, Mag, Ca).

[devocole]

I started with an ammonia fishless cycle and completed it within 3 weeks or so. I have base rock structure with live sand. I added sintered glass in the sump as well as 8 lbs of live rock. I am using ROX activated carbon in an underwater filter. I used the NO3 PO4 remover to effectively reduce the nitrate. I have 4 colors of Montipora and 14 small frags of SPS. I have been told numerous times the risk I"m taking starting SPS this early. But so far so good and I'm trying it. I'm through the diatom algae already and have a cycled nutrient low tank. Now working on improving aquarium parameters such as KH, CA and Magnesium. Currently too low.

[charlesgage]

What salt mix? What is the salinity and what are you measuring salinity with?

What are the current parameters? Especially the big 3 (alk, ca, and mag)? What type of test kits?

[mcgyvr]

I have 2 university degrees and testing kits. I can make educated decisions and try whatever I please.

:celeb1:

[Grayhead]

Still doesn't sound like you need all that. Try dripping kalk for a few months. That's not much of an sps load.
How are you testing and what kind of kits?

You really should be able to keep everything up with water changes right now. Most likely the additives are causing your issue

[heathlindner25]

I have 2 university degrees and testing kits.
In what field? My wife has two University degrees in art, if I gave her a master reef testing kit by API ....don't help her much on what I do in my tank.
And I agree with Grayhead.

[mcgyvr]

Since when is it abnormal to dose mag/cal/alk/aminos in an SPS tank?
New or not...

Or did I miss the part where they told you how much of each is being added..

The person has 2 University Degrees and test kits.. What could go wrong?
They should be able to measure consumption and dose accordingly..

The fact is that anything that changes the surface tension of the water is going to cause the skimmer to function differently.. Oh crap.. Just posting in the same thread as this one is making me feel like I have 2 degrees.. Did I just say "surface tension"... I don't even know what that is.. :)

[devocole]

Im a Doctor with a biology degree. I may be sensitive but I find the reception by a few of you strange. Keep it supportive, you aren't doing the hobby or yourself any favours acting poorly. Don't bother responding unless you have something useful or constructive to say. I'm using the Fluval sea salt. I tested it today to have 1200ppm magnesium, 440 calcium, DKH 7.8 in the mix with RO. The tank had 1000ppm mg, 6.2 DKH. I did a 30 gallon water change and added 135ml of the bionic magnesium the recommended daily dose. The skimmer looked more watery after the addition.

[jml1149]

This thread got aggressive quick and this tank is literally out of control. My two engineering degrees helped define that. And the Six Sigma black belt. I also had a Tae Kwon Do black belt in high school.

The guy has 14 sps frags and 4 montis. There's no way water changes will keep up with that. 30g water changes in a 90g tank also will not help that. And, there's literally no way a fishless cycle finished in 3 weeks. Alk jumped from 6.2 to 7.8 in one change. Nothing about this is in control. Everything needs to slow down and chill out. Stop dosing crap you don't need until you need it. Do you have fish. What kind of lights. What kind of flow. Are there snails. Is one missing.

[QUASIMOTO]

It's the bio block... If you read the instructions, it warns about causing skimmers to overflow.

I think it also might say something about soaking the blocks first.

[roli112]

It's the bio block... If you read the instructions, it warns about causing skimmers to overflow.

I think it also might say something about soaking the blocks first.

My thought as well, and won't this cause a mini cycle as well?

[sde1500]

My thought as well, and won't this cause a mini cycle as well?

Don't think so, its inert, or should be. Nothing to die off to cause any mini-cycle.

Im a Doctor with a biology degree. I may be sensitive but I find the reception by a few of you strange. Keep it supportive, you aren't doing the hobby or yourself any favours acting poorly. Don't bother responding unless you have something useful or constructive to say. I'm using the Fluval sea salt. I tested it today to have 1200ppm magnesium, 440 calcium, DKH 7.8 in the mix with RO. The tank had 1000ppm mg, 6.2 DKH. I did a 30 gallon water change and added 135ml of the bionic magnesium the recommended daily dose. The skimmer looked more watery after the addition.

There are a million ways to do this hobby. Plenty involve lots of additives. What sometimes happens is a newbie reads a thread of someone adding x,y,z and what not, and just starts doing the same. Without knowing WHY. Hence, even though your question was about a skimmer overflow, I asked if you know WHY you were adding all those things, because it threw up a red flag. So, it was being constructive, as were most people here. Outside some fun comments about the degrees, but come on, you drop something like that you should very well expect some snark in return. No one cares about what degrees you have, because at the end of the day, you have two months experience keeping a reef tank, and we're here to help, with questions asked and red flags found.

Your levels are too low. And they should be spot on PRIOR to adding corals, especially ones as sensitive as SPS. However, whats done is done. What you should be doing now is testing daily to find your tank's uptake so you can set up a dosing regimen to keep up with it.

[BrianD]

Im a Doctor with a biology degree. I may be sensitive but I find the reception by a few of you strange. Keep it supportive, you aren't doing the hobby or yourself any favours acting poorly. Don't bother responding unless you have something useful or constructive to say. I'm using the Fluval sea salt. I tested it today to have 1200ppm magnesium, 440 calcium, DKH 7.8 in the mix with RO. The tank had 1000ppm mg, 6.2 DKH. I did a 30 gallon water change and added 135ml of the bionic magnesium the recommended daily dose. The skimmer looked more watery after the addition.

I am going to close this thread, as you requested.

However...

You have been a member for 9 years and your second post was starting this thread.

No one has been anything but helpful and truthful to you. The fact that you don't like the advice given doesn't mean it isn't useful or constructive.