[slief]

Originally Posted by chunders

Hey! Thank you for your response.

The skimmer I have is a Reef Octopus 110int 5 years old or so. It has a foam head but I always have to tinker with the thing, then few days later it drained out the water into the bucket. Don't get me wrong, I do get dark build up, crud, just not to the levels that others have experienced.

I just realized.. I don't own a phosphate test..

PH I think could be lower than 7.4. Maybe 5? The apex neptune needs calibration, just installed it a few days back. I was under the impression it was low because of the dosing of vinegar.

What do you think I should do next steps to get the levels I need?

Your skimmer will only produce skimmate for the amount of DOC’s available and you don’t have a huge load.

I would get that probe calibrated. If your pH is truly 7.4, that’s really low. 7.7 is about as low as I would ever go without sounding alarms and even that would be a bit low for most people’s liking. 8.0 is a much better target. Mine ranges from 7.9 - 8.1. You need to get the pH up so get the probe calibrated and if it’s that low, add some pH buffer.

Given your fish load, I don’t know why you would be dosing vinegar. To me that makes no sense because some nitrates is a good thing contrary to what some will tell you. If it were me, I wouldn’t even consider dosing carbon sources with a load like that. As such, I would cut back on the dosing and ween yourself off of it unless there is a good reason in your case which I’ve yet to hear. You didn’t mention how long your system has been up.

I think you should get your calcium levels up to 425-450.. if it were me, I’d target lower alk levels. I prefer alk levels under 9 personally and anywhere between 7.5 and 9 is where I’d target as long as they are consistent. If you had an SPS only tank, then maybe a bit higher but that’s just me.

Get a Hanna HI736 ULR phosphorus tester. That is the best ultra low range tester and it’s cheap enough. The Hanna HI713 phosphate tester isn’t accurate in our range so avoid it. Color based testers are hard to read and as such, not precise. For alk and Ca testing, I recommend Salifert test kits. Red Sea Pro aren’t bad either but I prefer Salifert.

Oh and 1500 Mg is on the high side. I would be aiming for 1350.

That said, ANY changes you make should be done slowly over the course of several days or more. Nothing good happens in this hobby fast.