Help with octopus skimmer?

[Veilside0Three]

and puffer are not reefsafe either, puffers and lionfish will eat clean up crew, lionfish will make a meal out of almost anything.

I've heard this multiple times, and it eats goldfish bigger than most of them, yet completely ignores the rest.

 

[daugherty]

i have the same skimmer and for the first couple days i had the cup above the hole in the returne side just so it di not fill the cup and after a couple days i dropped it do to were the bottom lip is just at the bottom side of the hole and it is working great.

 

[Veilside0Three]

i have the same skimmer and for the first couple days i had the cup above the hole in the returne side just so it di not fill the cup and after a couple days i dropped it do to were the bottom lip is just at the bottom side of the hole and it is working great.

My collection cup is well above the drain hole, but it's still filling up the cup. This is so frustrating!!

 

[daugherty]

oh. i read on rc that some of people use a bucket with vinger and water for the breakin period and than just drain all the water out and put in in the tank and et it go here is a link to rc

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1471116

 

[Damseluver]

It is most likely the water additives that are makeing the skimmer go nuts. Start doing some water changes. ON the first one save the water to a different container/ten or five gal tank and run the skimmer on/in it so it can start breaking in.

Perform water changes on the main tank until you are confident all the water additives have been diluted down or removed and put the skimmer back on the main tank and hope for the best.

 

[Bifferwine]

If you have used Melafix or Water Clarifier or Conditioner in your tank, these will render your skimmer inoperable. Remember, it's the skimmer's job to pull any impurities out of the water. These additives are impurities in the water, and the skimmer will keep pulling water out until the additives are diluted out enough that the skimmer stops flooding.

If you have additives in your water, it can take several weeks before the skimmer will start working, so you'll need to stop using these if you want to run a skimmer.

 

[Veilside0Three]

If you have used Melafix or Water Clarifier or Conditioner in your tank, these will render your skimmer inoperable. Remember, it's the skimmer's job to pull any impurities out of the water. These additives are impurities in the water, and the skimmer will keep pulling water out until the additives are diluted out enough that the skimmer stops flooding.

If you have additives in your water, it can take several weeks before the skimmer will start working, so you'll need to stop using these if you want to run a skimmer.

so will a few good size water changes work? If so how often and how much can I change at a time?

 

[Stupidsreef]

Doing to big of a water change will cause the tank to cycle. No more than 50% at any one time. I'd do about a 35% every week, don't add those things back. Try that for about 4 weeks then start over with the skimmer. Keep in mind ALL skimmers have a break-in peroid, so give it time.

One more thing, Not to sound rude, but so many people make the mistake as to feed GOLDFISH to there loinfish. This is the worst food you could feed it. Goldfish carry more desease's than any other fish, As well as internal paristies that will infect your Loinfish. I would suggest to stop feeding them. I would try other things like silversides, mussles or chopped clams. These are frozen foods. Or if you want to feed live try things like Damsel's or chormis, but they are not cheap as a food item. And that puffer will end up eating your cleaning crew, Puffer's have a beak-like teeth that have to be filed down, snails shells is what they use to do that. It will one day go after them or hard coral skeleton.

 

[Oscarsdad608]

Lionfish get nothing from eating the goldfish because they can't break down the fats of freshwater fish.

 

[Bifferwine]

You can safely do 10 to 20% water changes once a day, or once every other day. But you will have to start using RODI water, because you can't use a skimmer and tap water together. Besides, tap water shouldn't be used in a saltwater tank anyways.

 

[Veilside0Three]

You can safely do 10 to 20% water changes once a day, or once every other day. But you will have to start using RODI water, because you can't use a skimmer and tap water together. Besides, tap water shouldn't be used in a saltwater tank anyways.

I went to wal mart today and purchased 25 gallons of distilled water, and did a 18 gallon change. About how many of these will I have to do before it'll be okay to add the skimmer to the main tank? The skimmer right now is sitting on a 10 gallon running with just sand and saltwater.

 

[yote]

You'll have to do the water changes untill the Malifix and stuff is completely out of your tank.
I'd do the changes untill I hit 100% of the total water changed,then try the skimmer again.

 

[Veilside0Three]

You'll have to do the water changes untill the Malifix and stuff is completely out of your tank.
I'd do the changes untill I hit 100% of the total water changed,then try the skimmer again.

how often can I do these 20-25% changes?

 

[yote]

I'd do them every other day.