decisions decisions refugium or skimmer plz help

ok so i only have enough money right now for a refugium or a skimmer which should i get if i have a gh problem?

 

I personally would find out the source of your LHA. You dont have enough of a bio-load to cause it. How old are your bulbs? When was the last time you did a WC?


Luna

 

i not what went wrong my ph and alkalinity was to low and im treating that and manually removing stuff and i added snails and it seems to be working so which do you think is more important fuge or skimmer

 

have you never run a skimmer?? What I'm thinking is that you have run the tank for so long without a skimmer that your liverock has become overly saturated with phosphates. LR will absorb phosphates untill it gets completely full and then it will just stop. When it stops absorbing, the phosphates have to go somewhere so then they take the form of algae. It's not pretty. That's why I get so worked up at people bragging because they run a larger tank with no skimmer and then come to find out that they have only had the tank for 6 months. Those are the same folks that come around after a year with huge GHA issues. Depending on what you have in your tank, I think the rock probably needs to be cooked for a good 6months to bleed some of those phosphates out. Do a search on google for "cooking liverock". Some people will say to nuke the rock but this isn't going to work for very long as the phosphates will still be present in the rock so it will only be just a matter of time before you get yourself in the same predicament that you are in now.

 

oh and asking me what is more important......... skimmer

 

I think the skimmer is a must. Then add a fuse down the road when you have more money to spend. Imo this is what I would do. Shoot its what I did I am just adding to the fuse chamber of my sump this week after having the sump for months. What are you keeping for a bio load would make it easier to decide.

 

What else do you have as a filtration system?



Luna

 

no i have never run i skimmer and thanks i think thats what im going to get does a skimmer soak up phosphates?

 

I too agree with daniel about its probally from not skimming that you have the gh.

 

whats a bio load and i have a canister filter and one powerhead