help with oceanic biocube skimmer

I am firmly against mechanical filtration, but if your tank continues to go down hill without it, your tank may be better off with it. when it comes down to it, every tank is different and as long as your coral is happy you're doing a good job.

 

Went back to the stock filter cartridge. Did a 15% water change. Things seem to be getting better. It may be the spike was caused by killing the aiptasia, but I had a bad feeling that by switching from the filter cartridge to the protein skimmer I was fixing something that wasn't broke in the first place, and making things worse as a result.

At the end I may have just gotten the skimmer adjust properly, and wanted to leave it a week to see, but I was afraid to bet my tank on it. Read lots of stuff that said this particular model simply doesn't work. If I can figure out a solution that would let me try a skimmer without removing the stock filter cartridge, I'd try again. Otherwise, I'll stick with what worked before.

BTW, the aiptasia-X worked remarkably well. Killed em all dead in no time flat. Yet a week later the bloody things are already starting to regrow. Tough little buggers.

 

have you made a fuge in the back of your tank?

 

I agree, if it's not broken don't fix it.

That stuff does work very well, but unfortunately once you have aptasia you can't get rid of it without emptying the tank. Aptasia spreads spores throughout your system. The best way IMO is to keep a peppermint shrimp in the tank to keep any new ones at bay.

 

Old Test Kit

As a follow up, I purchased a new API test kit after trying everything and seeing my Ammonia and Nitrates refuse to settle down to zero like they used too. Tested the water simultaneously with both old and new kit. Old kit insisted I was still at .025 Ammonia and 5-10 Nitrates (even though Nitrites were still at near zero), and PH continued to be elevated to 8.3-8.4. New test kit said Ammonia and Nitrates were zero, Ph at 8.0 like it used to be in the old days. Trashed the old test kit, as the parameters given by the new kit seemed to make better sense given how happy everyone in the tank seems to be. I think I may even have gotten the spotted mushroom thingy to bond to a rock using the mesh trick.