unclenedsfishfactory.com

Im just full of questions today

I have a 55 saltwater with live rock, 2 damsels, a psuedochromis, and a bicolor blenny, 3 snails, 5 hermits, a chocolate star, and a very old and large coral banded shrimp with 50 lbs of live rock. i have running a hang on mechanical filter (i think its a penguin but im not sure since it came in a walmart tank set) with (i know everyone is going to yell at me about this....) one of those in tank berlin airdriven protein skimmers.

i just got a CPR bakpak 2R+ as a gift, and I know it is infinately better than what I have goin now. I set it it up last night, but left the other skimmer in. my questions to anyone who wants to answer is....

a) should I take out the old berlin skimmer?
b) if i want to someday try my hand at corals, should i take out the mechanical filter?- -> my nitrates are high

alright, thats all i got

D

a) should I take out the old berlin skimmer?
you only need to run 1 protein skimmer

b) if i want to someday try my hand at corals, should i take out the mechanical filter?- -> my nitrates are high
leave filter running, but take out filter carts, as long as you have at least 1 pound per gallon of established live rock

having no filter media
and
using the protein skimmer
and
doing regular partial water changes
wiil lower nitrate levels

thanks for getting back to me

another question,
the bakpak has been providing me with some "skimmate", but its more of a "green tea" consistency. shouldnt I be getting more of a dry, brown, foam?
I havent been able to find any information on how to tweak a BakPak 2R+, so I was wondering if anyone has experience with these skimmers and could help me out.
thanks

sounds like your skimmer is collecting mostly
phytoplankton
which is free floating micro algae (green water)

that kind of makes sense because you don't have any large
waste producing fish

protein skimmers are mostly useful on big systems with really big fish