Hi,
I am In the process of changing from freshwater to marine and I need help.
What would you reccomend as a good 'starter' skimmer that would be compatabile with my juwel aquarium.
I am starting off with a fish only system and I'm unsure how a skimmer fits in with the juwel lighting hood which i would like to keep. Do I have to cut out sections of the hood? Do juwel make or reccomend a skimmer compatable with thier tanks?
Finally, would the standard lighting supplied with a juwel tank rio125 be adequate for a small fish only setup.
Any advice would be most appreciated.

Not sure bout Juwel tank, but here's my 2 cents.

SKIMMER
Get any venturi skimmer. Most in the market are venturi type anyway. Skimmer is one of the most important equiptment in a marine tank, so get the BIGGEST that you can fit in your tank. There are some hang-on-back skimmer, and some small ones that fit inside the main tank, but those are small ... I guess better than not having one!!!

LIGHTS
Not a big issue if you do not have corals or algea / plants.

SIZE
4 ft is the recommend MINIMUM size for beginners. Smaller tanks are for EXPERTS. Reason is that the water condition changes very easily in smaller tanks. This stresses the fishes easily, and sickness and death comes quickly. I recommend getting some "bullet-proof" fishes like the clown fish and demsals for smaller tanks.

Stinky, I just started my 2 ft tank. I am using undergravel filter with crushed coral. The overhead filter pump suck the water from the under gravel and then flow down thro' an elbow just above the water surface. (Undersatand this will provide turbulance on the water surface to get the oil/protein down?).

I have 4 kg of live rock and the water is cycled for almost a month. Now I added a Weipro venturi skimmer, 2012 hang on type. I have 6 damsels and a little crab.

My questions, I am getting alot of bubbles from the skimmer but no foam yet
. There is a water line mark on they cylinder, do I adjust to that line or above? How soon should I be seeing foams?

With this set up, what other advice can you offer?

Thank you

IMO,i wud remove the undergravel as it wud be constantly disturbing yr sand bed. are yr crush corals very fine ones? too coarse not ideal for a marine sand bed as it traps detritus.

as for yr skimmer,where's yr water level now ?

My crushed coral is #3 (not so fine). I can leave gaps for water and dirt to pass through under the undergravel filter. The pump suck the water from below the filter so I guess everything will be sucked up?

First I adjuested the water level to the water line mark on the skimmer cylinder but I read somewhere it should be right to the rim of the collection cup. I did that 10 mins ago.

I am using Ataman 2000l/hr pump for my weipro 2012. Understand it need 400 gal/hr pump rate. I did a conversion, seem to be around there but not much foam leh.

the undergravel will pick up a lot of detritus and will get clogged up impeding flow. if you want to use it,you can but make sure you clean them weekly. also when you clean do one side at a time so as not to kill off all the beneficial bacterias.

as for your skimmer,not sure what you mean by no foam? if it's what i think it is,have you check your tank salinity? skimmers typically won't skim if salinity is very low as there will be no or low surface tension.

Hi I have taken you advice and removed the undergravel filter. My skimmer did produced foam after I adjusted the water level to the base of the collection cup but it stopped producing any foam the last 2 days. Only white bubbles with very little foam.

Water is very clean and have only 3 little damsels and a crab in the tank each less than half an inch.

Am I doing OK?

i'm not familiar with the skimmer that you are using. any skimmer worth it's salt should be able to skim. our marine tanks are not as clean as can be seem by our naked eye.

fishes,corals and any living organisms found in your liverocks do produce a lot of waste. your skimmer shud be able to pull these out.

do experiment with your skimmer placement,paying attention to both the external and internal water level. not sure about your Weipro but some skimmers do better if the external water level do not fluctuate a lot.

try 2 clean ur venturi tube.....
another way is to put those air valve control at the top the venture air intake tube control the air intake until u get smaller air bubble.....

hope it help..seldom visit this forum...if anything mayb u can u2u me @ chuisui.com...nick ahkit