UV Sterilizer ?????

[AdamG]

What do you mean how wet? It is partially submurged in the second chamber of the wet dry underneath my tank. The 1st chamber is where the stand pipe drains into a filter tray through bio balls. The second is the skimmer (euro reef) then there is a sponge that the water flows through to go into the third chamber where the pump is and a bunch of nylon bags of carbon. Then the pump pumps through a 18 watt UV sterilizer (turbo twist) and back into the tank.

[Geoff]

i was wondering how wet your skimmate was? it should look like weak tea. it should be very liquid. you will need to keep an eye on salinity, but this is the "proper" way to run a skimmer.

i would start getting rid of all of your bio-balls. these will help fuel your cyano problem. how often do you clean the baffle sponge? this should be cleaned regularly also to keep nitrates from building up. is it even necessary? it is in there to act like a bubble trap. i would remove it and see if you get an increase in bubbles in the tank. if not than leave it off. you bio-load does not look outrageus so removing bio-balls should not be a problem. just keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels. if these start showing up again than you have reached the minimum amount of bioballs your system needs. looking at your system i am thinking that they probably are not necessary, but remove them slowly to be sure. the best way to do this is by the half life method. remove half one week then half of that the next and so on.

G~