Having just done my weekly test on my water i just cant get my nitrate down to below 5. Its been up 3months now and cycled pretty good Ammonia and nitrite are negligable but the nitrate dropped from 10 to 5 about a month ago but thats its best. I have been told the stock boyu skimmer is not worth having but it is collecting a bit of greeny slime so it must be doing something. At present the only fish in are 2 clowns and a gramma. Have a good cleanup crew 3 hermits 3 cerith a turbo and mythrax. is 5 acceptable? I am doing 10% change weekly

can you explain a little more on filtration thanks

IMHO 5 is very good most would be happy to have there nitrate that low

just keep doing what your doing

filtration is liverock, carbon filter , skimmer then ceramic rings and balls. I have been told to replace the ceramic rings with rubble?

IMHO the best thing to do is slowly remove the ceramic rings and balls

replace them with live rock or nothing at all

BUT IMHO why tray and fix something that's not broken

it may sound silly but have you checked the nitrate of your ro water. Some folks on here have had higher nitrates than this on it.

comes out zero on ammonia nitrate and nitrite 8 on ph

What is the reading for nitrate then? I am not sure from your original post...

From the post it's below 10 but higher then 5

sorry , yes its at 5 on the scale , the RO from my LFS is zero on everything, nitrite on my tank is fine