Shut that Skimmer Down! Over skimming your tank.

[ReefBuzz]

lol just checking... I have been toying with the idea of shutting the skimmer down during the day. I feed my tank every other day and I feel like I may be taking out too much stuff as recently a lot of zoanthids have started to become thin and close up.

 

[Sabellafella]

lol just checking... I have been toying with the idea of shutting the skimmer down during the day. I feed my tank every other day and I feel like I may be taking out too much stuff as recently a lot of zoanthids have started to become thin and close up.

Lolol give it a shot it deffinitly doesnt hurt, i still use my skimmer 247 but ive had better results with corals that werent growing , start growing while i ran it on and off

 

[bobman]

Well does the skimmer pull out different things if running wet or dry? Always wondered this and i think this is the appropriate thread to ask in...
Also which one is better?

Another thing to keep in mind when wet skimming is you are pulling more salt water which means you are typically replacing it with freash water via ato/top off water. Not really a big deal as we should be keeping an eye on salinity anyway but if you see salinity dropping thats is the most likely reason

 

[Wiz]

Great discussion. Still lost on better or worse but great to hear peoples experience.

 

[nmohr6]

Great discussion. Still lost on better or worse but great to hear peoples experience.

Agreed. Will we ever get a for sure answer?

 

[twilliard]

There is no for sure answer as every tank is fed differently and equipment is different.
The fundamental knowledge of what a skimmer removes determines its use

 

[Wiz]

Seems to me that coral would benefit from shutting it down short term. Having more food in the water column. The question in my eyes is if it would contaminate the tank when turned on. I would imagine in most tanks the skimmer is not constantly pulling out sludge. So you would think it would just pull more for a bit when restarted. O2 levels could be variable as well. But as far as organics i dont see a short term break as detrimental. Just from a thought angle of course. No research to back any of my rambling.

 

[nmohr6]

There is no for sure answer as every tank is fed differently and equipment is different.
The fundamental knowledge of what a skimmer removes determines its use

So what's the fundamental knowledge I need to know? Many things have been said and I don't know what to believe anymore.

 

[twilliard]

So what's the fundamental knowledge I need to know? Many things have been said and I don't know what to believe anymore.

Here is some knowledge
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/skimmers-explained.227824/

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So what's the fundamental knowledge I need to know? Many things have been said and I don't know what to believe anymore.

This article of mine explains how skimming works and what it accomplishes, but it does not address preferences folks might have about whether or how often to skim:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php

 

[twilliard]

If your tank looks and grows better with the skimmer off..
Quit starving the tank

 

[Wiz]

People that are thin are not starving. But people who eat a lot more are bigger!!! ;-)

If your tank looks and grows better with the skimmer off..
Quit starving the tank

 

[nmohr6]

Thanks for the info @twilliard and @Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Ontheway]

My new bubble king was skimming wet, due to wrong water level. Since I knew that, among other things, it was collecting organic carbon (=bacteria food), wanted to test the three days old skimmate for nitrates, few days ago.

And, it registered zero.

Tank? Its around 10-15 ppm for months. Overskimming is not removing beneficial bacteria but I think it steals food from those guys.

 

[twilliard]

My new bubble king was skimming wet, due to wrong water level. Since I knew that, among other things, it was collecting organic carbon (=bacteria food), wanted to test the three days old skimmate for nitrates, few days ago.

And, it registered zero.

Tank? Its around 10-15 ppm for months. Overskimming is not removing beneficial bacteria but I think it steals food from those guys.

Cause a skimmer does not remove the basic form of no3

 

[Jdmonealp]

People that are thin are not starving. But people who eat a lot more are bigger!!! ;-)

aaannnddd we are trying to make our coral bigger right?! lol

Personally, i skim 24/7, with a slightly undersized skimmer (Bubble magus curve 5 on a 93 cube), I also feed heavy. I normally have some completely nasty skimmate going around the clock.

So, changes..... I noticed a skim change, and microalgae change when i added new rock. So i had been running the tank for 6 months or so, 93 barebottom cube, 45lb of dry rock, with 4lb live rock. i used bactiv8, dumped tons of food, and put whole uncooked shrimp in to cycle for a month. started with real nasty skim, some random hair algae, a super healthy fuge (as in biweekly prune 2/3 of a 10 gal tank woth of chaeto). all my testing was basically 0 for nitrate and phos using hanna low range. I then bought prolly another 30lbs of actual live rock that had been in a tank running for a year, then stored in a brute with heater/circulation and no light. MAN, when i added that rock everything changed. no more hair algae, my fuge basically died. all but gone. weird part is... now i have detectable nitrate and phosphate. still feeding heavy, but the tank looks great. a little red slime, but waited a few weeks and its gone. I may end up trying the skimmer off around the time i usually feed for an hour or 3

 

[bobman]

I can agree with turning the skimmer off at feeding time especially for people like me that run a recirculating skimmer and have it hooked directly to my overflow so 100% of my water goes through the skimmer before going into the sump. As we feed plankton to the water column the skimmer will skim it out so it would make sense to turn the skimmer off for a bit. However in my tank I turn off the return pump to feed so nothing goes to the over flow and cant hit the skimmer same concept I guess.

 

[chimmike]

Don't turn your skimmer off during feeding, turn off your return pump.

I think a lot of you are missing the fact that the skimmer does NOT skim the entire volume of the sump chamber at one time. I have no data but I would figure the skimmer isn't doing more than 10% of total volume per hour in a properly sized skimming setup.

My experience with skimmers is, the less I mess with it once it's operating right, the better. That means, only turn off to clean!

 

[Jdmonealp]

Don't turn your skimmer off during feeding, turn off your return pump.

I think a lot of you are missing the fact that the skimmer does NOT skim the entire volume of the sump chamber at one time. I have no data but I would figure the skimmer isn't doing more than 10% of total volume per hour in a properly sized skimming setup.

My experience with skimmers is, the less I mess with it once it's operating right, the better. That means, only turn off to clean!

But, with a sump.... i have to turn both off anyway, otherwise the skimmer will overfill. so to make it easier, ill prolly just turn the skimmer off for a few hours

 

[wonka24]

I am far from an expert but the ocean skims 24 hours a day! Just my 2 cents! I'll leave mine on and continue with weekly water changes!!