Skimmers: Are skimmers the silent killers of corals and nutrients????

[hexcolor reef]

Are skimmers the silent killers of corals and nutrients????

Added a skimmer to my a set up with high nutrients and organic waste, figured to get some of the organic out and clean the water a bit. Corals look a lot less happy.
I’ve read a lot of issues here on R2R about ppl not being able to keep nutrients in tank and not seeing corals happy but having some of the best equipment that should promise results.
Maybe it’s the skimmer, are we over skimming???

 

[Subsea]

@hexcolor reef
Why would you think that protein skimmers are “silent killers”

Algae refugiums & ATS remove nutrients and they don’t kill tanks. Also, detail “kills the tank”, I am not sure what that means to you.

 

[blaxsun]

Er, no.

 

[Seanb1]

Your corals probably did have a reaction to an added skimmer and less nutrients in the water, any changes affect them.
I highly doubt it will kill them.
I'd go slow on the skimming at first instead of just stripping everything at once.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Are skimmers the silent killers of corals and nutrients????

Added a skimmer to my a set up with high nutrients and organic waste, figured to get some of the organic out and clean the water a bit. Corals look a lot less happy.
I’ve read a lot of issues here on R2R about ppl not being able to keep nutrients in tank and not seeing corals happy but having some of the best equipment that should promise results.
Maybe it’s the skimmer, are we over skimming???

I think it's just the shock of going from high nutrients to low nutrients, coral dosent like change in water chemistry, I keep my phosphates at zero and my corals don't mind, however some people are running a tank with their po4 at .2-.4, if I went that high every coral in my tank would die, it's just what your corals are used to, lower it gradually or just keep it as is, if you're having success no need to change anything

 

[Dburr1014]

Skimmers don't kill.
I think skimmers are better at gas exchange than nutrient export though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Might have been light shock as well. That’s known to happen when adding GAC for the first time, and skimming might give similar results in some scenarios.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

No

 

[rtparty]

No. Skimmers were literally the breakthrough that led to us keeping many of the sensitive species we keep today. Julian Sprung has talked about this in the past