Are protein skimmers really that important?

[Staghorn]

My skimmer was down for about a week because I had an issue with the pump, my pH drops a few tenths of a point and I could definitely tell the difference in the corals. My skimmer intake is plumbed to the outside of my house. So not only does it take a ton of junk out of your water, but it also has a lot of gas to the water. And the right circumstances, it can be more oxygen than the CO2 and raise your pH.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Hello! Could you please elaborate on this?
To be sure, here you are referring purely to “nutrient” export part, right?

I have a significant amount of coral mass vs volume… although I was many times tempted to remove the skimmer… I never had the guts to run without it for more than 2 days (cleaning it)

I’m too scared to… but tempted:)

Thanks!

I have a love/hate relationship with skimmers. For what we do, it’s more beneficial to have skimmers running on the tanks. It minimizes issues with tanks that only get (at most) about an hour of attention a week. Our clients also love to have a lot of fish and they like to feed a lot. So the skimmer provides a safety net.

That said, skimmers are not exactly target-specific. They pull out a lot of stuff, and there are plenty of things they pull out that would ultimately benefit the ecosystem. To me, skimmers are a tool to remove compounds that could break down into NO3 and PO4. A side benefit is extra gas exchange. Beyond that, I guess I’m not sure what service they provide.

Once the coral biomass reaches a certain point, a lot of the matter that is removed could be used by corals, inverts, etc. Obviously if you have a bunch of fish, that tilts the scale more.

Anecdotally, I would say that the most lively, healthy looking reefs I’ve seen didn’t have skimmers running.

 

[RajM]

For a nano tank I still run a skimmer. I would always prefer skimmer over GAC and only use GAC when needed. I use phosguard as needed to lower phosphate of its above 0.1ppm which is not very often.

With carbon dosing and wet skimming I have my nutrient levels where I want most of the time and gives me breathing room on when I want to do waterchanges rather than running on schedule, especially since I travel for work now and then.
I also mod my skimmers collection cups to have a drain to protect from spilling over when I am out of town.

 

[CHSUB]

Anecdotally, I would say that the most lively, healthy looking reefs I’ve seen didn’t have skimmers running.

Strange! I can only recall one single tank that didn’t have a skimmer. Having been to numerous public aquariums, worked at a LFS, visited many tanks on house visits, studied many TOTM; maybe some did not but not having a skimmer certainty didn’t equal “Best”, “most healthy”, or “most lively”.

 

[winzig]

if you feed heavily or have a large bio-load I would say very important to have a skimmer

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Strange! I can only recall one single tank that didn’t have a skimmer. Having been to numerous public aquariums, worked at a LFS, visited many tanks on house visits, studied many TOTM; maybe some did not but not having a skimmer certainty didn’t equal “Best”, “most healthy”, or “most lively”.

So if every tank you’ve seen had a skimmer, what’s your basis for reference?

 

[exnisstech]

not but not having a skimmer certainty didn’t equal “Best”, “most healthy”, or “most lively”.

I could say the same about having a skimmer
Its like many things in this hobby there isn't a right or wrong just what is right for you.

 

[CHSUB]

So if every tank you’ve seen had a skimmer, what’s your basis for reference?

no reference, just find it strange that the most healthy and lively tanks you have ever seen all have no skimmers and of the hundreds of tanks I have seen most, if not all have skimmers…some good and some bad.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I do have to say, im running no skimmer and my lps and softies seem to be thriving

 

[SudzFD]

I occasionally will see people on here who will not run protein skimmers in their tank and think, "Do I really need one in my tank as well?" That's why I'm asking all of you. Do you think protein skimmers are important for a reef tank, or do you think reefers can do without them?

Photo Credit: @Butuz

I would never not run one. I don’t see any downsides other than maybe noise. I have run a tank without one when I was starting out and immediately noticed changes in water quality and clarity once I started using one. Even a small undersized skimmer will make a difference. Just do it!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

no reference, just find it strange that the most healthy and lively tanks you have ever seen all have no skimmers and of the hundreds of tanks I have seen most, if not all have skimmers…some good and some bad.

I guess it would seem strange if you didn’t have a basis for reference. But we already established in the quarantine thread that you have far more expertise and experience than I do, so I’ll defer to you.

 

[big_G]

When I set up my nano I told myself I didn't need a skimmer and weekly water changes would keep everything in check. I've recently added a miniQ to try help my ph but also interesting to see just how much gunk it pulls out. Still early days but I can see the benefit.

 

[matskibanov]

I'm not Julian sprung and maybe my idea of a serious reef is flawed or I have low expectations

My skimmer less reef tanks.

Such beauties! I don't mean to hijack, but i'm curious about your strategy on nutrient export

 

[backbayreef]

All my 3 tanks have oversized skimmers and they are workhorses, esp I don’t even run socks. For the big tank with 30 medium/large fish, I think that the skimmer is necessary. However, I don’t run a skimmer on my nano tank but I only have 2 clownfish.

IME - a skimmer helps but not necessary.

 

[exnisstech]

Such beauties! I don't mean to hijack, but i'm curious about your strategy on nutrient export

Thanks. No strategy as far as export. Its been more of a challenge keeping levels detectable. The SPS tank has always ran low N and P naturally and only has a reefmat and occasion 2-4g WCs that average out to about 10% per month to vacuum detritus that collects in a corner. I used to dose N and P then later switched to ammonium but for the last few months I've managed to keep N and P detectable without having to dose

The tank with clams has no export other than small random 2g WCs . I'm currently dosing ammonium bicarb to keep NO3 detectable in that tank.

 

[Osman]

Bio load (metabolic weight grams) in aquarium is very important.You can calculate your fish bioload and compare biofilter media here https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/7-3-media-volume/

Some scientists have already made research and experiments to understand efficiency of protein skimmers ( This singular piece of equipment is typically the second largest expense after the tank itself and it is important product for market )

Protein skimmers are like antibiotics also removes beneficial microflora and beneficial nutrients. When someone see brown gunk in collection cup more than half of it is dead beneficial population in water column.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/protein-skimmers-doing-more-harm-than-good.693422/

As for air exchange in PS just airstones in sump and open water surface of tank O2/CO2 balance can be maintained this also helps PH balance.
Healthy, mature reef tank houses enough TOC consuming organisms to effectively keep TOC levels at some acceptably low equilibrium level without the intervention of a protein skimmer.

Protein skimming (bubbles) removes approximately 30 – 40% of the bacteria in the water column of carbon-treated or organic rich water, but the remainder is not susceptible to bubble-based removal.
It appears likely that some types of bacteria are indeed “skimmable”, but others are not. Thus, skimming inadvertently provides severe (?) evolutionary pressure to skew the tank’s resident water column bacteria population to favor the “non-skimmable” cohort.
The skimmers typically removed greater than 80% of the BSA. In contrast, perhaps one of the more interesting observations to emerge from these studies is the fact that all four skimmers tested removed only 20 – 30% of the total organics present in authentic reef tank water.

https://reefs.com/magazine/the-deve...ve-evaluation-of-protein-skimmer-performance/
https://reefs.com/magazine/further-studies-on-protein-skimmer-performance/

 

[tinytidesnano]

I've had clearer water on tanks I've run without a skimmer. There's so much more to the chemistry of our water than how much DOC you're pulling out.

 

[tinytidesnano]

Bio load (metabolic weight grams) in aquarium is very important.You can calculate your fish bioload and compare biofilter media here https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/7-3-media-volume/

Some scientists have already made research and experiments to understand efficiency of protein skimmers ( This singular piece of equipment is typically the second largest expense after the tank itself and it is important product for market )

Protein skimmers are like antibiotics also removes beneficial microflora and beneficial nutrients. When someone see brown gunk in collection cup more than half of it is dead beneficial population in water column.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/protein-skimmers-doing-more-harm-than-good.693422/

As for air exchange in PS just airstones in sump and open water surface of tank O2/CO2 balance can be maintained this also helps PH balance.
Healthy, mature reef tank houses enough TOC consuming organisms to effectively keep TOC levels at some acceptably low equilibrium level without the intervention of a protein skimmer.

Protein skimming (bubbles) removes approximately 30 – 40% of the bacteria in the water column of carbon-treated or organic rich water, but the remainder is not susceptible to bubble-based removal.
It appears likely that some types of bacteria are indeed “skimmable”, but others are not. Thus, skimming inadvertently provides severe (?) evolutionary pressure to skew the tank’s resident water column bacteria population to favor the “non-skimmable” cohort.
The skimmers typically removed greater than 80% of the BSA. In contrast, perhaps one of the more interesting observations to emerge from these studies is the fact that all four skimmers tested removed only 20 – 30% of the total organics present in authentic reef tank water.

https://reefs.com/magazine/the-deve...ve-evaluation-of-protein-skimmer-performance/
https://reefs.com/magazine/further-studies-on-protein-skimmer-performance/

Fantastic Point- ty for this

 

[Julie'sreef]

Yep. I'm not using one. My Skimmer just standing in my sump and waiting for the Time, when the biological load is so high that nutrients get out of control. My aquarium is 8 months old, I'm already seeing the first coralline algae. I just use wavemakers and a return pump to move the surface of the water. I open the window regularly. That's all. And bacteria microbe Lift special blend+ Microbe Lift start bacteria + Microbe Lift aquabalance Thera P every 1 week after tank maintenance ( algae cleaning etc. )
Also running carbon .

 

[salinity now]

I made the 170 buck mistake of buying a Shark 300 skimmer. It never worked and basically fell apart in my tank. Don't make the same mistake I did!

I'll admit I was a bit premature in my review of this skimmer. I let it run for two months and now it works perfect. The bio-load seems to be lower and the water is crystal clear. It does work but can take some time. Cool and groovy!