Do you run a Skimmer?

[Dennis Cartier]

In my tank build, I am planning to have a skimmer to assist with the tank startup for the first couple of years. After that, hopefully the coral biomass will take over and make the skimmer redundant. The type of filter I am going to be running, DyMiCo inspired, normally runs skimmer less anyway. The reason is that the skimmer is viewed as reducing plankton levels in the water column, opposite to what the filter is trying to achieve.

Dennis

 

[MartinM]

I really like skimmers in principle, the potential to remove a decent (I could be wrong, but if I recall correctly, a skimmer tops out at being able to remove ~30% of DOCs). In reality, after decades of having marine/reef aquariums on and off, I’m rarely able to get any kind or brand of skimmer on any system producing well or reliably, and have recently stopped trying in favor of reverse photoperiod refugiums with DSBs, and nitrate reactors. pH swing also didn’t increase.

I definitely don’t knock skimmers and anyone that can get them dialed in should probably use them (at least on SPS and FOWLR systems) but they seem to hate me for some reason...