Poll: To skim or not to skim

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

If no skimmer, what's another way to get gas exchange?

Pointing a power head/wave maker towards the surface.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Or channeling your return water anti-siphon toward the surface with the use of a small Jon Guest elbow. You can read more about it in my tank build thread (link in my signature below).

20180717_110047 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

 

[Tarpongriller]

I run my skimmer all the time on my 120. Airation plus skim removal seems to be working well. Large refugeim in sump macro algae growing like weeds.

 

[ZoWhat]

So as a reefer, we are all trying to emulate whats done in nature.

Every time I put on a scuba mask and snorkel there are all kinds of micro-bubbles fizzing in the water from all the waves white-capping.

Why is this?
Suppose Mother-Nature or God is oxygenating the ocean water?
Why are there white-cap waves 2,000 miles from any shoreline? To oxygenate the ocean?

You tell me... why waves naturally churn up the oceans of the world.....

 

[Gomi's Reef]

So as a reefer, we are all trying to emulate whats done in nature.

Every time I put on a scuba mask and snorkel there are all kinds of micro-bubbles fizzing in the water from all the waves white-capping.

Why is this?
Suppose Mother-Nature or God is oxygenating the ocean water?
Why are there white-cap waves 2,000 miles from any shoreline? To oxygenate the ocean?

You tell me... why waves naturally churn up the oceans of the world.....

you could not replicate oxygenation by waves with your piddly skimmer alone. And in reply to your other comment. Corals don't need O2. Photosynthesis requires CO2....

 

[kwan8911]

I personally run skimmer 12 hours a day just for oxygenation my water between my DT light and fuge light. I skimmed very wet and let the skimate drain back into the sump. I do have 11gal of chaeto fuge lit by a 150w lex grow light for 54 gal of DT. I often test 0 nitrate and 0.03 phosphate despite I feed reef chili reef roid and live phyto daily. One added benefit of a slimmer in my setup is I can use a CO2 scrubber to raise my ph to 8.4 - 8.5

 

[ZoWhat]

Nor could you replicate oxygenation by waves with your piddly skimmer alone. And in reply to your other comment. Corals don't need O2. Photosynthesis requires CO2....

Corals don't need O2. Co2+light are the only requirements for photosynthesis.... [rest of comment removed by admin]

 

[Gomi's Reef]

Corals don't need O2. Co2+light are the only requirements for photosynthesis....

feel free to look up the bioligy of photosynthesis.

 

[kwan8911]

Coral, plant, all forms of photosynthesis organisms, use CO2, water and light to do photosynthesis and produce O2, sugar in the day. However, at night, when it is dark. They will need sugar and O2 to maintain the biological function.

 

[Gomi's Reef]

Coral, plant, all forms of photosynthesis organisms, use CO2, water and light to do photosynthesis and produce O2, sugar in the day. However, at night, when it is dark. They will need sugar and O2 to maintain the biological function.

I know this

 

[Flexin]

For me, I use a mechanical skimmer on large tanks or if I have room for a sump. Some tanks like a nano AIO, don't have room for a skimmer that really really works (32gal and below). The small nano ones, IMO, don't work well compared to the full size ones. For the smaller tanks I use a chemical skimmer like purigen.

 

[Ron Reefman]

So as a reefer, we are all trying to emulate whats done in nature.

Every time I put on a scuba mask and snorkel there are all kinds of micro-bubbles fizzing in the water from all the waves white-capping.

Why is this?
Suppose Mother-Nature or God is oxygenating the ocean water?
Why are there white-cap waves 2,000 miles from any shoreline? To oxygenate the ocean?

You tell me... why waves naturally churn up the oceans of the world.....

Mother nature isn't creating the white caps or the foam where waves roll into the beach to oxygenate the water. It's her waves that are making bubbles that stay together because they have excess proteins at the water's surface holding the bubbles together longer than if there were no proteins. Those bubbles literally can form a foam at the beach. Just like the foam in your skimmer. And what is the longer version name for your skimmer... oh yeah, that's right... it's a protein skimmer, not a gas exchange skimmer! Just say'n.

 

[PDR]

@Mike Nicosia & @skimjim you guys need to cool it. This is not the place for such arguments.

 

[Humblefish]

@Mike Nicosia & @skimjim you guys need to cool it. This is not the place for such arguments.

+1 Everyone just needs to chill (refrain from hurling more insults) until we can sort this out.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I've spent a bit of time cleaning up some of the comments (there's more here that probably should be removed). All parties in this heated exchange need to reread our terms of service before commenting further. Any further personal attacks will not be tolerated. Time to reel it in, guys.

 

[hybridazn]

I've spent a bit of time cleaning up some of the comments (there's more here that probably should be removed). All parties in this heated exchange need to reread our terms of service before commenting further. Any further personal attacks will not be tolerated. Time to reel it in, guys.

What he said...

 

[User1]

Or channeling your return water anti-siphon toward the surface with the use of a small Jon Guest elbow. You can read more about it in my tank build thread (link in my signature below).

20180717_110047 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

That is interesting. Thanks for posting it.

 

[User1]

We often see posts about which skimmer is recommended, or even which skimmer is the best. I vaguely remember a long running debate about whether a skimmer is even necessary. So, what is your take on using a skimmer? Do you use one? I think the vast majority of us do utilize a skimmer but I'm curious to see how may do not. I would love to hear the comments from those that don't explaining the theories for not doing so.

I selected other. It comes down to design and implementation along with personal preference. You will typically hear me say this about various things be it UV or controllers. If you design it such that it isn't needed then the answer is no. You don't need it. By design I mean what you plan to keep with regards to corals and fish and how to manage nutrients and biological filter(s). Anything is possible but what you can't do is just randomly set up a tank and expect it to work with or without a skimmer. Just another piece of the puzzle. If done properly then you can have an amazing tank. Use your favorite search engine and see. No different than daily or zero water changes.

I've run one on my 100 gallon. Skimmer less 29 gallon bio cube(s). Skimmer less 40 gallon breeder. Skimmer 40 gallon breeder. Currently running a skimmer dating back to 2000 that I ran on my 100 gallon today on my 210 gallon.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Why is this?
Suppose Mother-Nature or God is oxygenating the ocean water?
Why are there white-cap waves 2,000 miles from any shoreline? To oxygenate the ocean?
You tell me... why waves naturally churn up the oceans of the world.....

You may as well as why the wind blows because thats what creates waves.

In anycase you may have missed my post #45 @skimjim so I'll recap part of it -

From Eric Borneman articles – The need to breathe
Experimental Tanks
Conclusions and Recommendations

Aquaria can and do become saturated or supersaturated with oxygen during the day, and this is a result of oxygen resulting from irradiance of photosynthetic organisms. In no case was saturation or supersaturation measured without photosynthesis.

Air stones and skimmers appear to be a very effective means of oxygenating small water volumes. Their effect on larger water volumes appears to be less. While the effect may be relative, the larger tanks and systems described here utilized powerful skimming or air pumps, and to gain an equivalent amount of oxygen as occurs in small water volumes would likely require air pumps or skimmers far larger than those commonly employed by aquarists. This includes data from a coral farm where very large commercial sized skimmers and high surface area/volume ratios failed to produce water even nearly saturated with oxygen at night with a heavy coral population.

Using algae in reverse daylight tanks appears to be an effective means of keeping oxygen levels at normoxic levels at night. This effect is pronounced even in tanks and systems that employ protein skimmers and air stones.

Powerheads and recirculating pumps do not appear to greatly increase the oxygen saturation state of seawater aquaria. Instead, they probably serve to move oxygenated waters to areas of the tank that are locally lower in oxygen resulting from respiration within the tank.

 

[James McBryde]

I'm a newbie and my Red Sea Max S-650 came with a skimmer, so I use it. I certainly don't see any downside and as others have pointed out, it does aerate the water.