Skimmer off. Or on with no collection for ph?

[joseph.timbs]

Ran into an issue with low nutrients, more so nitrates than phosphate. I’m going to turn my protein skimmer/chaeto grow light off. Not permanently of course but they usually run 24/7, I don’t use kalk and depend on their PH benefits, I use a Co2 scrubber for my skimmer. Is it possible that I could run the skimmer with no collection?

 

[Euphyllia97]

I am running a fleece filter roller and I’m unable to get any skimmate on my skimmer. I just let it overflow and use it for aeration. I guess you could do the same

 

[joseph.timbs]

I am running a fleece filter roller and I’m unable to get any skimmate on my skimmer. I just let it overflow and use it for aeration. I guess you could do the same

Yeah that’s what I’m thinking, and doing. Just til my nitrates go up and neonitro I ordered comes in. Just ran out at a bad time. I trusted tropic Marin’s word with their bacto balance, even dosed 1/5 ml when directed to use 1/2 ml, nearly bottomed out in a week.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Running a skimmer with no collection is fine.

 

[TeeJay87]

Skimmers are still pulling bad stuff out of the tank (the guy that responded his skimmer doesn’t collect because his fleece rollers pulls out so much of the bad stuff is in a different situation). Think about what ends up in a skimmer cup. You wouldn’t ever want to dose that into your tank; atleast I’ve never heard someone recommend that. I would favor dosing nitrate and running the skimmer atleast a few hours overnight to pull out the gunk. Turning your skimmer off to raise your nitrates is going to cause your phosphates to continue to climb, and nitrates and phosphates will stay out of balance unless you remedy the situation another way. I say leave the skimmer on atleast a few hours per day and dose nitrates, but you could also keep the skimmer off and feed more and then reduce phosphates with GFO or something similar (assuming you are not okay with higher phosphates). GFO has downsides such as removing trace elements, which is part of the reason I would avoid this route.

 

[CHSUB]

I would never turn off my skimmer or not collect skim. There are many studies from years ago showing that skimmers are not as effective as believed.

 

[joseph.timbs]

I’m through the situation now. I just didn’t collect and ran skimmate back into the system. Didn’t seem to make any difference good or bad did keep my ph up so in my case I think it was beneficial but who knows, y’all are probably right but it was just a few days on an old system. I was actually surprised how long it took to get my nitrates back to 5 while not collecting skim and dosing 5 ml’s of neonitro a day. Phosphate went up from .08 to.1 so you’re right about that. Still healthy level but did climb a bit. I did do a 10% WC halfway through and an additional 5 ml’s nitrate dose added in the WC. This is a 40g btw, mixed reef with plenty of coral. Microbacter 7, I know is counterintuitive but I really believe in the product and definitely think it’s a positive even with uln.

 

[Pistondog]

I would never turn off my skimmer or not collect skim. There are many studies from years ago showing that skimmers are not as effective as believed.

These 2 sentences seem to be at cross purposes.
What do you mean?

I recently, 6 mos ago, removed the collection cup and nitrates went up from 10 to 15 ppm.

 

[CHSUB]

These 2 sentences seem to be at cross purposes.
What do you mean?

I recently, 6 mos ago, removed the collection cup and nitrates went up from 10 to 15 ppm.

Yes removal of skimmer cup will reduce filtration and cause nutrients in general to rise. However at a point when skimmable substances reach a certain level, researcher has shown the level can’t be reduced much further if any even when these substances are still present.