I'm about to dose copepods into my new system and I know there is some concern about mechanical filtration and protein skimming taking these guys out. I realize there are different opinions on this and that the pods are pretty good at hunkering down. In general I like the idea of keeping as much microscopic life (beneficial) in my water column as possible (I'm not that concerned about the aesthetics of having some particulate matter moving around... it's a classroom tank used to teach about ecosystems). So what are folk's thoughts on limiting protein skimmer use by putting it on a timer? For those that do this... what kind of schedule? The goal for my 90 gallon aquarium is to have a rich, mixed reef (soft, hard, Tridacna) with only a few beneficial fish. I'm also looking into making an algae scrubber that could take up some of the skimmer's duties.