Skimmers, are they really necessary?

[CanuckReefer]

Skimmerless for the last 9 years. There are more negatives than positives to having a skimmer.

Negatives: usually cost money to purchase, maintenance time to clean, potential for malfunction / flood.

There are only two positives of having a skimmer which can be accomplished in many other ways: oxygenation (insignificant effect in most tanks), and nutrient export (never been an issue for me).

Skimmer was the biggest waste of money for me to date besides the AI line of products.

All that being said...the pictures of tanks with skimmers do seem nicer Not sure I would consider that a strong cause and effect argument though. People like myself who run without may just be lazier in general and would never put in the effort it takes to run a reef of the month quality tank regardless of what equipment we had. I know my tank looks better today than it did with a skimmer at least.

So much this!! Same here and my exact thought process. I’ve only had headaches with skimmers, either overflowing or working great and then do a water change and it take a while to break back in..I even know a guy where it caused his tank to have a mini crash due to overflow from the skimmer malfunction randomly and it changed the whole biology of the tank with increased nutrients all of a sudden and caused his SPS to RTN.. I stopped running them and the tank and SPS seem happier

FWIW, I'm thinking of ditching my HOB skimmer on my 90 gallon . I turn it on for about 6 hours a day and it either acts up or pulls little to nothing. I've actually dumped a lot of stuff I used to do. And added a few small things, I find the simplicity of using less to be beneficial in the long run.
No more canister as of about 15 years ago, I no longer dose anything, never had a sump.
I did add a UV about 12 years back which I find helpful...actually picking up another one tomorrow as mine bit the dust. I've always had a polishing powerhead. Added more flow through hydors, and small Jebao wavemakers. Small 2-3% water changes every 4 days. Plenty of LR in my system and about an 1 1/2" sandbed. As mentioned above, I'm not winning reef of the month anytime soon lol, but the system is rock steady over the years, and I enjoy it ...knock on wood...

 

[HB AL]

A skimmer is and isn't absolutely necessary depending on the tank's inhabitants (fish and corals) and what you're trying to accomplish. In my individual case for the last 35+ years I've run tanks with and without a skimmer and the tanks with a skimmer have always been more successful than the ones I've run without one. In my current tank which I've had for a little over 5 years, has a skimmer which in this case is absolutely necessary to keep all the inhabitants healthy and keeping the system simple with low maintenance. I should also mention that I haven't done a water change in this tank in 4.5 years. Here's a vid of my tank when the fish realize it's time to eat then eating when I dump the food in towards the end of the vid. This tank was originally started to be a fowlr but morphed into a mixed reef over the years as I couldn't help myself ;Woot and started adding corals.

 

[SaltFishTV]

This video sums up why I don’t use a skimmer and don’t feel the need to:

what are your thoughts?

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

Is air conditioning necessary in my house, no. But my quality of life is better and being comfortable is made much simpler.

 

[SaltFishTV]

Is air conditioning necessary in my house, no. But my quality of life is better and being comfortable is made much simpler.

How so?

 

[ZoWhat]

Are heaters really needed? Just kept your house at 84 degrees year round to keep tank at 78

Are lights really needed? Just put your tank on casters and roll it out to the back deck for sunlight 5hrs a day

Is water movement really needed? Just have a duck paddle along at the waterline

 

[SaltFishTV]

Are heaters really needed? Just kept your house at 84 degrees year round to keep tank at 78

Are lights really needed? Just put your tank on casters and roll it out to the back deck for sunlight 5hrs a day

Is water movement really needed? Just have a duck paddle along at the waterline

Thank you very much for your educational input lol, but this is a bit different than those components you do need. Skimmers to me seem more like an accessory.
biological filtration and nutrients do the reef good

 

[ZoWhat]

Thank you very much for your educational input lol, but this is a bit different than those components you do need. Skimmers to me seem more like an accessory.
biological filtration and nutrients do the reef good

That's awesome you got it working for you. Thanks for your input

You should consider being a consultant to the Public Aquariums around the world, you could save them 100s of millions of dollars in large skimming equipment

 

[SaltFishTV]

That's awesome you got it working for you. Thanks for your input

You should consider being a consultant to the Public Aquariums around the world, you could save them 100s of millions of dollars in large skimming equipment

I’ll keep that in mind, thanks!

 

[Timfish]

It doesn't matter where you look research is showing the right microbial balance is essential. Whether it's sustanable farming or sustaining our own mental and physical well being we need the right microbial processes. Feldman, et al, showed over 12 years ago skimmers are skewing the bacterial counts in reef aquariums and doing so by removing just the hydrophobic species. Skimmers also do nothing for the hydrophilic compounds research has shown promotes pathogenic shifts in coral microbiomes. (An excellent introduction to the roles of DOC and microbail processes is Forest ROhwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas", kindle is ~$10.) And what's been been pretty much overlooked for quite awhile is the cryptic zones in our reef systems recycle the labile hydrophobic DOC about 1000X faster than the bacterioplankton by skimming - success attributed to skimming may actually be due to the cryptic zones and sponges in the system. We need to be thinking in terms of how to maintain the proper microbial processes to maintain corals fo rtheir normal life expectancies. and we need to be thinking in terms of total total Nitrogen and total Phosphorus, not just nitrates and phosphates.

SOme may find these videos informative:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Some of my skimmerless systems:

90 Gallon Mixed Reef


500 gallon


Mixed Reef started in 1997, 10-07-19


220 Rimless 450 view


Some of links for those interested.

Element cycling on tropical coral reefs.
This is Jasper de Geoij's ground breaking research on reef sponges. (The introduction is in Dutch but the content is in English.)

https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14555035/13completethesis.pdf

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Marine sponges are ubiquitous colonizers of shallow, clear-water environments in the oceans (1, 2). Sponges have emerged as significant mediators of biogeochemical fluxes in coastal zones by virtue of respiring organic matter and facilitating both the consumption and release of nutrients (3, 4)...

www.pnas.org

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges
(Chris Kenndall had a problem with low PO4 and had problems raising it with Neophos. Samples sent off showed phosphorus crystals developing in some of the sponges in his system accounting for at least some of his systems consumption.)

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that raise a conundrum called “Darwin’s paradox”: How can high production flourish in low-nutrient conditions? We show here that in three abundant Caribbean sponges, the granules that have been commonly observed in sponge tissue for decades are...

www.pnas.org

Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop.
Sponges treat DOC from algae differently than DOC from corals

Error - Cookies Turned Off

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Surviving in a Marine Desert The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs
Dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen are quickly processed by sponges and released back into the reef food web in hours as carbon and nitrogen rich detritus.

(PDF) 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop

PDF | On Jun 23, 2015, Jasper M de Goeij and others published 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

Coral-excavating sponges are the most important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs and increase in abundance throughout the region. This increase is commonly attributed to a concomitant increase in food availability due to eutrophication and pollution. We ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Role of Marine Sponges in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles of COral Reefs and Nearshore Environments.

The role of marine sponges in carbon and nitrogen cycles of coral reef and nearshore environments - ProQuest

Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.

search.proquest.com

Protein Skimmer Performance, Pt 1

The Development of a Method for the Quantitative Evaluation of Protein Skimmer Performance

Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Protein skimmers have become indispensable for many aquarists who strive to maintain the high water quality necessary to keep stony corals.

reefs.com

Protein Skimmer Performance, Pt 2

Further Studies on Protein Skimmer Performance

Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Many factors contribute to the 'value' of a skimmer to an aquarist, including quality of construction, size, footprint, noise level, ease of cleaning, energy efficiency of the pump, and of course, the ability...

reefs.com

Skimmate Analysis

Elemental Analysis of Skimmate

Elemental Analysis of Skimmate: What Does a Protein Skimmer Actually Remove from Aquarium Water?

Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. The chemical/elemental composition of skimmate generated by an H&S 200-1260 skimmer on a 175-gallon reef tank over the course of several days or a week had some surprises.

reefs.com

 

[SaltFishTV]

It doesn't matter where you look research is showing the right microbial balance is essential. Whether it's sustanable farming or sustaining our own mental and physical well being we need the right microbial processes. Feldman, et al, showed over 12 years ago skimmers are skewing the bacterial counts in reef aquariums and doing so by removing just the hydrophobic species. Skimmers also do nothing for the hydrophilic compounds research has shown promotes pathogenic shifts in coral microbiomes. (An excellent introduction to the roles of DOC and microbail processes is Forest ROhwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas", kindle is ~$10.) And what's been been pretty much overlooked for quite awhile is the cryptic zones in our reef systems recycle the labile hydrophobic DOC about 1000X faster than the bacterioplankton by skimming - success attributed to skimming may actually be due to the cryptic zones and sponges in the system. We need to be thinking in terms of how to maintain the proper microbial processes to maintain corals fo rtheir normal life expectancies. and we need to be thinking in terms of total total Nitrogen and total Phosphorus, not just nitrates and phosphates.

SOme may find these videos informative:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Some of my skimmerless systems:

90 Gallon Mixed Reef


500 gallon


Mixed Reef started in 1997, 10-07-19


220 Rimless 450 view


Some of links for those interested.

Element cycling on tropical coral reefs.
This is Jasper de Geoij's ground breaking research on reef sponges. (The introduction is in Dutch but the content is in English.)

https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14555035/13completethesis.pdf

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Marine sponges are ubiquitous colonizers of shallow, clear-water environments in the oceans (1, 2). Sponges have emerged as significant mediators of biogeochemical fluxes in coastal zones by virtue of respiring organic matter and facilitating both the consumption and release of nutrients (3, 4)...

www.pnas.org

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges
(Chris Kenndall had a problem with low PO4 and had problems raising it with Neophos. Samples sent off showed phosphorus crystals developing in some of the sponges in his system accounting for at least some of his systems consumption.)

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that raise a conundrum called “Darwin’s paradox”: How can high production flourish in low-nutrient conditions? We show here that in three abundant Caribbean sponges, the granules that have been commonly observed in sponge tissue for decades are...

www.pnas.org

Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop.
Sponges treat DOC from algae differently than DOC from corals

Error - Cookies Turned Off

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Surviving in a Marine Desert The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs
Dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen are quickly processed by sponges and released back into the reef food web in hours as carbon and nitrogen rich detritus.

(PDF) 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop

PDF | On Jun 23, 2015, Jasper M de Goeij and others published 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

Coral-excavating sponges are the most important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs and increase in abundance throughout the region. This increase is commonly attributed to a concomitant increase in food availability due to eutrophication and pollution. We ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Role of Marine Sponges in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles of COral Reefs and Nearshore Environments.

The role of marine sponges in carbon and nitrogen cycles of coral reef and nearshore environments - ProQuest

Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.

search.proquest.com

Protein Skimmer Performance, Pt 1

The Development of a Method for the Quantitative Evaluation of Protein Skimmer Performance

Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Protein skimmers have become indispensable for many aquarists who strive to maintain the high water quality necessary to keep stony corals.

reefs.com

Protein Skimmer Performance, Pt 2

Further Studies on Protein Skimmer Performance

Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Many factors contribute to the 'value' of a skimmer to an aquarist, including quality of construction, size, footprint, noise level, ease of cleaning, energy efficiency of the pump, and of course, the ability...

reefs.com

Skimmate Analysis

Elemental Analysis of Skimmate

Elemental Analysis of Skimmate: What Does a Protein Skimmer Actually Remove from Aquarium Water?

Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. The chemical/elemental composition of skimmate generated by an H&S 200-1260 skimmer on a 175-gallon reef tank over the course of several days or a week had some surprises.

reefs.com

Absolutely fantastic write up!! This is exactly what I was understanding as well, it’s a lot about the bacteria, but specifically those that are in relation to the bacteria living within the coral itself as well. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and I’ll be reading up on those attachments as well.

 

[kaylajoy]

If your overflow has foam in it, is that an accidental protein skimmer :thinkyface:

 

[Deep]

If your overflow has foam in it, is that an accidental protein skimmer :thinkyface:

thats a skimmer without the collection cup

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Are skimmers really that necessary on all reef tanks?

I personally don’t think they are. I never run skimmers and I can keep any type of coral you can imagine, to include SPS corals.

I think that as long as you have a strong enough and diverse biological filtration (bacteria) your reef tank is set! I always stress it is key to a successful reef tank.

what are your thoughts on this matter of if skimmers are an absolute necessity or not?

Up until my poor lionfish died from prazipro a week ago, my water was pristine without a skimmer. Very large bioload with 8” wellfed lionfish. Kept my nitrates at 5ppm longterm by running a very powerful grow light 6 hours a night at 50% power with chaeto. My water is crystal clear, I do use a uv sterilizer. So no, a protein skimmer is not necessary. Very powerful (cheap on amazon) light in refugium works waaaay better in my experience. Don’t even need chaeto, throw a piece of roughed up plastic under the light gives me the same results. Basically a algae scrubber that costs very little.

 

[ClownWrangler]

I had a Coralife HOB with built in skimmer on my 29 gallon for a year. It was a nightmare to get it to work properly and consistently, it made a lot of noise no matter how I adjusted it and I think it literally drove one of my clowns and a mandarin goby to suicide. I tossed it to the garbage and have been running without a skimmer for 6 months now with no changes whatsoever to the health of my tank. A power head with a sponge filter attached to it is all a tank needs IMO for filtration along with some chaeto. I also have a 20 gallon tank with 5 RBTAs that has been running a year with no skimmer and its doing just fine. I think the only time a skimmer makes sense is when you have an unusually high bioload and want to reduce the burden on nitrate removal. Other than that, I think it's totally unnecessary. If I had a large predator tank, I might use one.

 

[DraggingTail]

Are skimmers really that necessary on all reef tanks?

I personally don’t think they are. I never run skimmers and I can keep any type of coral you can imagine, to include SPS corals.

I think that as long as you have a strong enough and diverse biological filtration (bacteria) your reef tank is set! I always stress it is key to a successful reef tank.

what are your thoughts on this matter of if skimmers are an absolute necessity or not?

I think my skimmer stripped too much. Removed it and the sticks are happier. Not sure I needed it since my chaeto removes a lot

 

[ClownWrangler]

Don’t even need chaeto, throw a piece of roughed up plastic under the light gives me the same results. Basically a algae scrubber that costs very little.

I actually thought about that once and reconsidered. The reason is that you are basically growing nuisance algae, which will continuously seed your tank.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

I actually thought about that once and reconsidered. The reason is that you are basically growing nuisance algae, which will continuously seed your tank.

So far after 6 months no algae in display besides dyno. There is hair algae all over refugium.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

How I keep nitrates low on the cheap with a large lion fish

I will share how I’ve kept nitrates at undetectable levels for the past 60 days. I did a 100% water change a few weeks ago because I dosed the display with copper, no other water changes. Nitrates read 0 before this water change. Before I put this in place, I was getting an increase of about 10...

www.reef2reef.com

Here is my thread on this

 

[Merv49]

Are skimmers really that necessary on all reef tanks?

I personally don’t think they are. I never run skimmers and I can keep any type of coral you can imagine, to include SPS corals.

I think that as long as you have a strong enough and diverse biological filtration (bacteria) your reef tank is set! I always stress it is key to a successful reef tank.

what are your thoughts on this matter of if skimmers are an absolute necessity or not?

I’m thinking you have only two fish in you tank.