Skimmers useful?

[SteadyC]

I run my skimmer dry, meaning to where the bubbles come up to the bottom of the neck, not the top. I still run it for gas exchange and PH increaser, combined with CO2 scrubber. I think they are still very important for gas exchange, where surface agitation just isn’t enough. The scrubber still makes some gunk, but not as much. And, I don’t have to empty cup as often. ;). Win, win, win!

 

[OdinCorals]

i have been told by people old in the hobby that a skimmer will definitely remove phytoplankton, so unless the tank has enough live rock to for phytoplankton to live in, you will have an undersupply. This happened to me as I have a 22 Gallon nano, my podsl colony ending up dying as well due to this and in turn also my Mandarin. I have since turned off the skimmer and only turn it on with some redsea nopox dosing when ever I feel like skipping a waterchanges and I test for nitrates (salifet) and they are near 5.

so I think, in my personal experience if you have good flow, feed carefully have abundant live rock and do routing waterchanges you are fine.

 

[CherBear811]

Absolutely beneficial. You can see that they pull out more than water just by looking at the waste in the cup and they are one of the best ways to increase oxygen exchange and drive CO2 scrubbed air into the tank water to help with pH issues. Even a poorly working skimmer as far as pulling out waste goes (and there is a wide range on efficacy of skimmers), they still help with oxygenating the tank. I consider them a must have piece of equipment.

 

[Greybeard]

It's anecdotal, of course... but...

My skimmer motor went out on me a few weeks ago. 150 gallon system, Vertex 180i skimmer, skimming fairly dry. Large refugeum, healthy growth of Gracilaria and Chaetomorpha, inverse lighting schedule, under 2x 24" T5's. Within 3 days, I was seeing a cyano bloom. In the 8 days it took me to get the motor replaced, it was covering 80% of my sand bed. It's been back up and running for 2 weeks, I'm down to 20% or so cyano on my sand... and _NOTHING_ else has changed, aside from running or not running the skimmer.

I'm quite certain that skimmers can be beneficial, depending on exactly how your system is configured. Are there ways to configure a system that do not benefit from a skimmer? Sure.

I'd think it'd be more beneficial to do some research into exactly what kinds of setups do, or do not, benefit from use of a skimmer, than to try and convince people that skimmers don't do any good.

Someone alert BRS... here's a good video topic :)

 

[PastyOWG]

My 65g tank is about 5 years old. It's primarily zoas and torches with a large toadstool (about 15 inches) with very little bare rock left. A few SPS, but they aren't the focus- very few fish with 2 clowns and a chromis school. My fuge is 10% of my tank size. My skimmer went out a couple weeks ago, while I was on vacation of course. Net effect was I can't really tell a difference. My chaeto MAY be growing a little faster. There's not been a bloom or more frequent glass cleanings required.

My answer is sure it's useful, but not always necessary. And some of that usefulness probably depends on what kind of tank you want to run. If I'm putting 50 to 100 sps frags that go for over $100/ea. then I'll take every little advantage I can get including that skimmer. If I had a lot of fish load, I'd guess my tank would have had more problems with the skimmer going out. On a softie tank I'd prioritize a good carbon reactor and fuge space. For every *must have* aquarium gadget I've ever seen I can find really nice tanks without it, and a lot of these conversations default to the SPS dominant proposition which shouldn't be assumed.

 

[Bolingsw]

From my research across this and other forums, running without a skimmer seems to require more frequent water changes.

It does but you can do small water changes each week like 10% total water volume.

 

[CenlaReefer]

Did you replace the aeration? Just wondering if there would be any benefit of running airstone in your sump instead.

That is exactly what I am doing using some outside air. I have been guilty of over-skimming in the past.

 

[CenlaReefer]

It's anecdotal, of course... but...

My skimmer motor went out on me a few weeks ago. 150 gallon system, Vertex 180i skimmer, skimming fairly dry. Large refugeum, healthy growth of Gracilaria and Chaetomorpha, inverse lighting schedule, under 2x 24" T5's. Within 3 days, I was seeing a cyano bloom. In the 8 days it took me to get the motor replaced, it was covering 80% of my sand bed. It's been back up and running for 2 weeks, I'm down to 20% or so cyano on my sand... and _NOTHING_ else has changed, aside from running or not running the skimmer.

I'm quite certain that skimmers can be beneficial, depending on exactly how your system is configured. Are there ways to configure a system that do not benefit from a skimmer? Sure.

I'd think it'd be more beneficial to do some research into exactly what kinds of setups do, or do not, benefit from use of a skimmer, than to try and convince people that skimmers don't do any good.

Someone alert BRS... here's a good video topic :)

I believe your tank may have been fine if the display was bare bottom; still, a sandbed has its benefits. For instance, some fish and inverts cannot live without the sandbed.

 

[Amado]

I have a new setup. I didn’t want to spend money on equipment I didn’t need. This hobby is very expensive so I had research everything. You have two camps one that uses skimmer and those that don’t. My local fish shop showed me their skimmer cup and said you want that in your tank?? I said no and I purchased a skimmer lol

 

[Mjrdude1]

I am torn on needing a skimmer or not. My tank has been in operation since 1994, and due to my stupidity a few years ago I had a total meltdown of livestock in just a couple hours time while I sat there and watched in horror! I had just put some aftershave on getting ready to go out, and forgot to wash my hands, stopped to feed the fish and the rest is history, everything aside from a handful of mushrooms died.
The tank stayed in operation, cause I couldn't bear to tear it down. Since then it became heavily encrusted with hair algae, and recently I decided to get back into taking care of it again. Did loads of reading, mostly here, and have invested in some gear, GFO reactor, LED lighting (my old cool white fluorescents were pretty dim), and some additives to help reduce the algae. Bought a HOB skimmer which has only turned my water to milk with air bubbles, it does pull some gunk, but not much. But I'm thinking the best investment yet was the additives. Water is in good shape, algae is dissipating slowly, and new livestock seems to be doing wonderful. I'm keeping the skimmer hoping it will actually break-in some day and be useful if the bio-load gets heavy. I've seen pics of the gunk they pull out but also realize that's a drop in the bucket compared to ppm concentrations in the water. Dunno, guess I'll stay on the fence for now. My old DIY wet/dry system seems to be doing the job at this point. I do think the success or failure of skimmers on a system has loads of variables, other equipment, bio-load, etc.

 

[Ben Pedersen]

As EW_Fish says, skimmers are great for O2 & CO2 exchange, especially at night when photosynthesis is not producing oxygen.

I turn my foam level down so the cup collects only a very small amount/ if any. I wonder what happens to all the surface active molecules attached to the air bubbles. Do they get re absorbed into the water? I don't know. I do know my tank runs way to clean if I turn the foam level up and remove all the amino acids, vitamins and minerals. You can really see the difference in the corals (SPS).

Maybe skimmers are more important if the fish population is out of balance with the organisms in your tank that consume their waste. But even this has many dependencies: water circulation, temperature, PH, alkalinity, light, porousness of rock, etc.

 

[PranK]

To answer the initial question, Yes! I removed my skimmer about 4 weeks ago.

I have been battling with some other issues, so the benefits not as black and white (as skimmer removal happened alongside some other changes), but I am definitely seeing more polyp extension on my SPS.

Other things I have noticed is a big drop in pH from an average of 8.4 to now averaging 8.15. I have just put two airstones in my sump but I also pruned my Caulerpa which would be contributing to the pH drop.

phosphates have jumped up ( roughly 0.4 now) but nitrates haven't increased as much as I expected and I'm assuming its to do with them being consumed.

I have some bio pellets running still, I'm making changes slowly, so I'll work out if I want to reduce them later. I've always struggled with phosphates (never nitrates) so I may need to keep them running. That said, the space my skimmer has left in the refugium/sump is large and will be filled with more Caulerpa eventually.

BTW, its very weird. For 15 years I've had tanks with a skimmer. I keep thinking I need to clean the collection cup and then remember I don't any more.

 

[Wh00pS32]

I have a new setup. I didn’t want to spend money on equipment I didn’t need. This hobby is very expensive so I had research everything. You have two camps one that uses skimmer and those that don’t. My local fish shop showed me their skimmer cup and said you want that in your tank?? I said no and I purchased a skimmer lol

Who is to say what the contents of that skimmate are.
As well as waste a good portion of it is highly beneficial to the tank, for example a good portion of it will be beneficial bacteria, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and remains of pods.
Just because something looks bad and smells like a corpse :D doesn't mean it's bad for your tank, and a skimmer cannot differentiate between the good and the bad.

 

[Mal Cameron]

You only have to look at the crap in your skimmer to get your answer. Why would you want that in your tank if you can remove it. Sure, there may be some negatives but the positives are much greater. I didn't run a skimmer on current tank for about 6 years then decided to skim and things just seemed to "come to life".

 

[Amado]

Who is to say what the contents of that skimmate are.
As well as waste a good portion of it is highly beneficial to the tank, for example a good portion of it will be beneficial bacteria, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and remains of pods.
Just because something looks bad and smells like a corpse :D doesn't mean it's bad for your tank, and a skimmer cannot differentiate between the good and the bad.

I am sure we can find a study that says sitting in human **** is benificial to our skin. That’s the problem with the internet you can find facts to support anything. I think each person can make their own decision. In the fresh water aquarium world they have the same discussion about carbon. Is it useful ?? What is it really removing ?? I will never run a tank without carbon.

 

[Greybeard]

I believe your tank may have been fine if the display was bare bottom; still, a sandbed has its benefits. For instance, some fish and inverts cannot live without the sandbed.

My goatfish might be a bit unhappy without a sand bed, true, but you missed the primary benefit of a sand bed... looks. No matter how I try, I just don't like the looks of a bare bottom tank.

 

[jda]

Think of the skimmer as a long-term investment in your tank. I know that dosing N and P is all of the rage right now, but people fail to understand that most of the P that gets dosed is just binding to the rock and sand (aragonite is an aggressive P binder). Without skimming, more P get bound there as well. Over time, these will become quite a large reservoir and can be hard to get the P back out of the tank. People who have been around for a while remember the thoughts around "old tank syndrome" which was when people ignored phosphate and did not really change water since their nitrate was low (which is really easy with a sandbed) and after a while, the rock and sand would not really hold much more and the P became a toxin in their tanks. This usually took 6-8 years, but I think that people who are looking only at "the now" and considering the full impact of what they are doing by not exporting phosphorous will suffer from this as well. I expect to see a new rash of "old tank syndrome" tanks pop up 5 years from now. The great thing is that there are tools available now, like GFO and LC, that can really help.

I am sure that I could quit doing most things for a year or two and be OK... maybe even three or four. I am in this for the long haul and am thinking a decade down the road.

 

[Bigfish of La.]

I never do water changes maybe 10% a year max. Never saw the benefit.

What are you doing to practically eliminate water charges?

 

[rock_lobster]

You only have to look at the crap in your skimmer to get your answer. Why would you want that in your tank if you can remove it. Sure, there may be some negatives but the positives are much greater. I didn't run a skimmer on current tank for about 6 years then decided to skim and things just seemed to "come to life".

Looks can be deceiving most coral love to eat fish crap that is their primary source of nutrients in the reef.

 

[rock_lobster]

What are you doing to practically eliminate water charges?

Running a refugium and dosing thats really all it takes. Water doesnt go bad it is purified by the microbes and algae. The only reason to do water changes is to manage trace elements and decrease the need for dosing.