Skimming?

[Sanj]

Peeps,

I have been reading alot and have been around to quite a few Marine outlets around the country. It seems that most people advocate skimming even on mud systems. Alot of the literature running skimmeless mud systems seems to be late 1990s early 2000s and then the Ecosystem website starting selling mud filters incorporating skimmers.

It seems that Leng Sy is even using skimmers on some of his systems albeit not all the time and on another webiste Bob Fenner states that he and Leng Sy are friends and Leng had relented his position somewhat on not skimming.

Hmmm...?

Im thinking what the implications of intermittant skimming are and would it cause ph swings by turning it on at night? i am also wondering how much it reduces pod life?

[Lost Boys]

when i use to have a mud setup i first did not use a skimmer like you said Leng at first said no but i also at a later date added a small skimmer and saw no ill effects to the system or the pod life but i did find my skimmer was skimming effectively and i saw an improvement in my system setup.

[Haile S]

It seems that Leng Sy is even using skimmers on some of his systems albeit not all the time and on another webiste Bob Fenner states that he and Leng Sy are friends and Leng had relented his position somewhat on not skimming.

Is he using skimmers or just selling them.

I've never used one and never needed one. if you stock slowly and sensibly you may well never need one. the only time i ever considered one was when i had PH problems due to adding a Calcium reactor and the skimmer would have been useful to get rid of excess CO2, i found that kalk also got rid of excess CO2.

Lost boys.
what improvement did you see in your tank after adding a skimmer and how did it affect your parameters?

[GCT]

Hi, i took my skimmer out last May and wish id done it sooner,tanks alot better without it,great coral growth and colour,no algae problems but i do have a low fish stock,carefull feeding and all parimeters fine:)

[Sanj]

Is he using skimmers or just selling them.

I did wonder that, although in conversation with Rich on one of the threads on here seems he had a system in a magazine about a year ago (Marine world) where he was running a skimmer at night. Looking at his company's website the manual for the pro-filter suggests that skimmer is used continously for the first 8 weeks and there after only at night.

I am assuming this is suggested because the caulerpa will take a while to establish and reach optimum performance in the first dew weeks.

[Haile S]

Looking at his company's website the manual for the pro-filter suggests that skimmer is used continously for the first 8 weeks and there after only at night.

I am assuming this is suggested because the caulerpa will take a while to establish and reach optimum performance in the first dew weeks.

i can't understand why it would be run more in the first two months, the tank system should be cycling and the filter (algea, substrate rocks, bio balls etc) establishing itself.

i would guess that only running a skimmer at night would reduce ph swings.

[Sanj]

Having read it again, it seems the reason for having the skimmer on full power is that the macro algae is not establised enough to act as the main expoert filter during this period.

Seems people say the exact opposite to each other in regards to skimmer as evidenced on this thread, one says better with, one says better with out. lol

Maybe the middle path! ... it was good for the Buddah :D

[Sanj]

If i were to run a skimmer on a mud system what do you guys think would be better? My aquarium will be around 360 litres net capacity, wondering whether an undersized MCE300 (upto 320 litres) and run 24/7 or the MCE 600 (upto 700 litres) and run 12 hours or so at night.

I am not sure that running constantly with an underated skimmer is the same as not running a larger for 12 hours at night.

The idea being that i dont want to remove all nutrients that would benefit soft corals and lps. having said that does overskimming only happen when people use skimmer many times the rated capacity of thier systems?

I am finding it quite hard to decide.:confused:

[daveabbott007]

V.Good question, i have wondered the same thing myself (Just started the water test on my 4ft soon to be eco tank)

[Haile S]

Having read it again, it seems the reason for having the skimmer on full power is that the macro algae is not establised enough to act as the main expoert filter during this period.

Seems people say the exact opposite to each other in regards to skimmer as evidenced on this thread, one says better with, one says better with out. lol

Maybe the middle path! ... it was good for the Buddah :D


the point of cycling is to allow the filtration system to mature and establish itself. Putting in a skimmer will deny nutrients to the algae and will mean that it takes longer to establish itself. I can't see why having relativley high levels of nutrients during cycling matters, its not as though you are going to have a bunch of fish in there. when i cycled my tank without a skimmer nitrates went up to 5 and then reduced to 0.5-0 as the rock and algae became established.

hats off to Leng Sy not only is he selling overpriced miracle dirt now he's selling people skimmers they may well not need.

[Vicky_99]

We don't use a skimmer. Wouldn't rule one out though if we saw the need (although we'd resist for as long as possible - the whole reason we went with an "ecosystem" method set up was for minimum hardware!). Tank seems fine without so far though (been running for approx 14 months now).

Vicky