Reefact or Reefiction #3 - Skimming

[Sherita]

The topic for discussion is: ***Skimming***

http://coralbeauty.us/skimmate.jpg



True or False: A skimmer is a necessary and vital piece of equipment that you must have in order to maintain a healthy system. Lets' discuss this! What do you think?

[Zack]

Depends on the system. There are many people with nano sized tanks (myself included in the past) that have run extremely successful reefs without skimmers and honestly, my corals in the skimmerless system looked 100x better and grew about 3x as fast without it. Of course these were simple zoas but still, I don't think it is vital per se.

[Bill S]

I'm not a skimmer user on small tanks. Big water changes are so much more effective. On my 8g, I change 50-60% every 3-4 weeks. On a big tank, that's hard to do.

[Fracture]

This is mine and Tempset views

A skimmer's purpose has 2 outfits.

- removal of organics BEFORE the break down into your water column.
- increased oxygenation

I firmly believe that simply disturbing the surface of your water (overflow boxes, powerheads churning the water) are enough to accomplish oxygenation.

As far as removing organics before they can break down - thats nice if you need to....


Running a nutrient(nitrate/phosphate) export system is a better method IMO.

By removing organics, you are taking away the job of bacteria that would otherwise consume the these nutrients & therefore excersizing a working system.

You could essentially install an algae turf scrubber that will consume the bulk i your nutrients.

So.... skimmer removes it before it can break down. Other methods remove it after its already broken down.

Personally - I prefer skimmer less. But then again - I'm running a high end SPS dominates system that demands as few nutrients as possible. So a skimmer is necessary.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

Not fair. Thats a trick question.:bigsmile:SW seems clearer when I run it. I should add with my weekly sw change, the skimmer level goes down.
edit: I do run the skimmer 24/7, lotta fish. weekly sw changes and Ill add small small amounts of coral-vite and essential elements.