Are we skimming too much?

[Garfield90]

Not quite correct...
skimmers do not increase oxygen levels...they do provide increased surface area with the atmosphere to help equalize co2 to said atmosphere. The increase in PH only might occur if the atmospheric co2 is lower than the tank co2. some folks that have very high co2 levels in their home have actually seen an increase in PH by turning off their skimmer(few and far between though). Generally, the increased surface area from the air pulled in by your skimmer does help, but not always.

A skimmer is the only export filtration device we have other than your siphon...This is where the real improvement comes from...it exports while all other filtration adsorbs other than UV which provides radiation.

I don't think a skimmer is a just a way to increase the surface area with the atmosphere.
Look at your skimmer, or any folk's skimmer. The bubble's stay into the body long enough to form a foam. That's not a increased area, that's a SATURATED oxygen area, which is different.
And, of course, the atmosphere where the skimmer is should be enough aerated, but I suppose that in any case

 

[E.intheC]

what were your larger vs properly sized skimmers? When you ran the larger skimmer did you also run a larger return pump feeding it more display water?

Point I was making is that the 2 much larger skimmers tested did in fact reduce organic load lower than the smaller skimmer time and time again.(which disproves the blanket belief that larger skimmers require more organics and will not reduce as much when the bioload is small). If that were the case then both the vertex and bubble king should not have been able to compete with much less perform better than the euro reef on the very low bioload. True a better comparison would be comparing the same skimmer of different sizes on the same organic load... maybe someday someone will do a study of just that.

I had a Warner Marine K2 on my 90 gallon (light to medium stocked). That was the "oversized" skimmer. I used an i-Tech 100 and a Vertex IN-100 (with stock and upgraded pump)... As well as others. All three are quality, proven skimmers. However the K2 skimmed less consistent. To be honest I didn't notice a huge difference in overall tank health, but I mostly had LPS and Zoas at the time.

 

[swcc]

I don't think a skimmer is a just a way to increase the surface area with the atmosphere.
Look at your skimmer, or any folk's skimmer. The bubble's stay into the body long enough to form a foam. That's not a increased area, that's a SATURATED oxygen area, which is different.
And, of course, the atmosphere where the skimmer is should be enough aerated, but I suppose that in any case

the constant flow through of the water and interaction with the air allow for additional equalizing of your tanks to atmospheric co2. Your tank surface is also a 'saturated oxygen' area and increased flow to the surface will increase this equalization of the tank to atmospheric co2.... One does not buy a skimmer to increase aeration primarily, but, it does indeed do just that. It is easy to see this effect as reefers may run their skimmer air line outside(where air is lower in co2 than their home and see an increase in PH. One also can run a co2 scrubber on their air line and again see that the Ph will rise. Thus skimmer help aerate a tank with the atmosphere and when co2 levels outside the tank are lower than in tank they will indeed provide off gassing of co2 and a subsequent rise in PH.

 

[swcc]

I had a Warner Marine K2 on my 90 gallon (light to medium stocked). That was the "oversized" skimmer. I used an i-Tech 100 and a Vertex IN-100 (with stock and upgraded pump)... As well as others. All three are quality, proven skimmers. However the K2 skimmed less consistent. To be honest I didn't notice a huge difference in overall tank health, but I mostly had LPS and Zoas at the time.

Did you feed the K2 more water from the tank than the other skimmers? Did you run carbon, macro algae, socks or any additional filtration in your system ?

Post #15... conventional wisdom would say his skimmer was way oversized...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2006794

Yes, all three skimmers you had are proven skimmers.

 

[swcc]

above posts a little off topic...but IMO most people probably don't skim enough and this leads to having to rely on alternative methods of filtration such as using carbon. GFO, macro algae... while there are different methodologies one can choose to employ to run their reef, I personally like the control over getting my water as clean as possible and adding back in nutrients(like feeding coral frenzy or some like to add back aminos etc...). I think it offers better control over nuisance algae and other possible negative outcomes.
25 years and I have found nothing is easier and shown more success for me than running a good sized skimmer and UV. No macro, no carbon, no GFO...

 

[Subw00er]

I read this in a book too. I think it was the Calfo one. I just do light skimming, so only the worst bubbly goo comes out.. I'm emptying my skimmer only about every 1.5-2 weeks.

I think its a fine balance though - keeping beneficial protein in the tank vs controlling algae food sources.. I'm still trying to stave micro algae with cheato but its not really working. I dont think cheato is that effective to be honest. I might switch back to caulerpa.

 

[swcc]

I read this in a book too. I think it was the Calfo one. I just do light skimming, so only the worst bubbly goo comes out.. I'm emptying my skimmer only about every 1.5-2 weeks.

I think its a fine balance though - keeping beneficial protein in the tank vs controlling algae food sources.. I'm still trying to stave micro algae with cheato but its not really working. I dont think cheato is that effective to be honest. I might switch back to caulerpa.

or... you could understand the relationship between oligotrophic and algae... reality is skimming works..better than anything else... period... no matter what some for profit book says.

 

[Subw00er]

Yes but some corals need high nutrient water, so its a balance. For example, my water is very low nutrient and I have slow growth on some softies.

 

[swcc]

Yes but some corals need high nutrient water, so its a balance. For example, my water is very low nutrient and I have slow growth on some softies.

control the balance through input..rather than run a dirtier tank..you run a very clean tank and feed more. Increase nutrients, and the skimmer pulls the excess leaving less of a problem with overactive bacteria and algae potential.