help skimmer going crazy

[8BALL_99]

I would never not run my skimmer...If your skimmer is pulling stuff out then its needed.. Skimmers help add oxygen to your water as well as help filter the water. I always run huge skimmers on my Tanks rated for twice my water volume.. But even then they never stop pulling gung out of the water..Some say you can overskim but I just dont think so.. I do think you can buy more skimmer then you need but then it just stops skimming between feedings..

 

[Tomoko Schum]

It's really up to you whether you run a skimmer 24/7 or not. Eric Borneman prefers to do without it. If you run it only a part of the time, I recommend running it at night because that's when your livestock needs more oxygen unless you have a large macroalgae filled refugium on a reverse photo period generating lots of oxygen at night.

I had to stop using my skimmer for about a month this autumn while my mother was staying in the room that my 120G was kept (she found the vibration/resonance of the skimmer pump annoying.) My tank did just fine and as a bonus, I have hundreds of little baby cerith and collonista snails now. The snail larvae seem to do a lot better without a skimmer running in the tank.

My 15G has been running fine without a skimmer for over 4 years. It's rather overstocked for its size, but I have a good size refugium with lots of macroalgae on a reverse photo period. I used a skimmer in it off and on, but the skimmer really did not make much difference at all for this tank. It's mainly a softies tank. Zoanthids and mushrooms do really well in this tank.

Tomoko

 

[tjswan]

my skimmer is rated for more than my tank size tank is 125, cant remember what it is rated but i think almost twice, that is why i only ran it a few hours a day. on another note anyone know how to get rid of cyno?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

You need to reduce nitrate and phosphate levels in your tank to control cyanobacteria. You can use Red Slime Remover or Chem Clean, but if you do not get rid of the underlying cause (high nutrients), they will come back quickly because spores of the cyanobacteria is omnipotent - they are often airborne everywhere.

Are you overfeeding your livestock? Running your skimmer 24/7 will help in reducing the waste matter before they break down into phosphate and ammonia/nitrate. Keeping macroalgae will help to reduce the nutrient load. This is one instance that I would recommend that you run your skimmer at the full speed.

Tomoko