...is that true?

100%hydrophylic

100%hydrophylic

New member
hello! i just want to verify or disprove something:

So, i went to my favorite LFS the other day and the guy told me that i shouldn't run my skimmer 24/7. he said i should just hook it up to my light timer so it goes off and comes on with my light. he said it would let some of the the beneficial micro organisms grow or something like that. cant quite remember. is that true or just his opinion?
 
I'm not dissing any LFS's. I'm all for supporting them.

The only reason I have heard this arguement is when you are overskimming a tank. That to me only means I need to add more fish :)
 
ohhhh ok. yea they under stock theyr display tanks in terms of fish and have huge bad *** skimmers on all of them. maybe thats why he said that
 
Some suggest doing what your LFS guy told you, but IMO it is better to run it all of the time. If your corals require additional feeding, then I would add some coral feast or oyster eggs.
 
I turn my skimmer off twice a day for 20 minutes when I dose Amino Acids but thats it. If you want turn it off for 20-30 minutes after you dose, but I wouldn't leave it off the whole time the lights were off if it were my tank.
 
If you follow his advice I would change it to skimmer on when lights are off, because the skimmer helps aerate the water and prevent ph swings. I'm going to stick with running mine full time though.
 
run mine 24/7 unless its off for cleaning. when i add food for corals or phyto, i shut return pump off & throttle back skimmer so it dosent overflow. turn it back on after 30 minutes or so. when i had hob skimmer just turned it off & restarted later. never had a big enough skimmer to overskim my tanks though. if i didnt have fish or corals maybe, but what fun would that be!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15404507#post15404507 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 100%hydrophylic
hey now lol, dont dis my LFS.
i could have heard wrong or something. but i should turn it off when i dose phytoplankton right?
Click to expand...

I've never found my skimmer to remove much phyto, even during heavy dosing.
 
It is in no way radical thinking to do what your LFS suggested, it is just not very well documented that there is much natural phyto lost to skimming. Most of it is anecdotal evidence from people who don't skim at all or go on/off in cycles. My skimmer hardly pulls much out anyway due to light feedings etc. and I have done every other day before as well as what your LFS suggested. I saw no real difference, and even with 24/7 skimming, my basket star extends in broad daylight to feed fairly often. I skim 24/7 for now just because it seems to take the skimmer a while to get worked up. It is a good skimmer BTW (ASM), just not a lot of stuff to pull out.
 
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