cybrsufr
In Memoriam
I am right there with you on this subject. I have had Reef tanks for several years and have used many different types of skimmers from multiple pump, high air volume shorties (Deltec), Simple Venturi, Beckett, and Mazzie and alway skim extremely wet and have never seen any nutrient deficiencies or pale corals. I currently run a dual mazzie injector Lifereef VS3 72" Skimmer with 200mg of Ozone and still have plenty of nutrients for the corals.
This is a common misconception as the color of corals comes from the Photo reactive proteins in the actual coral skin and not the polyps themselves. The polyps are mostly clear even though a few can have a opaque tint to them. What happens when there are high nutrients, the zooxanthallae growth explodes (all zooxanthellae are brown) and then the polyps turn brown and mask the color of the corals skin tissues. With a ULNS or even LNS the zooxanthellae become clear and therefore the true color of the corals show through. I am seen this in nature as well. Diving reefs in the Indo Pacific inshore reefs that have a excess of nutrients have more brown polyped and brighter colored corals then on outer remote reefs where nutrients are lower and the corals have more of a pastel look to some of them especially the Stylophoras, Poccilaporas, Gemmifera. This is not to contridict the point that a good system can be maintained without a skimmer as there are plenty of methods for reducing nutrients (cryptic zone, algae scrubbers, DSB, Plenum, etc), but using a skimmer GREATLY helps reduce the maintenance of our systems and with them requires a lot more work in the way of responsible husbandry.
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