skimming a softie tank

[andycook]

What level of skimming in a softie tank?

 

[pasenah]

i prefer not to skim on my system . i had good success for 18 months on the last system.

 

[R33f3r]

I only skim SPS and FO.

 

[Brooks_McClary]

My leathers, Zoos, shrooms and LPS all seem to love to eat the gunk in my no skim, no mechanical filter tank. Go figure.

 

[Nagel]

I skim (Turboflotor T-5000 on a 1000G system) but I must admit, I am VERY lax on the maintenance.. Pull out a 5g bucket of skimmate each week, but I am not all that attentive to cleaning the skimmer cup (monthly washes, a good 1/4" - 1/2" of gunk lines the skimmers funnel before I wash it out). My softies seem to do very well with it..

 

[reefnewbie54321]

I only skim SPS i'm setting up a skimmerless tank right now

 

[lvreefer]

I voted medium basically because I have an entry level skimmer producing a wet foam (CSS 125 on an 90g).

 

[xcreonx]

I have a Deltec AP600 on a 35g softy / LPS tank. So I skim VERY heavily. But I feed the LPS very heavily too, so it's all good (btw, the Deltec was for a larger tank I just downgraded from)

 

[andycook]

Seems to me that a softie tank in general would benefit from having a somewhat dirtier tank so I am going for medium skimming. Medium skimming is what I achieved even when I was trying for super skimming.

 

[graveyardworm]

I voted low, my 90 g was setup with a poor skimmer for 2 years, and the softies did just fine.

 

[Cody Ray]

I turned my skimmer off my 29 softies when it was running. I didn't see any change.

 

[NorthernCF]

Bioload dependent.

 

[Fat Surgeon]

Medium skimming due to omnivores roving the tank as well as 3 sps

 

[swegyptian]

So how does my skimmer rank for my system? I think it's a bit small for an SPS tank, but okay for my purposes. It's a 125 with an AquaC EV150. Any thoughts?

 

[andycook]

I'd call that medium. How is the EV150 working out for you? I haven't tried any AquaC skimmers...yet.

 

[swegyptian]

It works pretty well. I'm not crazy about it, but I don't have enough experience with other skimmers to be overly critical. It pulls out really dark and smelly skimmate, but it seems to need cleaning once a week or so. It gets about 3/4" in the bottom of the cup, and then the walls in the neck of the skimmer get too dirty, so the foam won't rise up any more. So off with the cup, clean the neck, and I'm up and running again. Is there any way that I can make it easier to get along with?

So I suppose I am a medium skimmer, but probably only for about threee days, and there are two of three days of no skimming in my system.

 

[andycook]

Having to clean a skimmer frequently is a good sign. Any good skimmer is going to have to be cleaned every couple of days.

 

[Scuba_Dave]

I skim due to the bioload - cleaner is better IMO
My softies do just fine

 

[PowderBlue518]

I have a 12gal nano and i do not use a skimmer and my corals are all looking good, I just do about 20-25% water change each week, to keep up on it and everything is all happy

 

[55semireef]

in addition to what everyone else is saying, I heard that if you overskim you might strip some trace elements in the water that might be vital to the softies health in general. Correct if I am wrong.