Sometimes 'fast' is risky.
You remember cycling, when you took a very little bit of waste and got it to produce ammonia, and you nurtured those bacteria up to numbers sufficient for that little bit of waste...
If you have a 'bloom' of something in your tank, be it cyano, algae, or unwanted critters, and you decide to 'take it out' with a single blow, do consider how MUCH biomass you're sending to your bacteria all at once.
What saves you? Your skimmer is where unwanted biowaste (amino acids) leaves your tank into that collection cup, and not all skimmers are equal. Some people ask, Do I really need a skimmer? and the answer is, With soft or LPS corals you can get along with a moderately good one, because they are living filters, and will sop up some of it. But!!!! if you're thinking of using a pest cure that's going to send a LOT of death into the system at once, you need a skimmer that can handle it. 'Skimming wet' is a way of getting crud out faster (you adjust the skimmer so it overproduces a watery skimmate)---but do remember to watch your salinity, if you're tossing cupfuls of water down the drain.
As a side note, if you have a nitrate problem you can't beat---a better skimmer may do you a world of good. By simply getting a better skimmer, I went from over 50 nitrate to around 5 in very short order.
This winter, I managed, being a klutz, to dump a big batch of spirulina into my 105 gallon reef. Feeder malfunctioned, meaning yours truly didn't set the aperture right. I have been paying for it since, and am very happy to have a good skimmer---which is continuing to pull crud out. Which is to say---a skimmer is something you sometimes don't need badly---until you do. A good one is right up there with lights, in cost, and sometimes in importance. A fish death, a biological accident (like mine), an ungovernable nitrate level, or a 'bloom' of unwanted stuff...it is important.
If you have a Situation and don't have the world's best skimmer, go for water changes, sometimes on the 30-2-20-2-20 plan, if it's awful. That is 30% the first day, wait two days, then a 20%, wait two days (and test), and do another 20%. Don't apply that cure lightly: that's a big change: but if you're seeing your tank headed for a water quality crisis, it can help.
[[and do be careful with autofeeders and small-pellet foods]]
You remember cycling, when you took a very little bit of waste and got it to produce ammonia, and you nurtured those bacteria up to numbers sufficient for that little bit of waste...
If you have a 'bloom' of something in your tank, be it cyano, algae, or unwanted critters, and you decide to 'take it out' with a single blow, do consider how MUCH biomass you're sending to your bacteria all at once.
What saves you? Your skimmer is where unwanted biowaste (amino acids) leaves your tank into that collection cup, and not all skimmers are equal. Some people ask, Do I really need a skimmer? and the answer is, With soft or LPS corals you can get along with a moderately good one, because they are living filters, and will sop up some of it. But!!!! if you're thinking of using a pest cure that's going to send a LOT of death into the system at once, you need a skimmer that can handle it. 'Skimming wet' is a way of getting crud out faster (you adjust the skimmer so it overproduces a watery skimmate)---but do remember to watch your salinity, if you're tossing cupfuls of water down the drain.
As a side note, if you have a nitrate problem you can't beat---a better skimmer may do you a world of good. By simply getting a better skimmer, I went from over 50 nitrate to around 5 in very short order.
This winter, I managed, being a klutz, to dump a big batch of spirulina into my 105 gallon reef. Feeder malfunctioned, meaning yours truly didn't set the aperture right. I have been paying for it since, and am very happy to have a good skimmer---which is continuing to pull crud out. Which is to say---a skimmer is something you sometimes don't need badly---until you do. A good one is right up there with lights, in cost, and sometimes in importance. A fish death, a biological accident (like mine), an ungovernable nitrate level, or a 'bloom' of unwanted stuff...it is important.
If you have a Situation and don't have the world's best skimmer, go for water changes, sometimes on the 30-2-20-2-20 plan, if it's awful. That is 30% the first day, wait two days, then a 20%, wait two days (and test), and do another 20%. Don't apply that cure lightly: that's a big change: but if you're seeing your tank headed for a water quality crisis, it can help.
[[and do be careful with autofeeders and small-pellet foods]]
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