Why do you use a skimmer?

[sirreal63]

This is a pointless thread, unless you plan on making a point in the near future. You feed a tank and then try and remove or metabolize as much as you can. If you are worried about trace element depletion, I would suggest water changes, in fact I suggest water changes no whether you believe you are skimming out trace elements or not. We pollute our tanks daily with additions of food, yet food is essential to the health of our livestock and removal of excess nutrients is essential as well.

I am sure you understand this and I have a feeling this is going to be a thread advocating the use of an ATS instead of a skimmer. Good Luck with that, if that is the direction you are wishing to take this. Skimmers are just one part of good husbandry, you can have my skimmer when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

 

[psteeleb]

A skimmer removes DOC's (Disolved Organic Compounds, AKA fish poo, waste etc). DOC's, if not dealt with, will end up polluting the tank environment.

In the huge ocean the DOC’s that are produced in congested life areas like a reef that aren’t consumed directly, float to the ocean surface, are broken up by wave action, further broken down by UV radiation and eventually consumed by phytoplankton’s and other micro organisms. But the volume of water and of surface area to do this are huge compared to the reef itself.

You can biologically breakdown and consume the DOC's (rather then remove them) but you would need a lot more space (water volume, surface area, and rock) for the lower level consumers to reside. I have actually seen some very nice looking no skimmer tanks but they don't have a lot in them.

 

[scubasteve06]

This is a pointless thread, unless you plan on making a point in the near future. You feed a tank and then try and remove or metabolize as much as you can. If you are worried about trace element depletion, I would suggest water changes, in fact I suggest water changes no whether you believe you are skimming out trace elements or not. We pollute our tanks daily with additions of food, yet food is essential to the health of our livestock and removal of excess nutrients is essential as well.

I am sure you understand this and I have a feeling this is going to be a thread advocating the use of an ATS instead of a skimmer. Good Luck with that, if that is the direction you are wishing to take this. Skimmers are just one part of good husbandry, you can have my skimmer when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

Scene from Meet The Parents....

Flight Attendant, "Sir please put your carry on bag in the overhead bin." Ben Stiller, "Yea, you can make me after you pry it out of my cold dead little fingers." Flight Attendant, "Sir I'm only going to ask you one more time." Ben Stiller "Well what if it has a bomb in it?" Did you say bomb on an airplane? Bomb Bomb Bomb bomb bomb babomb bomb bomb bomb bomb!!!

 

[RVANANO]

I hope we don't have one of these threads for every reef tank component.....

 

[disc1]

Yet we dose amino acids.

Just a note. Amino Acids and Protein are not the same thing. Protein is made up of many amino acids, linked by peptide bonds. But the stuff you are dosing in is not protein.

 

[lostanime]

IMO many (/most) people excessively overfeed their tanks, and to help balance this juggling act use more robust filtration than would otherwise be necessary. Yes, skimmers pull trace elements etc, but they also pull out waste before it ever has a chance to break down (so there's less of a load on nitrate cycle, less nitrates accumulating, etc)

Personally, I run protein skimmers on all of my tanks because I'd rather deal with removing waste up-front instead of nitrates afterwards. I don't intentionally dose any amino acids outside of what I'm feeding my fish - whatever the fish don't eat I want removed and whatever the fish do eat and defecate I still want removed. My water is also has much better clarity with a skimmer, and much less algae grows all of my glass/rockwork/etc. The last couple tanks I set up literally have nothing but a skimmer (and technically live rock) for filtration.

 

[teesquare]

I use one because I like to stare at all the pretty bubbles.............:twitch:

T

 

[Pallobi]

im not sure protien skimmers remove trace elements, but i could be wrong (noticed 121 make this comment earlier)...

imo, my oversized protein skimmer is the most crucial part of my fowlr, then its my large amount of active carbon i use... in my coral tank, its my skimmer, then DSB, and carbon and phos media...

protein skimmers are imo, a staple in any tank... to say otherwise without concrete info and scientific findings to back it, your jus throwing words around without any real knowledge or experience to back it...

EVERYONE should use a protein skimmer imo... but hey, thats jus me

 

[Pallobi]

i think of skimmers as the toilet i flush everytime i go to the "bathroom"... would you wana be exposed to your own bodily wastes jus building up around you and in the air you breathe? im gonna go with a no on that one lol

 

[sirreal63]

I think this thread is currently swirling, on it's way down the same toilet.

 

[Pallobi]

good call lol

 

[chris88]

Protein skimmers do not remove mush trace elements or major elements from the water. The only reason they remove any elements is because you are removing some salt water which has the elements in it. If you skim very dry you will pull out very few elements as they do not stick to the surface of the bubbles like organics do. If you skim wet then some salt water and thus elements / minerals will be removed. Water changes actually remove a ton of trace and major elements lol, but at the same time a new batch of salt water will have new elements at sometimes higher levels to make up for it.

I think this was a great question to ask until it became a mockery of something will all use and know the science behind it is sound proof.

 

[greech]

I use one because I like to stare at all the pretty bubbles.............:twitch:

T

This is the best answer so far :lolspin:

Serioulsy I just added a skimmer to my almost 2 year old 40 breeder. I debated adding one for most of those 2 years because my tank was doing very well IMO. I had good water quality, no algae issues and my livestock was healthy and growing. I am a huge proponent of water changes and relied solely on 15% to 20% weekly WC's all of this time. I truely believe I had found some similance of the balance between biolaod and nutrient export I had read so much about.

About 3 weeks ago I decided it was time to add an anemone which is what I had wanted for the tank since the beginning. After having the nem for a little over a week, my nitrates went from 0-5ppm to 20+ppm. That's when I decided it was time for the skimmer and it has done an excellent job for me. I will still perform weekly WC's but I am hoping I can lessen the volume of my WC's and save some $ on salt with the addition of the skimmer (not too mention watching all the pretty bubbles ).

That's my skimmer story. Sorry for the long post.

 

[121]

Thats interesting Greech.

Why do you think you nitrates spiked after adding the nem? Were you feeding it directly?

 

[greech]

No I had not fed it and in fact just fed it the first time last night (just a small piece of shrimp). I believe there could have been some waste expelled by the nem though. I never saw and zooxanthellae expelled but from what I understand, nems will expel some wastes when introduced to a new tank though inflation and deflation. I may not have had any more issues after the nem fully acclimated but I intend to feed it so it will thrive and didn't want to risk water changes handling it alone.

 

[BonsaiNut]

I use a skimmer to remove organic compounds before they can break down into nitrogenous waste.

And no, I don't dose amino acids, though they are added as part of the food / waste cycle.

But I think this is a pointless trolling thread...

 

[cloyd A.]

In the early "90's" I used a skimmer on my fish only tank.I have had a 125 gal. reef tank for 15 yrs.and have never used a skimmer,I have set up my tank using the Jaubert system with a 50 gal.sump/refug.and have never had any serious problems.I do use GAC tho.

 

[tmgrash]

Thats interesting Greech.

Why do you think you nitrates spiked after adding the nem? Were you feeding it directly?

Are you a pshyciatrist?

 

[LaOtIn]

no skimmer here, wont ever have one. why? too expensive that and, its just one more thing to clean and one more thing that can break, which will frustrate me even more....

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Is this a joke? It is a protein skimmer? I use mine to remove proteins...

While that sounds right, a protein skimmer actually removes very little in the way of proteins. Fats and lipids primarily, other dissolved organics, but there really aren't a large percentage of proteins in a tank. Beyond the living ones you prefer stay in the tank...

Jeff