Why do you use a skimmer?

[Uncle Salty 05]

you do notice the last post in that thread was about 6 months ago.....

And in those 6 months you have out done serpentman?
Looking forward to some pics.

 

[noobtothereef]

And in those 6 months you have out done serpentman?
Looking forward to some pics.

Out done him? No, im sure he has much more knowledge about reefing in 1 finger than i do in my whole body so i wouldnt go that far, your taking this way out of proportion sir, dont try to start a flame war....... it doesnt help anything but if you want to go that route go right ahead

 

[Pallobi]

i wont knock noob's setup... very clean and nice... very well done... but serpent is an established hobbyist with good handle on what works and has some great specimans in which he grew himself... noob has obviously taken some time to think out his build, but clearly, even with out seeing your pics updated with any livestock, it is very very unfair of you to say some things opposing serpents time and efforts to create his reef... again, tabling sps like he has, doesnt grow like that in jus 6 months... it takes time, patience, and knowledge... i look forward to seeing noob's update, not to judge him, but to see where his bearutiful start has gone... again serpentman has a wonderful setup and i commend his time and efforts...

and one more time lol, skimmers rule! lol... but seriously, they are vital, and do alot more good then they do bad... if you have sps, or at least some of the more delicate species, imo, a good skimmer is a must... and if you have anything in your tank as far as fish or corals, cept maybe softies and some of the more "dirty" water loving lps, a skimmer is vital... have i said that enough? lol...

i love a good discussion, and RC is a great place for hobbyist like us, we are very fortunate to have this outlet and source of info and experience...

 

[xdannyxrocksx]

+1 serpentman's reef is very very well established

here are the pictures of my water that were requested

water draining from the tank

water with the t5s on

and water with the fanlights directed at it with t5s off

 

[Pallobi]

thank you danny...

 

[xdannyxrocksx]

i might try the combination of my scrubber with a skimmer later on in time i want to complete the year with scrubber only and see my end results. i might even go 2 for i know a year is not enough time.

 

[Pallobi]

i will add however, i dont see what kind of corals you have in your tank... sps? there is a big difference between keeping sps and keeping lps and softies... most lps and softies to the best of my knowledge, will do fine without a skimmer as long as water changes are large enough and frequent enough...

however i will say, carbon will keep your water nice and clear (non-yellowish) without a skimmer or scrubber (if they do in fact do this) ... i use about 8 cups of activated carbon at any given time in my 40, and 12 to 14 cups worth at any given time in my 75 fowlr...

 

[Pallobi]

i would also like to add, that you can see the fish listed i have in my fowlr... i feed heavily and have a somewhat minimal bio filter with jus 4 large peices of rock in the display itself... and i feel it is the skimmer and carbon, along with good flow in the tank to get waste to the overlfow, that keep my nitrates at less than 10 to 15... pretty good considering i hardly ever change any of the water in this tank and feed quite heavily...

 

[xdannyxrocksx]

i keep a mixture of the both

sun coral,purple candy cane, tri color valida, grape monti, green with white rim monti, welso, chalices, frogspawn, bird of paradise, zoas, and a spongode.

 

[xdannyxrocksx]

yes carbon does a good job in polishing the water i only ad 1/3 cup for i clean my scrubber once a week at the same time replacing the carbon

 

[Pallobi]

you add alot less carbon than me lol, thats for sure, and i have no fish in my coral tank 40g... lol... but i like to overkill

 

[phenom5]

I'm not going to rake noob over the coals either. His setup is very clean, and well thought out. Hell, his sump puts my sump to shame, and I've been at this for 7 years.

With that said...

Seriously? Im a noob in it for 7 months and my tank looks better than that lol, obvioulsy you havent seen any of the other tanks on this site...

Out done him? No, im sure he has much more knowledge about reefing in 1 finger than i do in my whole body so i wouldnt go that far, your taking this way out of proportion sir, dont try to start a flame war....... it doesnt help anything but if you want to go that route go right ahead

You basically did say you had out done him.

What Serpentman has done in terms of husbandry is impressive, and it's something that is the result of years of hard work that you'd be hard pressed to duplicate in a matter of months. On top of that, his setup is badass. Mix all that in with the fact that he's very knowledgeable, and always willing to take the time to help people out...well, people are going to take exception to a comment like that.

*Steps down off of soapbox*

Hopefully all this won't deter noob from posting pics of his tank, because I'm definitely interested to see how it's coming along.

 

[Pallobi]

i second that, i wana see some updated shots

 

[xdannyxrocksx]

lol yes alot less carbon indeed..

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

i'm not going to rake noob over the coals either. His setup is very clean, and well thought out. Hell, his sump puts my sump to shame, and i've been at this for 7 years.

With that said...






You basically did say you had out done him.

What serpentman has done in terms of husbandry is impressive, and it's something that is the result of years of hard work that you'd be hard pressed to duplicate in a matter of months. On top of that, his setup is badass. Mix all that in with the fact that he's very knowledgeable, and always willing to take the time to help people out...well, people are going to take exception to a comment like that.

*steps down off of soapbox*

hopefully all this won't deter noob from posting pics of his tank, because i'm definitely interested to see how it's coming along.

+1

 

[mandingCa]

121, if you wanna dose my skimmate, just send me a shipper number.

 

[xdannyxrocksx]

will it make my corals grow faster? if so i want some shipped how much per ounce? :lol:

 

[widmer]

I would like to generically respond to both sides of the debate:

To the pro-algae scrubber crowd: If you have a system which uses a scrubber, and your aquarium is doing well, then by all means post your system so that others can learn from it. In the meantime, please don't push algae scrubbers based on hypothetical situations. And stop trying to tell people skimmers don't work or are harmful; that's just silly. I say this as a person who's planning an ATS at the center of his next build.

To the pro-skimmer crowd: It's been established by now that skimmers work great, and are a key component of the vast majority of successful tanks. So just try to ignore the strangely relentless ATS pushers. But also, please try not to go out of your way to discourage people who are experimenting with an ATS, because they can in fact work.

Here's a thread with some success stories, and a cameo appearance from our own PaulB:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1925996

The good stuff starts at the bottom of the first page.

 

[xdannyxrocksx]

thanks widmer

 

[Pallobi]

anytime PaulB has something to say based on his xp, i listen... he is probably the most established aquarist i have come across if not one of the top few...