marinelife
Active member
Fliger - yeah mine was just the opposite, with the skimmer I had all that but now without again it is all going away
You can never skim to much .... I think not
- Thread starter reefnewbie54321
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PUGroyale
New member
ASM G-3 on maybe 50g total water volume... 6 fish that I feed 3x/day as well as some good coral food at night.
Several of you have mantioned the formula that I agree with 100%... Keeps plenty of available food for the corals and then skims out the excess before it can break down into DOC's
Healthy natural reefs have constant abundance of food floating around in pristine nutrient [DOC] free water.
Several of you have mantioned the formula that I agree with 100%... Keeps plenty of available food for the corals and then skims out the excess before it can break down into DOC's
Healthy natural reefs have constant abundance of food floating around in pristine nutrient [DOC] free water.
Eron
New member
I have always skimmed heavily on my 75 and 5 months ago switched over from a mechanical sump to a 28 gallon refugee with plants, it does a great job. For the last 2 months I have been running my skimmer probably 40% of the time with feeding once a day (frozen shrimp / dried algea / phytoplankton). My corals and leathers appear brighter and the growth is crazy, at least for my aquarium. So what i am saying is I guess I am 50/50 on the skimming. Who knows maybe my aquarium may have buildup 4 years from now from accumulation in the sand but right now its working great, i hope to have pics soon.
Eron
New member
"i find it interesting that those who don't skim also seem to feed phyto, which i havent' done in 2+ years." Twon8
Twon8, I don't really know what it is that your saying here, i feed phyto because i choose to, I'm trying my best to replicate the ocean and whats in it and do use my skimmer some to remove a portion of the nutrients in the water column. On top of that there are a lot of respected people in this forum who use Phyto
Twon8, I don't really know what it is that your saying here, i feed phyto because i choose to, I'm trying my best to replicate the ocean and whats in it and do use my skimmer some to remove a portion of the nutrients in the water column. On top of that there are a lot of respected people in this forum who use Phyto
FSOL
New member
I agree with the overskim and overfeed option here. I have a ASM G4X on my 180 (220g total volume), and when I went to Europe for 3 weeks, my dad only fed the fish. The corals didn't get a drop of plankton, cyclopeeze, oyster eggs, and when I returned some of them were pale and dull in color. Since my return, I'm back to feeding lots of coral food and nutrients, and the colors are coming back. So it's for certain that the comeback of coral nutrients/food helped. But one can't just add lots of food and not have the skimmer, so I say add the food, stop skimming for a few hours during that period, then turn it back on.
My tank is only 7 months old and there's still lots of time for it to mature and for me to see explosion of organisms. On the other hand there's so much life in the refugium. So many things growing and crawling around.
My tank is only 7 months old and there's still lots of time for it to mature and for me to see explosion of organisms. On the other hand there's so much life in the refugium. So many things growing and crawling around.
marinelife
Active member
I feed alot and skim 0 tank looks good. I think phyto does alot for a tank, I even grow my own and use it daily
twon8
Formally registered membe
i wasnt' saying anything, just making an observation and stating my practice
and i would say most who keep sps (the forum we are in) don't feed phyto, maybe im wrong. I started out feedin phyto, but stopped, and noticed no change at all in microfauna. And i have a gorgonian growing like mad. I don't know what I would be feeding if I were to dose phyto, maybe if i had a baby clam...
There are many ways to succesfully keep a reef tank, imo phyto is not needed.
PrangeWay
Duke of Monte Fisto
I think the more stunning thing is how much this forum has changed in the last year. If you would have started this thread a year ago, it would be 20pages by now, with 95% of posts tearing you a new one on how you can never over skim. And don't even get me started on what chaos the whole "dirty your tank" statements would have generated.
That said I'd like to see some studies on DOC removal from heavy skimming. Although with the way technology is progressing we're skimming, air-stripping, ozonizing & activated carbon. That sounds more like what we do for ground water remediation, and we're not dealing with nearly that pollution problem in our tanks.
Another question would be what is a 'nutrient'? Nitrate and Phosphate don't feed SPS corals and aren't removed by a skimmer. And while SPS may capture phyto, to our current knowledge it doesn't injest it. In the whole heavy feed thing, there is just some small percentage (let's say .1%) of byproduct after our fish/inverts eat, that is feeding the sps, probably better to hunt down what that is, and feed that
PW
That said I'd like to see some studies on DOC removal from heavy skimming. Although with the way technology is progressing we're skimming, air-stripping, ozonizing & activated carbon. That sounds more like what we do for ground water remediation, and we're not dealing with nearly that pollution problem in our tanks.
Another question would be what is a 'nutrient'? Nitrate and Phosphate don't feed SPS corals and aren't removed by a skimmer. And while SPS may capture phyto, to our current knowledge it doesn't injest it. In the whole heavy feed thing, there is just some small percentage (let's say .1%) of byproduct after our fish/inverts eat, that is feeding the sps, probably better to hunt down what that is, and feed that
PW
marinelife
Active member
twon8 -This is ture, but I have see increases of growth in my corals as well as a member of our local club sees the same thing when he started dosing everyday. Also for some reason both of us have to clean our glass less.
I do strongely agree that there are many ways to keep a reef tank, the debate or skimmers, food, and everything else will be never ending because there are just to many ways to do this hobby. What works for one does not always work for another, you just have to find what your tank likes and that could change as you change tanks by upgrading to a larger one or downgrading one never knows. I
just go with what works for me and give out what I have found to others so they may try if they want
I do strongely agree that there are many ways to keep a reef tank, the debate or skimmers, food, and everything else will be never ending because there are just to many ways to do this hobby. What works for one does not always work for another, you just have to find what your tank likes and that could change as you change tanks by upgrading to a larger one or downgrading one never knows. I
just go with what works for me and give out what I have found to others so they may try if they want
Eric Boerner
Coral Cutter
As many things in this hobby, there are always more than 1 way to skin the cat.
You have to look at Eric's point of refference when he wrote that Myth. Eric does not use a skimmer on his tanks. He has a full blown Berlin method with a very large refugium. There is no real need for a skimmer, since the whole tank is a dynamic ecosystem.
Look at Miracle mud idea. Leng states that he has ran his 600 gallon tank without a skimmer for 5 years, which he feeds 40+ large angel fish 4 times a day so they don't nip at his 100's of SPS colonies. This method doesn't use a skimmer, its all based on a refugium and bacterial filtration.
On the flip side, you can superskim your tank to a perfectly polished water column, but as most people know, you wide up putting a lot of the 'right things' back into the tank because you've pulled it all out.
Steve Tyree has an even different approach using multiple tidal zones to emulate natural filtration.
So, again, theres more than one way to skin a cat. Depending on what level of interaction you want to have with your tank to maintain, or how au'natural you want to go.
You have to look at Eric's point of refference when he wrote that Myth. Eric does not use a skimmer on his tanks. He has a full blown Berlin method with a very large refugium. There is no real need for a skimmer, since the whole tank is a dynamic ecosystem.
Look at Miracle mud idea. Leng states that he has ran his 600 gallon tank without a skimmer for 5 years, which he feeds 40+ large angel fish 4 times a day so they don't nip at his 100's of SPS colonies. This method doesn't use a skimmer, its all based on a refugium and bacterial filtration.
On the flip side, you can superskim your tank to a perfectly polished water column, but as most people know, you wide up putting a lot of the 'right things' back into the tank because you've pulled it all out.
Steve Tyree has an even different approach using multiple tidal zones to emulate natural filtration.
So, again, theres more than one way to skin a cat. Depending on what level of interaction you want to have with your tank to maintain, or how au'natural you want to go.
marinelife
Active member
Eric Boerner - you are 100% correct, I have been looking at Steve's set-up and working on setting up something like it on my tank.
I do have alot of live rock, a large fuge and many sponges on that live rock, I think that has alot to do with my tank being great with out a skimmer. It is all about balance. I have Acropora and montipora corals, 4 clams, one being really large and 5 large fish and some small ones and feed the main tank twice a day and my other one that is connected to it once a day. This works for me but may not work for anyone else.
I also do agree how much things have changed here, in the past just talking about skimmerless would get you killed
I do have alot of live rock, a large fuge and many sponges on that live rock, I think that has alot to do with my tank being great with out a skimmer. It is all about balance. I have Acropora and montipora corals, 4 clams, one being really large and 5 large fish and some small ones and feed the main tank twice a day and my other one that is connected to it once a day. This works for me but may not work for anyone else.
I also do agree how much things have changed here, in the past just talking about skimmerless would get you killed
twon8
Formally registered membe
ime coral growth tends to accelerate under normal circumstances, absent any changes; the bigger it gets, the faster it grows. that alone is not enough to prove phyto works, but there are plenty of us who dont' use it, so it certainly can't be necessary. I noticed increased growth in acros when i started feeding oyster eggs regularly, but I can't be sure it was directly related to that.
marinelife
Active member
O I am not saying it proves it works, I know there are other things involved
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