TheGooseWhisperer Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I'm looking to wean my system off of the skimmer. I was thinking of putting it on a timer and cutting out a few more hours each week. Maybe 2 hrs per week? What do yall think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gradth Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Why would you want to get rid of your skimmer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Yah i would advise against removing the skimmer. But if you do go ahead with it, why not just remove it all together? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 What alternate method will you be using for exporting nitrates? Frequent water changes? Something else? Be sure you have a plan in place. If your skimmer is pulling a lot then you probably would not be discussing shutting it down. Assuming it isn't then chances are you can just take it offline without a huge impact other than increasing the frequency of water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanktop74 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 What do you have in your tank? Personally have only seen nanos do ok without a skimmer, but those are super easy to do frequent water changes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 in an attempt to do what? raise nitrates, decrease dissolved O2, increase phosphates,or a combination of the three? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkBirkett Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Are you doing an experiment to see if you can kill everything, that is one way. Kind of like throwing away all the toilets in your house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trautman Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 i think people are being a little too dramatic about the skimmer. skimming is shown to decrease nitrates, yes very true. at the same time, i have talked to people (and wasn't there also a post a few weeks ago?), who dont use a skimmer and do monthly water changes with great success. so dont think you are going to kill every thing as soon as it is offline, it isnt the end of the world. do some water tests, if you constantly see nitrates being an issue and going off the charts, then maybe you should put it back in... and as far as weening it off the system, i dont think it would need to be weened... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf86123 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I agree with Trautman, there is no need to ween it off, and as I've said multiple times in the past, if you want to talk to someone about running a system skimmerless, look no further than our very own Moderator that goes by the name of pledosophy, Kevin's a super nice guy and I'm really hoping one of these days he'll do a nice post about running tanks skimmerless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Yes, it is possible to run skimmerless. Doing so does require an alternate method of exporting nitrates though which is usually accomplished by increasing the frequency of water changes. (Figure 3 or 4 times as often) Someone also mentioned the oxygen exchange which is also a benefit provided by the skimmer. Chances are with a sump in place and/or plenty of surface agitation though this will not be an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Yall love your skimmers that much huh? Well, ive gotten pretty solid on keeping my water quality good. It used to be doing very little feeding, sporatic WC and wasnt monitoring alk, but I was starving some of my corals (zoas in particular) and gaining pretty bushy bryopsis growth. Ive been doing weekly 10-15% WCs and now feed daily (sometimes a nighttime feed too) and still see zero nitrates. I run a little GFO, but its just in a HOB filter and its only a couple spoons at a time. Now there's very little algae growth. The bryopsis I had is pretty much gone now too. I like the idea of a simplified system and its always kinda bugged me the idea of putting in food and then skimming out organics. It just feels like a waste of time to me. I was thinking to "wean" the skimmer off to give the biology in the tank time to keep up with the changing nutrient conditions. If nitrates start to become problematic I'll either put the skimmer back on or will experiment with putting an algae scrubber in (and removing GFO). I guess the bottom line is I am curious about pushing a softies dominated tank to maintain very high nutrient levels while remaining visually appealing. Guess I'll just try it and see what happens:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 I think a lot of water quality needs depend on what you are trying to do. If you want the super thin branched acro to thrive then you will need excellent water quality, BUT if your keeping softies then I don't think it maters as much. Call me crazy but I believe you can have a beautiful tank with no skimmer, no RO no DI and I'm just going to come out and say it no water changes. I am not suggesting you take it to that kind of extreme, but I do believe a low maintenance tank can thrive. I definitely agree though that the skimmer is pretty handy for gas exchange, if nothing else. P.S. I just put a skimmer on my tank :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 look no further than our very own Moderator that goes by the name of pledosophy' date=' Kevin's a super nice guy and I'm really hoping one of these days he'll do a nice post about running tanks skimmerless.[/quote'] His box is full...hopefully he can drop his 2c here though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Water volume is also something to consider. I think Kevin's system is several hundred gallons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 So the experiment has started. I have it on a timer that is shutting down for 2.5hrs during the middle of the day. iirc disolved oxygen levels are highest during the day and its at night that they can drop so I thought it would be best to cut out daytime skimming first. I'll see how it goes. Guess if anyone is interested let me know and I'll fill you in on how things go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackaninny Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Keep updating this thread so we can follow along and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 good luck. cheers. Your system will be fine for a long time without one. I'd be very interested in an update after 6 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobler132 Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Any updates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barelycuda Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 So the experiment has started. I have it on a timer that is shutting down for 2.5hrs during the middle of the day. iirc disolved oxygen levels are highest during the day and its at night that they can drop so I thought it would be best to cut out daytime skimming first. I'll see how it goes. Guess if anyone is interested let me know and I'll fill you in on how things go. How are things going? Based on what you have stated above yes your dissolved oxygen levels should be their highest in the middle to end of your lighting cycle. While I do understand what you are doing until you remove your skimmer completely you are still skimming your tank. By reducing the skimming time you are allowing your system to start to pick up the additional load that the skimmer is removing but you will not know the full effects until at least a few weeks after the skimmer is taken offline completely. I know that it has been mentioned a couple of times above in this thread but skimmers do not remove nitrates. They do remove the proteins and organics that can further break down in the nitrification process and produce nitrates and phosphates but a skimmer does not directly remove nitrates.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted May 27, 2011 Author Share Posted May 27, 2011 Plans got rearranged a bit... I picked up some yumas and one ended up melting down. I've also been fragging a lot of shrooms. I kept running the skimmer for now to help out with the cleanup there. I also just put a sump and algae turf scrubber in and i'm going to give it several weeks to get established. After thinking about it more I agree that just shutting it off makes more sense than weaning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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