are skimmers bad?

Do you have a tank thread? What corals are you keeping? I gotta see a, never have done a WC change tank! What size tank? Oooo I got so many questions for you

 

Correct me if im wrong but i think newyorksteelo hasnt done one either...

 

Really? No nutrients whatsoever? Would you care to explain this?

There are no organisms or other life that is in established water? Do they hide in LR & LS when a water change is done? No they get removed for the most part. Your salinity, MG, CA, AK, & etc swing like a clock's pendulum and as the dust settle, it gets stirred up again with another water change.


A water change is to remove unwanted toxins for the most part & not a solution to replace or maint your trace elements.

 

Click on my AGA 90gal link on my signature, that's my 90gal build thread. I need to do some updating.. I'll take a pic with my phone now..

 

I was unaware that your use of the term nutrients was a reference to organisms. And my salinity is matched as are my other controllable params before the new mixture is added. And i disagree again on your theory that the removal of old water and replacement of new water does not replace trace elements. When you add a solution that is higher in something for instance calcium than the solution your remove you have raised the overall CA of that solution. Depending on the amount of decrease you have between each change you could keep it stable. Obviously if my ca level fell to 420 from 480 every week I would not be able to maintain it with water changes. That is just a random number since I currently do not have time to calculate it out but anyways. I mean you no disrespect and I know I will not sway your view so may as well continue to agree to disagree.

 

No water changes using a skimmer.

Daytime lighting was off.

 

So back to the original question lol. Are skimmers bad? NO. Are they necessary? NO. I personally don't like doing alot of WC's so I love my skimmer. As my tank has begun to mature and stabilize with the skimmer my water changes are far far less frequent. I monitor my parameters and keep them in line and it has worked for me.

I think it boils down to this. You have to "listen" to your tank and what it is telling you. If it is stable and doing well with whatever your WC regimen is or isn't, great. If not and you are having trouble keeping up with nitrates etc... even with water changes, maybe it's time to look into a skimmer. I think we would all agree that different things work for different people and their tanks. We just have to figure out what that is, and go with it.

 

+1 110%!

 

Honestly, i don't think skimmers are bad. I think they are down right evil. I've had 4 different skimmers since ive been in the hobby, and everyone of them has at one point flooded my floor. I don't know what it is, but i'll come home, and my ATO is empty, my return pump is blowing airbubbles like crazy into my display, and its all because for some reason that i still don't get my skimmer started skimming EXTREMELY wet, and basically started pouring clean water into my skimmer cup drain container, and then that filled up an then my stand filled up and you know where this is going. I mean, i still use them, but they're evil man, evil.

 

This is a classic sign of a poorly fit or adjusted skimmer.

It sounds like you are using skimmers too big, or small, or just cheap, low quality. They don't produce skimmate, so, you adjust the water level higher than you should. Once there is enough organics built up, for it to function, it is set way too high and overflows. Very common, but avoidable by using a properly sized, quality skimmer and setting it conservatively.

It should be set very low and adjustments made every few hours at most. The water level should not exceed the manufactures recommended range, usually this is the bottom of the neck, regardless of whether or not your getting skimmate. Also, certain chemicals in the air can cause the skimmer to overflow. Sometimes if this is an issue, filtering the air intake through some GAC can help. Other chemicals, such as epoxy, are notorious for this and if used, perhaps the skimmer should be turned off or down for a few hours after use, if an issue. Oils, such as from your hands, or from foods, can cause the skimmer to stop working. Often people adjust the skimmer to accommodate this and the result is an overflow, once the oils diminish.

I've been using skimmers for a decade though, and they are one of the most useful pieces of equipment you can have for an aquarium and then some.

As to nutrients, ca, mg, bicarbonate (more or less "alkalinity") are elements, not nutrients. Nutrients, as we refer to them as things such as nitrate and phosphate. These come from the breakdown of organic waste. This is mostly from feeding. Anyfood you put into the system, either needs to be converted to biomass, i.e. your fish or corals need to get bigger, or it needs to be removed. A skimmer is one of, if not the most cost effective way to do so. Other options include water changes, harvesting macro algae, GAC, but these methods are typically either less effective, or significantly more expensive to get the same effect. GAC for example, is more effective, but without a skimmer, would exhaust quickly, and would need to be replaced very often. Making it a much more expensive option, although, together with a skimmer, works well, and as it's life is extended by the skimmer, is more affordable in that case. Macro algae, is effective, and inexpensive, however, to be as effective as your skimmer, your macro algae refugium would need to be many times larger than your display. Water changes work, but not in real-time like a skimmer, unless your doing constant water changes and to do frequent large water changes is work intensive and expensive.