Does anyone ever shut off their skimmer during the week for a period of time?

[Ed Hahn]

I have had my skimmer shut off since Thursday the 6th of October. I shut it off while feeding oyster eggs and cyclopeez. I have not turned it back on. I have been monitoring my fish and corals by sight daily. I shortened my lighting cycle by not turning my lights on one day a week. I have six tangs, a pair of false percs, two flame angels, and a mandarin. I feed daily because of the amount of fish in my tank. I am wondering how effective the algae in my coast to coast overflow actually is. I believe my coast to coast is acting like a algae scrubber. Does anyone else shut down their skimmer for a short amount of time?

 

[reedman]

I used to run mine only during the day and shut it down when I went to bed. Worked fine, but I prefer to run it 24/7.

 

[CarlaW]

Ed, with that bioload, I don't think that shutting your skimmer down for any period of time is a real good idea. Hate to say that, but it's an honest opinion.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Ed, with that bioload, I don't think that shutting your skimmer down for any period of time is a real good idea. Hate to say that, but it's an honest opinion.

That is what I thought Buddy. I have been talking to wife and kids during the day and checking tank. Everything is doing fine. I will most likely turn it back on tonight after work. I feed cycolpeez once a day, and oyster eggs when my lights turn off. I have been feeding Spectrum and I do not think my fish have let it hit the ground. Even my Mandarin is eating Spectrum. No bleaching of corals or anything as off yet. Fish are still following you as you walk by the tank. I am starting to think Algae scrubbers may do a lot more than people think.

 

[Krish]

I run my 24/7 even when there is nothing in my tank.

 

[WaterDogs]

24/7 if not to clean but to Aerate.

 

[bradreef]

Or at night to add o2 to the tank because the levels can drop really low..

 

[DonW]

Ed, with that bioload, I don't think that shutting your skimmer down for any period of time is a real good idea. Hate to say that, but it's an honest opinion.

Ed, turn your skimmer back on before Charlie calls tang police.

Don

 

[CarlaW]

Ed, turn your skimmer back on before Charlie calls tang police.

Don

I lost their number.

 

[Ed Hahn]

:shock: Tang Police! :shock:

 

[Angelscrx]

The number is 1-800-GO TANGS!!!

I run mine 24/7 and I have to clean it bi-weekly but I feed heavy.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Ut oh, I am busted.
Skimmer is back on and creating lots of skimmate. There is nothing visably lost. I will run my skimmer 6 days a week now.

 

[Desolas]

I've always tried to keep my bioloads low, so when my skimmer has broke (pump failures) I've had it off for a week or more at a time and other than my pH average being lower the tank suffers none from it. I don't know what it would do over the course of months, or years, but short term basis it hasn't been an issue.

Like others I pretty much rely on the skimmer mostly to help keep the tank aerated and help maintain pH, otherwise I'd have to increase my kalk buffering to maintain a higher pH at night and my swing from night to day would be higher; but this is on a small tank, the effect may not be as great on something 50+ gallons.

 

[Ed Hahn]

I like looking on RC at the members of month. I like comparing formulas that members have used. I have noted a few members shut off their skimmers for build up of nutrients. I also noted they like one day of complete darkness, etc. Do we overskim or should we stay on the routine 24/7 run time?

 

[CarlaW]

Personally I like the 24/7/
Or to put it another way, does the ocean ever stop skimming???

 

[Pauls]

I skim from about 10:30 pm to 6:30 am when lights are off. This is just personal preferance, my skimmer is kinda noisey, and i dont like looking at the bubbles in my tank. Also by morning im not getting very much skimmate. I figure for my 30g. softies only(except some encrusting sps on the live rock) a light bioload (a talbots damsel and a coral beauty) and a larger skimmer (a coralife ss65) that it should be sufficient skimming. I dont see a need to overskim, and as long as everything is happy i will keep doing as i am. Of course if i ever go with more sps i will need to skim more.

 

[Rock-N-Ruin]

I've been running a PM bullet 2 for the past 5 days and I shut it off at night just because of noise from the pump, but with my aqua C remora I let it run 24/7 Jeff

 

[robbiej]

I skim from about 10:30 pm to 6:30 am when lights are off. This is just personal preferance, my skimmer is kinda noisey, and i dont like looking at the bubbles in my tank. Also by morning im not getting very much skimmate. I figure for my 30g. softies only(except some encrusting sps on the live rock) a light bioload (a talbots damsel and a coral beauty) and a larger skimmer (a coralife ss65) that it should be sufficient skimming. I dont see a need to overskim, and as long as everything is happy i will keep doing as i am. Of course if i ever go with more sps i will need to skim more.

I recently visited a guy here in Tacoma who only runs refugiums and no skimmer for his softies. He has excellent growth. The softies absorb nutrients in the water. I am not recomending it, I am just saying that it is not always neccesary. He also runs barebottom with lots of LR. He has several tanks in his garage.

 

[Woodstock]

Ed, It would have been interesting to see a daily chart of your PH & nitrAtes before, during and after.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Ed, It would have been interesting to see a daily chart of your PH & nitrAtes before, during and after.

I know my Ph was 8-8.3, I monitor that quite often. My nitrate level, good question. All I can say about not having it on, was I was very lucky.