mine came with all that junk....it still doesn't skim anything really...you have to adjust it all the time and then it still doesn't skim anything
Who runs a tank without a skimmer?
- Thread starter Brenden
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mine came with all that junk....it still doesn't skim anything really...you have to adjust it all the time and then it still doesn't skim anything
i think they would be fine on a nano...they are so over rated (gph)....i am going to move mine to my 30g when i get a better hang-on for my 72g...i have an Octopus200 NW for my 125g...i am looking at hang-on octopus skimmers for my 72g now
spongebob lover
flea whisperer
the snails go inside the skimmer from the part where the water comes out and then they go all the way down.
About calibrating... i meant adjusting the flow/water that goes into the skimmer
.i'm jelous Ron !!!!
a little something i have noticed in one of my tanks. i decided to take one of my tanks down. i basically let it go. not basically but i did let it go. took off the skimmer, it just has powerheads in it. the first month algae grow all over. i mean all over. i did not care though. never even wipped the glass. it got so bad you could not see anything. i was real thick too. well its been 6 months and all the algae is gone. i have never seen it so clean. i have done nothing during this time. prior to decideing to take it down this tank was going for the past five years skimmed water changes ect...tested it 0 on all the things you want to be 0. had a good load in it the whole time. sence letting it go everything went from the dirties tank i have even seen to one of the cleanest and all inhabitants are healthy and thriveing. the only thing i have done is top off with RO/DI, even then i wait till the powerheads are sucking air. i am still amazed as this.
Thanks for the skimmer info. On my main tank I run a AquaC EV1000 with a MD-70RLT Iwaki pump. I clean it every other week. I scrape about 8oz of brown/clay crap out of it when I clean. As far as skimmate goes I am not sure of the amount. My collection cup is plumbed into my sewage.
Krish
RF STAFF
On a setup like that Brian, you could make it without a skimmer I'm sure. Personally, if I had an option to use one I always will, but it doesn't mean you can't have 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates etc without one because people do it. I just personally like all the help I can get
liveforphysics
Banned
Prow- You need to share that story with more people. Preach your experience.
People- You need to listen to that. He allowed his tank to reach a natural equilibrium by not dicking with it.
My experience has been similar. I always had classic reefing probles when I skimmed. Struggled to keep nutrients zero'd, if I didnt water change occasionally than the corals would look terrible, I always had at least SOME pest algae, even a light green film that would appear on the glass once in a while. It was basically a bunch of work to maintain for so-so results.
By about a week after dropping the skimmer, the chaeto growth just exploded, the water never looked so clear, and the tank 100% ceased to grow nusence algae. I could radically overfeed as often as I wanted and never have dectable nutrients. I totally stopped waterchanges and everything stayed really healthy looking and rapidly grew. The maintence consisted of adding food and pulling out a huge clump of chaeto about weekly.
People- You need to listen to that. He allowed his tank to reach a natural equilibrium by not dicking with it.
My experience has been similar. I always had classic reefing probles when I skimmed. Struggled to keep nutrients zero'd, if I didnt water change occasionally than the corals would look terrible, I always had at least SOME pest algae, even a light green film that would appear on the glass once in a while. It was basically a bunch of work to maintain for so-so results.
By about a week after dropping the skimmer, the chaeto growth just exploded, the water never looked so clear, and the tank 100% ceased to grow nusence algae. I could radically overfeed as often as I wanted and never have dectable nutrients. I totally stopped waterchanges and everything stayed really healthy looking and rapidly grew. The maintence consisted of adding food and pulling out a huge clump of chaeto about weekly.
That is a nice theory Luke and I am not saying it would not work. However if I shut down my skimmer now on my main the NO3 would get so high my fish and corals would die. With the new 100 gal I am working on I may experiment with it.
liveforphysics
Banned
That glass has a whiteish haze to it because I dont even bother to wipe the saltcreep from dribbles down the side of the tank off before taking pics. Also that demonic plauge coraline:z would start its little patches on the glass.... I considder coraline to be the single largest reef maintence issue I experience in running skimmer free tanks. This pic is about 6month before I moved. After moving, I ended up just giving that whole tank and stand away, as it had 2 walls 100% filled in with the coraline plauge.
liveforphysics
Banned
Brenden- If you had a super efficient sink for NO3 and PO4 (aka, rapidy growing chaeto) your tank would never get to the point that it had dectable NO3 or PO4 with your skimmer off.
The trick is in actaully getting the exact bulbs that grow it, pumping it with massive light, and keeping high flow through it (fuges are garbage for growing chaeto). If you look at the typical way its attempted (for example, look at slickdonkeys well documented setup), he hasn't provided an enviroment where it can grow, so its a useless liability with no reason to be in the tank. Its doing nothing to reduce anything, as it can ONLY ONLY ONLY function while its rapidly growing.
That means, you tweak the lighting, you tweak the flow, or whatever it takes untill you get an enviroment that it can grow in. 99% of people set something up and basically just act passive to the fact that its growing at about the rate corals grow(hence, being of no bennifit to the tank).
Anyways, I couldn't care less with whatever option you guys wana maintain your tanks. I just wanted to share my own experience and beliefs developed from direct observation.
The trick is in actaully getting the exact bulbs that grow it, pumping it with massive light, and keeping high flow through it (fuges are garbage for growing chaeto). If you look at the typical way its attempted (for example, look at slickdonkeys well documented setup), he hasn't provided an enviroment where it can grow, so its a useless liability with no reason to be in the tank. Its doing nothing to reduce anything, as it can ONLY ONLY ONLY function while its rapidly growing.
That means, you tweak the lighting, you tweak the flow, or whatever it takes untill you get an enviroment that it can grow in. 99% of people set something up and basically just act passive to the fact that its growing at about the rate corals grow(hence, being of no bennifit to the tank).
Anyways, I couldn't care less with whatever option you guys wana maintain your tanks. I just wanted to share my own experience and beliefs developed from direct observation.
liveforphysics
Banned
Also, to quantify the qualitative term I used "rapid growth", I mean doubleing or trippleing each week.
liveforphysics
Banned
Sweet! I've personally never had rapid growth from a bulb in the 6.5k range, but every type of bulb (same color rating or not) is different. The best growth I've found comes from a off the shelf homedepot 4pack of 2700k PAR38 reflector shaped compact florecent bulbs @23watts each. Due to the cleaver reflector, each one of these puppies gets more light onto the chaeto than 4 open spiral 23watt CF bulbs. I am currently running 8 of them over the tops of each of my fuges, with enough flow running through it to keep the chaeto quivering and tumbleing around in there. The growth is just extreme, and the tanks arent able to register dectable nutrients no matter how much food/dirty water etc that I dump in there.
If you think you are getting rapid chaeto growth, you could just try out a day of no skimmer at first and see, the 2 days, 3, 4, etc. It might suprize you in a good way.
If you think you are getting rapid chaeto growth, you could just try out a day of no skimmer at first and see, the 2 days, 3, 4, etc. It might suprize you in a good way.
The reason I use a 6.5k bulb is because I was trying to match the sun. This is what I have over my fuge. http://www.yinyanghome.com/Products/LOA/9266c.html
I also have 3 spares that I never opened. I have a feeling I need to add more flow. I have been thinking about it before this.
I also have 3 spares that I never opened. I have a feeling I need to add more flow. I have been thinking about it before this.
Curtswearing
Mantisfreak
Said another way, if you have a super efficient skimmer that is maintained and cleaned regularly, your Chaeto won't grow very fast because the nutrients are being stripped much more efficiently by the protein skimmer. When these things go into the skimmer, they are removed from the system entirely. When absorbed into an algae (whether it is Chaeto or something else), it is still in the system. The same porousness of it's thallas that allows it to absorb nutrients also allows them to leak right back out. In the end, you are in a better position but it is like taking 3 steps forward and then one step back. Once it's in a skimmer cup, it's out of the system for good (assuming you don't accidentally spill your skimmate into the tank).
I've not seen Slickdonkey's thread. However, I'm sure it's not as dire as you are predicting. If it's growing, it's obviously functioning. It is clearly binding up Carbon, nitrogenous compounds, and phosphates. If it is growing slower because a skimmer is removing N and P too efficiently before the Macroalgae can get it, it's still growing and as long as you are harvesting, you're still better off.
In light of the above comments, please explain your theory and provide studies.
That really makes no sense whatsoever. Some macroalgaes are very efficient and grow very quickly. Some are less efficient and grow slower. Some are multicellular, some are unicellular. Some emit noxious toxins in varying degrees. Some have other defenses against predation (Halimeda being the most popular reef tank algae). Similarly, some corals have growth rates that are phenomenal and some grow EXTREMELY slow. Some corals grow faster with higher degrees of DOC's and some die with higher degrees of DOC's. I'm not sure I understand the algae growth rate vs coral growth rate comment.
We finally agree 100%.
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spongebob lover
flea whisperer
well like i always say.... what works for someone might not work for somebody else .
I'm sure you have seen this picture a couple times in here .... this was my tank about 2 years ago, no skimmer, the husband would do water changes whenever he would remember .... ohh yeah and the best thing of all.... flatworms.
I'm not saying that my skimmer did it all because i pulled the heck out of that caulerpa thing, did many water changes, suck almost all the sand, and siphon all those flatworms and now my tank looks way way way better than that , but i like to believe the skimmer had something to do with it .
.I'm sure you have seen this picture a couple times in here
.... this was my tank about 2 years ago, no skimmer, the husband would do water changes whenever he would remember .... ohh yeah and the best thing of all.... flatworms.I'm not saying that my skimmer did it all because i pulled the heck out of that caulerpa thing, did many water changes, suck almost all the sand, and siphon all those flatworms and now my tank looks way way way better than that
, but i like to believe the skimmer had something to do with it .
Krish
RF STAFF
Is that your fuge Gabby? Nice macros! :lol:
spongebob lover
flea whisperer
LMBO!! :lol: :lol: you're just jelous :lol:
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