deadthrone Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 This may be a silly question... But I'm going to ask anyway. I've had a reef octopus bh 1000 on my 40b before but what does a skimmer actually do? I have a cyano bloom... Partially/mostly due to new lights but I don't over feed too much and use heavy filtration plus rodi water changes that I pretest before I mix I've considered getting a pico skimmer on my 7:5 gallon would it be worth it for phosphate control? Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Skimmers use tiny air bubbles to trap dissolved organic matter such as fish poo and waste proteins. These substances stick to the bubbles due to water tension and then cause a foam which as it builds is pushed out of the skimmer body into the collection cup. Skimmers need to be set up correctly to be effective and while they don't directly lower nitrates and phosphates, by removing organics before they can rot the skimmer will help control the build up of waste. No they will not prevent algae blooms etc caused by lighting or feeding. But they are an important part of your tanks waste management system and you need to consider alternative ways of controlling waste organics if your planing to run a system skimmerless. Large regular water changes for instance. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/fm/feature/ Here's a good read on skimmer basics. Benny gave a good general overview as well. Link to comment
deadthrone Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Skimmers use tiny air bubbles to trap dissolved organic matter such as fish poo and waste proteins. These substances stick to the bubbles due to water tension and then cause a foam which as it builds is pushed out of the skimmer body into the collection cup. Skimmers need to be set up correctly to be effective and while they don't directly lower nitrates and phosphates, by removing organics before they can rot the skimmer will help control the build up of waste. No they will not prevent algae blooms etc caused by lighting or feeding. But they are an important part of your tanks waste management system and you need to consider alternative ways of controlling waste organics if your planing to run a system skimmerless. Large regular water changes for instance. Benny, that is part of my question. I do about a 40-50% water change weekly (sometimes a week and a half at most, which is rare, two weeks out) on my 7.5 gallon. Should I worry about skimming? Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 That size of water change then no skimming is a bit of a waste of time. Good water chages are important regardless of skimming or not, but on a nano tank it's not overly required to keep a happy healthy tank. The only argument for it would be as skimmers inject air bubbles directly into the water column it provides great oxygenation in a small tank. Link to comment
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