skimmers

[stumpy]

Hello ,

 

Oh i just thought of a new question again lol. What kind of skimmer is better , down draft , venturi , or air stone ? any help would b greatly appreciated .

 

 

Thank You,

Stumpy

[palaegic]

Lots of opinions about skimmers stumpy.

 

Venturi is by far the most efficient.

 

A downdraft, or counter-current skimmer is also usually an airstone driven skimmer, these are considered to be slightly more efficient than a standard air driven skimmer because the water is in longer contact with bubbles, thus can adsorb more organic material.

 

For nano purposes, unless you are using a sump, you would need an in-tank or hang on the back style skimmer.

[seabass]

Others question whether you should even use a skimmer in a nano. Although skimmers are great for larger tanks, managing trace elements in a nano can be more of a challenge.

 

As per Nano-Reef.com's articles on natural filtration...

"With this natural method, no protein skimmers or dosing is used. Studies of skimmers have shown that they remove various trace elements, along with pods and plankton. When people run protein skimmers, they dose trace elements to replenish them after their corals and skimmers use them. Because the skimmer removes most of the elements, such as iodine, it is dosed back in causing almost an endless cycle. The main problem this holds in nano reefing is that many of the trace elements cannot be easily tested for, so no one ever knows where their level is. This can lead to overdosing which will crash a nano reef in a matter of hours. The skimmer also begins to starve your corals by removing their food source. It's simply too risky.

 

Protein skimmers are beneficial however, because they remove excess nutrients from the water, but this advantage is out weighed by the disadvantages. To remove the excess nutrients from this system you do a partial water change. The water change also doubles to replenish your trace elements, which are in your synthetic sea salt. Nitrates are removed, dissolved organic compounds are removed, and your trace elements are replaced. Your nitrates will always be at or near zero, and the elements will stay at a constant level."

[Vincerama]

What if you use a skimmer and still do regular water changes?

 

V

[Chamkeeper]

Water changes provide pH buffering, trace elements and waste removal. A skimmer might lengthen the interval, but nothing can replace water changes.