Protein skimmer on softie dominated tank

[A Little Blue]

47 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Your anecdotal experience does not equate fact, nor reputable science. It is very important to recognize this. 

Just like driving VOLVO doesn’t make you a safe driver. Excelent point. Definite answers on anything make me instantly skeptical. 

[MakoMan36]

8 minutes ago, tdannhauser30 said:

l sounds like your the one who needs the cool pill, lol Guessing you meant chill pill?  He never got offended, was just letting the OP know that despite what Makoman is telling you, plenty of people have great success with those skimmers.  I agree with him. I run a HOB reef octopus on my nano28 and pull some really really dark skimmate from my tank.

Thank you for answering for him. It's nice to know someone walking behind him.

[HarryPotter]

22 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Just like driving VOLVO doesn’t make you a safe driver. Excelent point. Definite answers on anything make me instantly skeptical. 

 

Exactly. I’m not going to claim that they will make you never need water changes, and if your water is very clean the effect may be bordering negligible. But the physics of skimming applies no matter what size tank you have, and anecdotal evidence does not. 

[A Little Blue]

1 minute ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Exactly. I’m not going to claim that they will make you never need water changes, and if your water is very clean the effect may be bordering negligible. But the physics of skimming applies no matter what size tank you have, and anecdotal evidence does not. 

Exactly. Question was, can skimmer reduce WC? It can. Will it work in particular tank setup? That’s another question entirely. There are pros and cons of using skimmers. It depends on many variants and your goals. To me, it is just another tool, if you know how to use it (given that you need it in absence of other means to address specific chemistry issues). 

[Subsea]

8 hours ago, bluecard said:

Hi subsea,

 

I am still new at this and trying to learn as much as I can. In your opinion what is vital to a successful reef tank? What is your typical maintenance routine? From reading a lot of your posts you are not big into protein skimming or water changes. 

Start up with a definite livestock plan.  This determines equipment required.   Hodge podge is not a plan.  IMO, too many newbies go with SPS bringing on the complication of stricter alkalinity management.  Operate your nano tank in manual so that you truely understand how things work.  Equipment does not make for success.  Knowledge makes for success.

 

I have tanks set up > 25 years without protein skimmers.  In the long term, I think that protein skimmers are detrimental to a reef tank.  I operate natural systems that recycle inorganic & organic nutrients into complex food webs which produce live food.  For certain, with my systems a protein skimmer would be detrimental.  I use macro algae and cryptic sponges as important components of my biological filter, coupled with reproducing snails and pods.  Protein skimmers would harm this ecosystem.

 

With respect to water changes, you should do them.  I don’t because with > 1000G the economy of salt becomes an issue.  Plus, when I registered Aquaculture Ranch as an LLC, I discribes the facility as zero discharge to be environmentally friendly during 100 year draught in Texas.

[A Little Blue]

Yeah, but his tank is on the smaller side. 

[jesseatam]

If your system is doing fine without a skimmer why add one and possibly disrupt a balance? If you’re trying to make things easier on the waterchanges side why not try to make that system more efficient and easier on yourself? I used to have a reef octopus HOB skimmer on my 30 gallon and then it overflowed which as you can imagine caused my ATO so go off as well, luckily I caught it early enough and no livestock was lost but the clean up was not fun. The skimmer pulled nice skimmate but always threw micro bubbles in the display and caused a lot of salt creep and cleaning the cup out is another maintenance task. Since not running it I haven’t really noticed any major adverse effects, maybe just some more film algae on the glass.

[Matt L]

Thanks guys. I didnt expect this much info. Seems to be a pretty debatable topic. Lots to think about. I really appreciate all the feedback