Keep skimmer or not???

[Michael46]

Hi guys im setting up a small 35ltr aqua one which comes with its own skimmer which is airpowered. Ive been told i can do without a skimmer at all, but id like to know if thats right or would i be better getting a better skimmer has the one that comes with tank is not the best ive been told. cheers 

[Tamberav]

I personally would not run the skimmer. The benefits on a tank that small are very little. A water change would be 100x more effective and I don't like noise the air pumps produce. 

[Michael46]

So id be best to ditch the skimmer and just do weekly water changes? What percentage on a 35ltr would you change a week? 

[Ratvan]

17 hours ago, Michael46 said:

So id be best to ditch the skimmer and just do weekly water changes? What percentage on a 35ltr would you change a week? 

10% per week personally. 

[mcarroll]

On 2/24/2020 at 4:36 PM, Michael46 said:

So id be best to ditch the skimmer and just do weekly water changes?

 

Water changes don't do what a skimmer does, nor vis versa, so I would suggest not conflating them or trying to substitute one for the other.

 

A skimmer provides excellent aeration as well as good (ie not very efficient) filtering of dissolved and particulate matter.  Aeration is important and over-filtration is a real problem in lots of tanks....it's to be avoided.  This combination of good aeration and mediocre filtration is what makes a skimmer kind of ideal for reefs.

 

Water changes are also good, but for mostly different reasons.

 

Not worth re-hashing the details on something that's been in so many books and then re-written so well back in 2005 in this article:

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley  (Read the references linked at the bottom too.)

 

IMO try the skimmer...if it works, use it.  If it doesn't, then troubleshoot it.  There's nothing much simpler than an air-powered skimmer though....very few adjustments. 

 

Do you have an ATO?   Or is the level of the skimmer compartment designed to be consistent vs evaporation? 

 

Either an ATO or stable skimmer compartment is usually all it takes:  skimmers need to be dialed in to the exact tank depth.  If that depth is always changing with evaporation due to lack of ATO, the skimmer won't skim well for more than a few hours at a time even if you do get it dialed in.

 

It's silly IMO to avoid using it when you have it or to replace it before trying it.

 

If it ends up not working, then that's a different story....but that should be pretty unlikely.....it's just bubbles in a column, not rocket science.  😉

 

Get that skimmer working!  😆

 

(Put the air pump on a timer if noise is an issue while you're sleeping or whatever....it can run while you're not around.)

 

10% weekly is good for water changes...not too much it'll hurt anything in case you don't really need to do one....but enough to do some good!

 

Restoring alkalinity levels is the most important thing a water change does (declining alk can lead directly to a dead tank...not much else can)...but it restores and moderates other elements as well. 

 

Nutrient removal is another thing a water changes does...but that is less important than it's generally made out to be, and can even be harmful in some situations. 

 

I don't think I've ever done a water change "to deal with nutrients" even one time, so using them in that way is certainly not a requirement no matter how common it seems.  For me they have always been for alkalinity maintenance (early in the system's history) or they were done on general principle for the goodness of the tank:  5% water changes (which I did every day for a while) seem just as effective as 10% or 25% for that purpose.   So do what works best for you.

 

If you find that you're doing water changes very often "just for cleanup" then there is some room to reconsider how your tank and tank maintenance are going...possibly the amount of feeding or level of flow can use tweaking, for example.