Yeah dave I want to put some mangroves in my also!! You think I can mix those with caulerpa?
Yes but you will get even slower growth out of them than you would if they were growing alone. The caulerpa will outcompete them. You must also never allow the leaves to fall into the sump or all of the nasties will go right back into the water column.
What makes a skimmer work more efficiently.....height? Width? Flow rate?
Your post answered some of these questionsl already. Different types of skimmers approach the same issues of bubble surface area in different ways. Some are very tall so that the bubbles are in contact with the water column longer. Others are made to fit into fish cabinets so they attempt to have more tiny bubbles to increase surface area. More surface area means more DOC's are being removed.
Let's face it. We want our glass boxes filled with water to be attractive. To prevent nuisance algaes and cyano's and provide clean water for our corals and fish, it's important to export our nutrients well. A protein skimmer removes wastes BEFORE they break down into D.O.C.'s. Obviously some of the solid wastes are going to be missed so we will have DOC's in a skimmed tank as well. Luckily a protein skimmer has the ability to remove these as well which has been discussed.
DOC' can also be removed with various macroalgaes. As many of you know, I have an ecosystem fuge but I will not run it without a skimmer like Leng Sy recommends. As a result, I feel I have the right to comment on both. It does very well as a backup in my mind but there is no way on God's green earth I will run my tank with it as anything other than an additional as opposed to a primary type of filtration.
I agree with Leng Sy that people shouldn't use them with the "safe" macroalgaes. I have reasons for my beliefs....many of them are as a result of my side-hobby in Bonsai but most of them are as a result of the movie
The Karate Kid. To paraphrase, Mr. Miyagi said the following.....
Karate Yes....fine
Karate No....fine
Karate halfway....squish
To put this in reefing terms.....
Export with macroalgae Yes....fine
Export with macroalgae No....fine
Export halfway with macroalgae....squish
I can't speak for other people's tanks but I find that the "safe" or "halfway" macro's really don't accomplish very many positive things but still subject the tank to the same negatives that ANY macroalgae does.....TOXINS. ANY critter that is sessile needs to either camoflauge itself for protection against predators or repel predators or reproduce with abandon. Macroalgae's can't camoflauge themselves so they use toxins to repel predators.
For a short time I ran Chaetomorpha linum as well as caulerpa in my fuge. I liked the fact that the amphipods liked the spaghetti mac so much but it BARELY GREW. If it's not growing by leaps and bounds in our nutrient-laden boxes of water, it's useless IMO for an export mechanism.
Toxins in Halimeda Defense for Macroalgaes