Turning OFF my skimmer

[Basile]

My tank is a high nutrience 150 G reef tank , principaly because its a softy tank, but also because its a system connected to a display refugium 75g . I also have a NPS zone in there( high dosing of supplements) Gorgonians, suncorals,clams and sponges all ove the tank. Since most of my tank requires pytoplancton and brine shrimp in fair amount, i dose broadly.

I realise that what ever i dose gets skimmed OFF by my skimmer. Its rates for 300 Gal (Reef Octopus SUPER SRO 3000INT In-Sump Protein Skimmer.) and my system is a total 210 G system .

But if i leave it on i waste my dosing formulas and supplements. So i unplug the colection cup so the water just flow right through. Although it doesn't collect anything at least it gets areated .

Anyone else do or have to do this. If so how long do you do it.

The refugium feeding the reef by gravity

I write big for my iphone friends.

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[sirrealism]

There are plenty of reefers doing this but most will do an Algae scrubber in its place to remove the extra nut they dont want. I think you have the perfect system for an algae scrubber since it is a bio filter. I might put my skimmer on a timer for 24 hours a week. Very nice system

 

[Snid]

Ha Ha Ha! Look at all those cat perches!!!

 

[Basile]

There are plenty of reefers doing this but most will do an Algae scrubber in its place to remove the extra nut they dont want. I think you have the perfect system for an algae scrubber since it is a bio filter. I might put my skimmer on a timer for 24 hours a week. Very nice system

Thanks never thought of that. A timer for my skimmer, well i could use my Apex actually for it. i'll have to do a bit more research on that. Not sure how to calculate my timing for that. But thanks for the suggestion. Not sure where i could put an algae scrubber. I though my fuge could be that lol.

Ha Ha Ha! Look at all those cat perches!!!

their's more

Its also the cats room, it was the cats room before it was the fish room actually, thats why the steps are behind the tank, lol. Living in a condo i had to give them , or make them do some excersises, before food time lol.

 

[reefer gladness]

Just program your Apex to turn off the skimmer for an hour or so when you feed. Not an Apex user but I have my Reef Angel performing 14 different actions with the push of 1 button when I turn on Feed mode. I'm sure the Apex is capable.

 

[Basile]

Someone wanted a bit more info on the system ; Custom maide by Concept Aquariums from Calgary Alberta Canada.

Main tank 150 G starfire 72X24X21 , refugium 75G starfire 48X18X21, 2 modules sump 65 G, one skimmer& drain the second , pumps and reactors. both stands are 2" powder coated steel. Plumbing mostly black Ultraflex , all gate valves. Mixing drum heavy translucent 35G.

Refugium and its connecting bulkhead side panel.

Integrated external wavebox

2 Maxspect Razor 16K 27" main
1 Maxspect Razor 10K 27" ref
1 Maxspect Razor 10K 20" ref

Reef Octopus Super SRO 3000INT In-Sump
3 tunze 6095 powerheads main
3 tunze 6055 poweheads refugium
1 tunze 6105 main
2 two little fishies reactors
1 Dc diablo 3500 return main
1 DC Octopus 5500 return refugium

Fauna marin dosing system
Apex controller
2 heaters

Both the main reef and the refugium are connected to the sump and both have their own seperate DC pumps. Both have a coast to coast external overfow for skimming, herbie system one return each, and the refugium is connected to the main reef by a bulkhead 1 inch below the water line on the side panel, to feed by gravity the good stuff and not the gunk that goes in the overflow skimming . The 1/2" connecting flex has a gatevalve to regulate the flow between the fuge and the main reef. Herbie are controlled by gatevalve and its pretty quiet. I have sorbothane under all my pumps and fitting which absorb 98% of vibrations.

 

[Frankie]

It's in my opinion Basile, that a skimmer should only be removing dead matter only. If it is removing live also then it is not working properly. It is in essence, stripping the water of good and bad nutrients. The air to water ratio is overwhelming lifting the good along with the bad up and out of the water. The good has no escape, and is carried away with the bad.
Think about it. Dead non living matter (moles) are anti aquatic. It is trying to get out of the water and into the air. That is why skimmers work so well in our hobby. The bubbles we create in the chamber are a perfect method to removing these moles due to there attraction to the air inside.

Removing just the bad is achieved by providing just enough water to air contact so that the living nutrients are not overwhelmed and can make there way back out of the chamber.
Mojoreef did the math on water air contact time in an article a few years ago but I cannot find it.
It takes about 1 minute, (no scientific data here) for a single bubble to be fully covered in these bad moles. So dwell time, bubble size, chamber size and water flow are all crucial for a properly functioning skimmer.
The method of water to air contact is important also.
Mesh wheels are a slaughter house. They tend to do more damage to the living organisms then most. So the good becomes the bad.
I use a beckett for this reason. It is the second most gentile way of introducing the two.
The most efficient and gentile way would be by air stone. You can truly dial in air to water ratio with that method and do very little damage to the good stuff.
Tunze skimmers are very well thought out.
On my skimmer I am able to control the feed pump and beckett air introduced making it extremely easy to control the air to water ratios.
On the topic of turning the skimmer off during feeding, it is a good idea.

 

[Basile]

It's in my opinion Basile, that a skimmer should only be removing dead matter only. If it is removing live also then it is not working properly. It is in essence, stripping the water of good and bad nutrients. The air to water ratio is overwhelming lifting the good along with the bad up and out of the water. The good has no escape, and is carried away with the bad.
Think about it. Dead non living matter (moles) are anti aquatic. It is trying to get out of the water and into the air. That is why skimmers work so well in our hobby. The bubbles we create in the chamber are a perfect method to removing these moles due to there attraction to the air inside.

Removing just the bad is achieved by providing just enough water to air contact so that the living nutrients are not overwhelmed and can make there way back out of the chamber.
Mojoreef did the math on water air contact time in an article a few years ago but I cannot find it.
It takes about 1 minute, (no scientific data here) for a single bubble to be fully covered in these bad moles. So dwell time, bubble size, chamber size and water flow are all crucial for a properly functioning skimmer.
The method of water to air contact is important also.
Mesh wheels are a slaughter house. They tend to do more damage to the living organisms then most. So the good becomes the bad.
I use a beckett for this reason. It is the second most gentile way of introducing the two.
The most efficient and gentile way would be by air stone. You can truly dial in air to water ratio with that method and do very little damage to the good stuff.
Tunze skimmers are very well thought out.
On my skimmer I am able to control the feed pump and beckett air introduced making it extremely easy to control the air to water ratios.
On the topic of turning the skimmer off during feeding, it is a good idea.

I'm sure my skimmer is not at fault here really. Its a good machine and i sometime i think i tune it too its sweet spot, where i get think heavy skimmate and nothing else. I'm the reck really, trying to operate a good machine......got to take the blame sometime. And all consider my tank is doing very well. I need to work at fine tuning my equipment and that comes with experience and observations. You can't read or buy that kind of knowledge , each tank has its own beat. Its only been 7 1/2 months really.

So i need more time to study my ecosystem. The skimmer has been cleaned by the way , no deposits and works like a charm. I need to understand an figure out more about what i'm dosing. Some of it stays in no problem like the chemicals ; iron, amino acids and some liquid supplements for the macro's , thats for sure. The others are particules, of phytoplancton and filter feeders products. Those are the ones that i'm struggling to keep in long enough for the principals to aquire for their nutritional value.

I appreciate your time on this.

 

[Basile]

I have a few Tube vids with good example but i prefer myself to have a skimmer.

However it seem possible for some to be able to do it without a skimmer. I guess its all about the set up, and the bioload.

[video=youtube;W1HUkupmm-s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1HUkupmm-s&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeUYFtXWkts76_Mmc6s0Sqo&index=7[/video]




I'm not saying its the way to go , of course no its just to illustrate that turning my skimmer off wont have dire consequences like some could predict. I prefer myself to have the technology at my disosal and respect everyone choices in the matter.

But marvel at the same time at those who are able to acheive such tank without it; pretty amazin no? In any case finding the right balance is all i can hope for , for my system and i hope you can too. Mine is to have my refugium replace my GFO reactor and the skimmer not pulling out my supplements in put in for my corals and animals in my tank.

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[Basile]

[video=youtube;1q0EEboALH4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q0EEboALH4&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeUYFtXWkts76_Mmc6s0Sqo&index=8[/video]

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[Basile]

[video=youtube;_Uf5IyXvajg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uf5IyXvajg&index=1&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeUYFtXWkts76_Mmc6s0Sqo[/video]

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[Basile]

[video=youtube;-eCQSVdqBQA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eCQSVdqBQA&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeUYFtXWkts76_Mmc6s0Sqo&index=2[/video]

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[Basile]

[video=youtube;Vs_etaHSOfQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs_etaHSOfQ&index=3&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeUYFtXWkts76_Mmc6s0Sqo[/video]

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[Basile]

[video=youtube;_PKjd-TA1kM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PKjd-TA1kM&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeUYFtXWkts76_Mmc6s0Sqo&index=5[/video]​

 

[Basile]

Sorry i couldn't put all the vids in one post lol, in any case i like those example of whats possible.

[video=youtube;qMIlWxX4q1c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMIlWxX4q1c&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFeUYFtXWkts76_Mmc6s0Sqo&index=6[/video]








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[Basile]

3 weeks report

Ok , i've been doing a 12 hour shutdowns from 16:00 to 04:00 in the morning. A period of time i judge the tank to be less active and giving me time also to feed without the skimmer scooping up all the goodies out.


Some observations:


At first glance nothing as really change in neither direction I founf new spnoge growth on the backside of a tonga branch , but thats certanly older than 3 weeks. I also lost a sponge who has disintegrated for no aparent reason. In the dark , while the other are doing fine. I've lost 2 sponge out of my 15. My conclusion is , location, waterflow more precisely. I noticed in this one spot its was a vortex location. So no real flow for water exchange and good oxygenation. The firs on was algae build up.

A serpent star exist that lives and clean sponges, i'd like to get my hand on one, lol. Now i only have a tiger coweri that occasional munch on my sponge. No biggy. When that happen its a sign that i forgot to leave him some seaweeds at night. You have to take care of your critters, it also calm down your urchins that way. I'd be moving the fridg too if i was starving lol. So they move the rocks to see what under it.

Anyway not much about the water after the 12 hour break the skimmer starts take what in out of the tank and thats it. I do a dry skim . This week i did 2 water change my nitrates where a little high but thats maybe coincidence its to early to tell. For that dead sponge i'm researching if high nitrates can kill sponges , if anyone have articles on that , it would be helpfull for the research.

I did also some cleaning in the tank , one macro is an invasive one Caulerpa Mexicana. Its sold , but only say medium growth. I think not. Its a totally dominant species stay away from that. Once established on rocks its very hard to get out. I've use a technique they've use on grand scale removal. Seems to work, but their's always little pieces that may take roots as it propagates by FRAGMENTATION the worst kind of spreading.

Anyway that was one reason for my second WC actually lol. The die OFF of that algae did release some nitrates. I made a detailed post on that removal with pictures.

This is my lates videos if you want to check them out;

[video=youtube;sYcc7huFLHk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYcc7huFLHk&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfzK1jNhN7rAilGwHaEzvH5&index=14[/video]​

 

[pgrtgunner]

I agree!!!

 

[Basile]

I may be just me but it seem that my tank has matured faster , is it matured or aged, that could be it as well. In any case the corals seem to have taken OFF and grown faster, so are my gorgonians. No other sponges have died since.

 

[Choff]

Basile, I use one of the feed modes to just turn off my skimmer for 2 hours for when I manually dose anything.



...stupid auto correct

 

[Basile]

Thanks, discovering new inhabitant all the time, new critter, specially in my sand, since i dont touch my sand at all it has become very much alive and allsorts of things live in it. And seeing it come out at some point is very cool.

Of course some are all over their substrates every week syphoning and taking out everything and nothing has a chance to become stable and thats what they're missing. So thats their choice. For me i chose the other way, and my nitrates are at 10ppm and phosphate at 0.3 and stable , no problem, the refugium works very well and i've stopped my GFO in june, so almost 6 months and now i stop my skimmer for 12 h a day for my sponge and other filter feeders and their seem to be an improvement, i'm in my second month of that.

I write big for my iphone friends.​