Bad idea to remove skimmer?

[matt2939]

So my tank has been set up since April this year. And after the initial cycle I've had no detectable nitrates, or nitrites for that matter. I mean zero. My skimmer has been running this whole time but it never skims much of anything. I have tried raising the skimmer in the sump area, lowering it, increasing the air flow, decreasing the air flow. When I make the changes sometimes it will produce some junk for a few hours, and then back to nothing. It's a SWC 160 in about 9 inches of water now.

So my question is, if the skimmer hasn't been removing much of anything over the past few months, would it be a terrible idea to just remove it. It would save electricity and most importantly would reduce sound. Currently it has the usual hum, but also the outflow of the skimmer makes water sloshing sounds. So I'm tempted to just remove it and use that area as a frag growout.

Any thoughts?

 

[jgraz]

What's your bio-load? Size of tank? My SWC 160 is in 7" of water and is rock solid. 9" is a little too much IMO. If your bioload is light then blood from a stone comes to mind.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Some systems with low bioloads just won't have much to skim. But, if you do occasionally get some skimmate then I wouldn't remove it completely.

Do you have any timers or a controller that you could set it to run on a schedule? I'd suggest setting it up to run like 8 hours a day (perhaps while you're at work?) and then be off the other 16 hours of the day. Do that for about a week or so and then test to see if you start getting any nitrate / nitrite spikes.

If your parameters stay the same, and you don't see a decent amount of skimmate created during those 8 hours (it should because the nutrients should have more time to build up), then you can consider reducing the skimming schedule even further. If you get no skimmate at all, then you could probably consider removing it entirely, but make sure you can re-install it again later if you start getting nutrient problems.

Also, keep in mind that some skimmers need time to "break in"... meaning that once you turn them off and back on, it takes a while for them to build up enough bubbles to actually remove stuff and create skimmate. I know mine will start to start forming brownish bubbles at the top of the neck within about 20 minutes after restarting it. However, some can take several hours or perhaps up to a day to be able to do this. Then again, this could also be a matter of how many nutrients are there to be removed too. You should set the skimmer so that it starts forming almost a foam consistency that sort of pulses and pushes itself slowly over the top, into the collection cup. If it's real wet, then you need to reduce the air flow just a bit so that the water level in the skimmer is lower.

Anyway, I strongly suggest you try reducing the time period and then testing before deciding to remove it completely.

 

[matt2939]

It's a 57g, with 2 small clowns, 2 chromis, a yellow tang and Pygmy angel. Oh and 2 yellow watchman gobies and a sharknose goby. All but the tang are really small, but I wouldn't consider it a light bio load. I've tried keeping the skimmer higher and lower. I like the idea of having it on only part of the day, so I'll try that first and see.

Thanks


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[NikkiT]

Hi Matt,
We ran a 57g for about 1 year, and a 45g cube for two years before that. The skimmer may not be removing much from the water, but at a minimum it is oxygenating it. When we ran the 57 and the 45, the skimmers pulled out a lot of crud from similarly stocked tanks (substitute the tang and chromis for basslets and anthia and the stocking lists are very similar).
Before you make a change you may want to read this thread on RC.
I have ran skimmerless tanks before, and if you just want to keep fish, you should be OK if you keep up with your water changes, but once you add corals to the mix that changes the equation dramatically. I ran a 20g (skimmerless) for about 10 years before adding a skimmer and turning my tank into a mini-reef. We currently run our 12g skimmerless, and if I could buy a decent skimmer for it, I would. I would not move away from the skimmer unless you are happy with fish and softies, but that is just my opinion.

 

[matt2939]

Thank you for the link. I haven't tried blowing into the air hole thing. Hmmm


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[kschweer]

In addition to making sure the Venturi is clear its not a bad idea to remove the pump and give it a good cleaning. I clean my skimmer pump and return pump about every 6 months. I usually disassemble the pumps cleaning the inside and the impeller and the run them for a little while in a vinegar/water mix at about a 50/50 mix.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Hi Matt,
We ran a 57g for about 1 year, and a 45g cube for two years before that. The skimmer may not be removing much from the water, but at a minimum it is oxygenating it. When we ran the 57 and the 45, the skimmers pulled out a lot of crud from similarly stocked tanks (substitute the tang and chromis for basslets and anthia and the stocking lists are very similar).
Before you make a change you may want to read this thread on RC.
I have ran skimmerless tanks before, and if you just want to keep fish, you should be OK if you keep up with your water changes, but once you add corals to the mix that changes the equation dramatically. I ran a 20g (skimmerless) for about 10 years before adding a skimmer and turning my tank into a mini-reef. We currently run our 12g skimmerless, and if I could buy a decent skimmer for it, I would. I would not move away from the skimmer unless you are happy with fish and softies, but that is just my opinion.

+1 it is good to have if only to keep the O2 up...sounds like you could improve the sound by adding a pipe down into the water on your outflow? I have the hum but my outflow is at the bottom while the intake is higher up.

 

[dppitone]

I don't see how there can be zero nitrates. If there is ammonia entering the system, there should be nitrates produced in the bacteria cycle. so that's curious. i used to run without a skimmer when i kept a good proportion of refugium growing macroalgae - sized at about 30% of the system.