Over Skimming

[NYreefNoob]

Ok After A Few Article's I Have Read I Can See How You Can Over Skim, I Currently Have A Total Water Volume Of Around 50g And Using A Euro Reef Rs 135 On My Tank, I Do Have All Sps And Have 8 Fish Currently And Feed About 2 Cube's Worth Of Food A Day. Do Weekly Water Change's But Thinking Of Doing Them Bi-weekly, I Really Think That I Am Over Skimming The Tank And Cleaning Almost All The Nutrients Out, Alot Of The Sps Is More Of A Pastel In Color, I Do Run T5's 4 Bulb Over Driven On A Ice Cap 660, And Using Vho's For Antic. Thinking Of Starting To Dose Amino Acids At Night Or Turning Skimmer Off At Night. Any Thought's Or Opinion's, Also Figure Worse Case I Would Switch Out To My Urchin Pro For A Few Weeks To See If It Makes Any Dufference

 

[Deanos]

"Pastel in color" as opposed to what?

 

[NYreefNoob]

Purple Arent As Dark As They Were In My Other System, Greens Look Good Ectept On One Cap That Has Turned Lime In Color

 

[Chongpark27]

Sps under t5 will turn more pastel in color.

 

[JLAudio]

out of curiosity, what nutrients could be getting skimmed out would be beneficial to the sps?

I am not very knowledgable on amino acids and their effect on sps, and if aminos are effected by over skimming and W/C's.

One thought though, I think cutting on skimming and W/C's might increase phosphates, which might be more harmful then the less nutrient rich water.

Please post results of aminos if you go that route, im curious because I water change like crazy and over skim

 

[meschaefer]

I am of the opinion that it is possible to over skim. On my 65g, I had strong deep colors on my SPS. When I got rid of my supper crappy modded red sea Berlin skimmer and replaced it with my DAS EX-2, I watched all of the corals in my tank turn pastel. When that tank crashed, and the corals moved to my friends tank with a more appropriately sized skimmer they all got their "original" colors back.

There is some anecdotal evidence out there that SPS need a certain amount of organic waste in the water column.

 

[JLAudio]

I am of the opinion that it is possible to over skim. On my 65g, I had strong deep colors on my SPS. When I got rid of my supper crappy modded red sea Berlin skimmer and replaced it with my DAS EX-2, I watched all of the corals in my tank turn pastel. When that tank crashed, and the corals moved to my friends tank with a more appropriately sized skimmer they all got their "original" colors back.

There is some anecdotal evidence out there that SPS need a certain amount of organic waste in the water column.

If this is the case, do you believe their is some additives that could give them the beneficial part of the water without the phosphates?

 

[meschaefer]

If this is the case, do you believe their is some additives that could give them the beneficial part of the water without the phosphates?

Fish Sh*t.

There is no such thing as an organic compound without phosphates. Every time you feed you add phsophates. The goal is to balance your phosphate input with your phosphate output. A large but appropriately sized skimmer, and GFO are all you need.

 

[NYreefNoob]

it was a article eric borneman wrote about it, you would actually be pulling out to much fish poop ect for the corals to be able to use it up. i found the article about it when researching the prodibio, i will be starting the prodibio this weekend and have seen good result's { pictures } from people who have been using it for while. and chong alexpescado and ming's corals dont have a pastel color to them, so i really dont think it is from the t5's

 

[mray]

Does anyone want to experiment with their skimmer? Skim a gallon of freshly prepared water and then test it and report back. It would be interesting to see what a skimmer is pulling out.

 

[reefkprZ]

here is a short list of SOME not ALL of the stuff a skimmer will pull out of a tank

Aluminum
Antimony
Arsenic
Barium
Beryllium
Boron
Cadmium
Calcium
Chromium
Cobalt
Copper
Iodine
Iron
Lead
Lithium
Magnesium
Manganese
Molybdenum
Nickel
Phosphorus
Potassium
Silicon
Sodium
Strontium
Sulfur
Thallium
Tin
Titanium
Vanadium
Yttrium
Zinc
H2O

they also pull small microfauna out of the tank and algae particles. (any thing small enough to stick to a microbubbles surface tension) including fine sand particles planktonic bacteria, and more.

in general you can asay a skimmer it for reducing nitrates but thats a blanket statement while ssemi accurate does not convey the total function of the device. a skimmer is not just for nitrates its a foam fractionation device. and removes many things some we consider benificial some we consider detrimental

is that too much info?

 

[mray]

Did you actually test for all of those or are you really good at googling?

 

[reefkprZ]

Did you actually test for all of those or are you really good at googling?

its from research done by Robert l Shimek, google "Down the drain: nutrient export in marine aquaria" great read LONG but really informative.

I'm fairly adept at googleing too. I'm also not scared of my local library. or to call local marine research programs etc. Networking with people in the feild of marine sciences is probably one of the biggest helps I have found when I get stumped on something.

 

[ming]

When you're skimming wet, you're pulling more of your saltwater into the cup and more saltwater = more elements. Not to say you're going to skim all of it out of your tank. I'm more concerned about what it skims disproportionally higher which is skim. Sure if you test the skim for calcium you will find it, but it probably is about as much as if you took a cup of water out of your tank. The same for a lot of other elements listed above.

I skim wet with my BM250 which is rated for a 600+ gallon. I have 125g (75+50) + 20g sump = 145gallons which is taking out half a gallon or more per week since the cup itself holds about a gallon

 

[NYreefNoob]

well after reading a few article's on this matter, you can't over skim. well you can, but then it become's to the point that there is nothing left o pull out of the system and the skimmer will not have anything left, bubble's wont be the same and so on, so guess that theory is out. and worse case you would just feed more often

 

[reefkprZ]

Sure if you test the skim for calcium you will find it, but it probably is about as much as if you took a cup of water out of your tank.

no. skimmate contains about 2200 ppm calcium, sludge about 37000 ppm, far more than your average tank water....... a lot of the elements I listed are in minute amounts but some are VERY high amounts, blind guessing that it isnt much higher is just detrimental to knowledge and spreads ignorance.

 

[ming]

no. skimmate contains about 2200 ppm calcium, sludge about 37000 ppm

I can guarantee you that each person's skimmate will have different numbers then you listed. And according to what you just wrote, skimming dryer (sludge) will take out far more calcium then skimming wet, contradicting yourself.

 

[OctaviousMonk]

I can guarantee you that each person's skimmate will have different numbers then you listed. And according to what you just wrote, skimming dryer (sludge) will take out far more calcium then skimming wet, contradicting yourself.

I think he is talking averages not exact numbers. Not to mention sludge from drier skimming is more concentrated so of course it will have a higher calcium number then wet skimmate. a liter of wet skimmate is the same as liter of dry skimmate only one takes longer to collect and is much denser then the other.

 

[reefkprZ]

I can guarantee you that each person's skimmate will have different numbers then you listed. And according to what you just wrote, skimming dryer (sludge) will take out far more calcium then skimming wet, contradicting yourself.

of course the numbers vary from machine to machine tank to tank, but I dont see how I contadicted myself. a dry skimm is more solids thus prone tio higher levels of solid matter.....

 

[NYreefNoob]

If You Ran Your Skimmer Dry For A Week And Took Everything From If Scraping It Clean And Diluted It In X Amount Of Water And Did The Same For A Wet Skimmate, I Bet It Would Equal Out To Be The Same Taken From The Tank, Dry Skimming Just Give's You A More Concentrate Of The Same Stuff