Skimmate - How much is enough?

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hellfire

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Alright, I have a pretty big bioload I would think.

Foxface
2 Percula's
2 Anemone's
2 Chromis
Damsel
Mandarin Goby
Dottyback
Lawnmower Blenny
Pink Spot Goby
Some other goby that name escapes me

So, with that in mind, how much skimmate do you think I should pull out per week/month, etc. I get about a quarter of a 2 liter bottle every couple weeks. I have a MR-2 Skimmer.

To me that just doesn't seem like enough, I see other people fill up collection cups nearly every day.

So I wanted to know if that was normal, or I need to do some serious skimmer tuning.

Tyler
 
How wet are you skimming? How big is your CUC? Lots of factors. Do you feed the heck outta your tank? Under feed it? Do you have lots of coral?
Your sand sifters help pull some of the fish crap out of the water and sand, if you do not over feed and skim really dry then that may be all you get. I run my skimmer on my light cycle to help with ph swings and simply because I do not want to pull ALL the nutrients out of the water. I get maybe a collection cup a month, and I skim pretty wet. If you are using an MR-2 I would think its getting just about everything out it can.
 
kayakATL;487828 wrote: How wet are you skimming? How big is your CUC? Lots of factors. Do you feed the heck outta your tank? Under feed it? Do you have lots of coral?
Your sand sifters help pull some of the fish crap out of the water and sand, if you do not over feed and skim really dry then that may be all you get. I run my skimmer on my light cycle to help with ph swings and simply because I do not want to pull ALL the nutrients out of the water. I get maybe a collection cup a month, and I skim pretty wet. If you are using an MR-2 I would think its getting just about everything out it can.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. Skimming pretty wet. Definetly not dry.
CUC is about 10 blue legs, and 100 or so snails. Nothing else.
I feed normally two cubes a day.

I run my skimmer all day.

Tyler
 
Do you get green skimmate, or black skimmate? I can pull out 1/2 gallon of greenish brown skimmate in a week with my Octopus DNW-150. I thought the definition of skimming "wet" was getting more water and less "gunk" but then there's less time for the gunk to break down.
 
bet the whole place will go to h3ll when they find out that i only run the skimmer once a week. lol
 
Haha, I turn the one in my room off at night if I sleep in there. Half the time I fall asleep on the couch so it stays on.
 
i know a few that do what i do and their corals are amazing.
they noticed growth big time after they shut theirs down and did it once a week. i have noticed my zoas have spread faster since i started this.
my shrooms have really colored up too.
i could go on and on but im sure it will spark something lol.
 
I am starting to take the Rick approach to skimming. A skimmer removes good and bad nutrients. I would like my corals to be able to filter more good out on their own. As of now I am on the light cycle. I am not sure I am comfortable doing it only once a week. I will see how my tank reacts to the 12 hr cycle first. Main reason I cannot see only going once a week is the skimmer is the best thing I got to get oxygen in the water. When the tank is sleeping it can afford to have a lower O2 transfer, but I do not wan to suffocate my tank either.
 
What pump are you running with the MR2.. In about 2 weeks I pull around a gallon of black skimmate with my MR-2..

Dual beckett or single?
 
Yup.. And up until last week the bioload was
Lawnmower blenny
Small Scopus Tang
2 clowns
2 chromis
Watchmen goby

In a 210 with a 75 sump..
 
ricksconnected;487849 wrote: wow thats a lot of animals. how big is this tank? 100gal i hope.
Click to expand...

Dakota9;487856 wrote: What size tank?
Click to expand...

120G, and it seems like I don't have many fish honestly. Most of the gobies hide all day, I only have 5 or so active fish.

au01st;487866 wrote: Do you get green skimmate, or black skimmate? I can pull out 1/2 gallon of greenish brown skimmate in a week with my Octopus DNW-150. I thought the definition of skimming "wet" was getting more water and less "gunk" but then there's less time for the gunk to break down.
Click to expand...

Its more... Brown? And yes, my skimmate is watery, not so much thick gunk.

DrNecropolis;487915 wrote: What pump are you running with the MR2.. In about 2 weeks I pull around a gallon of black skimmate with my MR-2..

Dual beckett or single?
Click to expand...

Single Beckett. Running Blueline 55.
 
kayakATL;487896 wrote: Main reason I cannot see only going once a week is the skimmer is the best thing I got to get oxygen in the water. When the tank is sleeping it can afford to have a lower O2 transfer, but I do not want to suffocate my tank either.
Click to expand...


my HOB filter keeps 02 in the water.
throw you a bubbler in the sump on the intake side.
wont put bubbles in display.
 
My skimmer never turns off. I run it 24x7 and clean it every 2-3 days.

I dont really get what you guys are saying about "the skimmer pulling out the good stuff."

If you're concerned with corals not being fed, believe me -- they will with fish poo and other particles. The benefits of having your skimmer pull out all the crap far outweighs the negatives of pulling out a little bit of nutrients.

I run a reef octopus extreme 160, and clean the collection cup every 2-3 days. Its pretty amazing the amount of gunk it pulls out of the water column. I can't imagine what all that crap would do to my water parameters if it had to just hang out because I was only running my skimmer once a week.

Then again, I know I have a pretty big bioload on a 120g. I think the added injection of oxygen into the water makes my 3x tangs pretty happy. They love oxygenated water.
 
yeah thats what i use to think too. my water quality is pretty dang good honestly. the skimmer pulls out more than just "a little bit" of
nutrients. my corals have really started to grow and color up since i started this. theres several on here that do what i do, but that wont tell you so. they know that if they mention it publicly they will be bashed for it. heck, theres a couple on here that dont even run a skimmer and they have beautiful displays.
skimming gets pounded into your head almost daily on this site.
soon you start to think the same way.
 
I can say I notice everything exactly opposite as you rick. Not to say your wrong, just different results I guess.
 
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