Confused about Skimmers

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by florida joe http:///t/388866/confused-about-skimmers/40#post_3433389
So the bottom line if I understand this right is to increase the bio load to feed the screen to decrees the high nitrates that cause the algae to grow in your tank. umm call me crazy but and this is just off the top of my head what if you addressed the initial reason for the algae growth in your tank which may have been high nutrients in the first place.
I believe the reason, at least for some, to employ the heavy feeding technique is to increase the amount of organic matter for corals to feed on. Yes, that stuff that skimmers pull out of the tank. Folks who are running scrubber only tanks that aren't doing water changes are reporting some really excellent growth in their corals while being able to manage the phosphate and trates with the scrubber. Even from the so called target feeders. If your fish are fat and happy, getting the nutrition that they need, there should be plenty of food floating around the tank for them to pick out of the rock work and therefor no need for algae to grow on the rocks to graze upon.
This is the tank that belongs to the photo of the algae growth that I posted earlier. I think he's been using a scrubber only, no water changes since last year sometime.

 

[florida joe]

Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 http:///t/388866/confused-about-skimmers/40#post_3433397
Sure, sure! We can't agree on everything! But, I will heed your advice and think about it for myself a little while. Maybe experiment here and there as time goes on. Thank you for this.
Good think of it in the context of children in a room, if the room is devoid of something satisfying and occupying their time they will surly get bored and agitated. Same with our fish

 

[florida joe]

The problem is that fish like dogs will eat and eat as long as food is presented. The end result is introducing ammonia into the tank while that is great for the nitrogen cycle it does little to feed our corals. Increasing the amount of food in the hopes of some of our corals that are not dependent solely on photosyntisus for food getting some can be easily accomplished by target feeding. If the food is floating around the water column as you state it will be quickly consumed by the fish, this is not the same as algae growth on live rock which presents a constant vegetable matter to be consumed by grazing fish
Quote:
I believe the reason, at least for some, to employ the heavy feeding technique is to increase the amount of organic matter for corals to feed on. Yes, that stuff that skimmers pull out of the tank. Folks who are running scrubber only tanks that aren't doing water changes are reporting some really excellent growth in their corals while being able to manage the phosphate and trates with the scrubber. Even from the so called target feeders. If your fish are fat and happy, getting the nutrition that they need, there should be plenty of food floating around the tank for them to pick out of the rock work and therefor no need for algae to grow on the rocks to graze upon

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by florida joe http:///t/388866/confused-about-skimmers/60#post_3433411
The problem is that fish like dogs will eat and eat as long as food is presented. The end result is introducing ammonia into the tank while that is great for the nitrogen cycle it does little to feed our corals. Increasing the amount of food in the hopes of some of our corals that are not dependent solely on photosyntisus for food getting some can be easily accomplished by target feeding. If the food is floating around the water column as you state it will be quickly consumed by the fish, this is not the same as algae growth on live rock which presents a constant vegetable matter to be consumed by grazing fish
My observations seem as though when my fish get full, they stop eating. Algae sheets work wonders for my grazers. Whether they get it off the rocks, get it from a clip, or get it from a cube, what's the difference, really? I haven't yet seen anyone report of fish dying from ammonia poisoning from the methods described above. You could easily target feed, or you can broadcast feed even easier. Just my take on it.

 

[jstdv8]

Quote:
Originally Posted by florida joe http:///t/388866/confused-about-skimmers/40#post_3433389
Oh now I understand, you had an algae problem due to high nitrates you assumed. You then decided to employ a turf scrubber to deal with the nitrates. The scrubber was not getting good growth because you felt that it was getting out competed by the algae in your DT even though it was getting the first shot at nutrient water via the flow over the screen. So you then were told to feed more, introducing more organics to further increase your nitrates. Now with all this added” food” you were able to grow enough algae on the screen to out compete the tank (the screen was getting nutrient water constantly as opposed to the algae in your DT.)Now on to the corals, you are maintaining corals that need target feeding I assume by your post. You feel that it is wiser to feed extra fish food in the hopes that your fish will not eat it and it will degrade to the point where it will be small enough for your corals to eat? And as your state you see no down side to over feed fish.
So the bottom line if I understand this right is to increase the bio load to feed the screen to decrees the high nitrates that cause the algae to grow in your tank. umm call me crazy but and this is just off the top of my head what if you addressed the initial reason for the algae growth in your tank which may have been high nutrients in the first place.
If you are reffering to constant water changes, minimal feedings and a good skimmer and some cheato. As I said before, I was doing this. 10% water change per week every single week, cheato, and only feeding about 1/8 of a cube of food every 3 days. my nitrates were always 20-40 phos hovered around .25.
So I guess if I have to feed in excess with no ill results to get a good phos and trate reading then I am going to do that.
Besides, how many on here are afraid to feed to much because they know the result will be an ammonia spike, phos spike or trate spike or all of the above? It's fun to feed fish, I would think everyone can agree on that.
So if you could feed as much as you want and have solid water parameters I guess I don't see the downside. I'm a very firm believer in the scrubbers as I've seen what they can do.
I think maybe what people don't realize is that growing Algae in your tank has no chance against growing algae on a screen. once the screen grows in it will easily out compete even the worst hair algae problems. The reason for this is the lack of water the light has to penetrate to get to the place where it can easily grow algae. On a scrubber there is no water penetration just a light waterfall over a screen, The lights are closer than the lights on the DT. The algae in the tank may get first crack at it, but that algae isn't getting the amount of light or the O2 that the scrubber gets.
The only downsides I've noticed to the scrubber is it's a bit noisy unless you fully enclose it (which I plan to do someday when I have some spare time) And you have to clean it once a week (takes approx 5 mins)
Upsides, keeps food in the tank to feed other things, exports loads of nutrients once a week, maintains solid parameters, grows mass amounts of pods, far less expansive than other forms of filtration, DIY which is always fun and rewarding, clean your glass far less often (I clean once every week to week and a half on the front glass), mixes a lot of O2 with the water, feed as much as you want. I'm sure I'm missing some others.
I'm making a real small one for my QT coral/invert/LR tank as well should be fun
I'm not maintaining any corals that would actually require spot feeding no. But it is my understanding that all corals pull something in the way of food from the water, some more than others.
I have a couple acros, leathers, montis, frog spawn, duncans, galaxia, zoas, xenia, mushrooms, some green encrusting thing I can never remember the name of and more kenya trees than anyone in the world would care to have in one tank