How long can a protien skimmer be turned off for?

wartooth1

wartooth1

Member
So I've begun raising live brine shrimp for my tank, but I'm worried that the protien skimmer might be sucking up the baby shrimps when the eggs hatch and they swim out of the hatchery.
It takes a few days for all the eggs to hatch so I'm wondering if I had my protien skimmper off during this time would it cause problems with my tank?
Thank! :D
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
no,i ran a 90 reef for well over 10 years without a skimmer.actually i have ran plenty of tanks without a skimmer.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wartooth1 http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463428
So I've begun raising live brine shrimp for my tank, but I'm worried that the protien skimmer might be sucking up the baby shrimps when the eggs hatch and they swim out of the hatchery.
It takes a few days for all the eggs to hatch so I'm wondering if I had my protien skimmper off during this time would it cause problems with my tank?
Thank! :D
Most of us overskim. You can run your skimmer for a few days once a month. When I first strated, thats how often I skimmed my reef tank. So for you to shut your skimmer down for a few days will not harm a thing. Some people don't even have skimmers at all...I don't recommend doing that, but a few days won't hurt anything for sure.
 
icedtc

icedtc

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463437
Most of us overskim. You can run your skimmer for a few days once a month. When I first strated, thats how often I skimmed my reef tank. So for you to shut your skimmer down for a few days will not harm a thing. Some people don't even have skimmers at all...I don't recommend doing that, but a few days won't hurt anything for sure.
My tank is very new (just cycled) and I have had my skimmer on 24/7. Would you recommend not doing this? Should I maybe have a timer with it on every other day or soemthing to that effect?
It's rated at 150 gallons but is used on my 92 gallon corner.
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
why not raise em in like a bucket or small container??? 50w heater and small ph, maybe a rock?!?!
sry i dont understand are u raising em in ur tank or hatching em in ur tank?
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Agree with 1guy.....Why not raise them in a separate container......
It is very feasible to run a tank without a skimmer, but necessary steps are usually taken to handle the nutrient exporting issues......As far as running a skimmer on a timer; probably not the best idea.....Not that it will harm the tank, but you can't know or predict when the optimum time is to skim. The skimmer is continually skimming therefore make it efficient as it is.....
 
kiefers

kiefers

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463437
Most of us overskim. You can run your skimmer for a few days once a month. When I first strated, thats how often I skimmed my reef tank. So for you to shut your skimmer down for a few days will not harm a thing. Some people don't even have skimmers at all...I don't recommend doing that, but a few days won't hurt anything for sure.
how does one over skim?
 
kiefers

kiefers

Active Member
Here one should run there own experiment at home. Just recently checked my skimmer. It is bubbling however nothing is reaching the tube where the bubble travels to get to the collection cup. Fed Last night, turned on the skimmer two hours later and the skimmer lost it's mind. This a.m. still going but nothing was being collected, the bubbles were just enough to be running.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463513
I don't think it's possible.....A skimmer will only pull what's there.......

LOL..you guys...overskim...well to me simply means skim when you don't need to..unnecessary...not needed. To overdo somthing because it isn't going to get any better for all the effort. Like 4 teaspoons of sugar in a cup of coffee well taste exactly the same as 5 or 6 or 10. Once you reach a point, that's it.
You won't get anymore out of a skimmer if you run it for 2 days and wait another 10 to skim again, or if you run the skimmer 24/7 for the whole 12 days straight. It will opnly pull out what is there to pull out. The fish and critters will not die because of what is in the water. It is just as safe to run a skimmer twice a month for a few days at a time, as it is to run it it 24/7
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Flower how can you honestly say or know or see or suspect that the tank needs skimmed.......In my thinking the object is to get consistent skimmate instead of having the skimmer going full bore maxed out working like a workhorse for a day or 2 then nothing.....Seems your parameters could possibly waver as well......
 
kiefers

kiefers

Active Member
I can see her point. I really can. I guess it all depends on how heavily one feeds. However, the molecules that do not have pronounced hydrophobic sections are not good candidates for removal by skimming, and so they should remain at this plateau level, back to the homeostasis or the tanks norm, if there is a such thing, the system after all of the "skimmable" molecules have been removed. In reality, and once again, pending on the feeding habits of the hobbyst, only what needs to be skimmed will be removed.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463518
Flower how can you honestly say or know or see or suspect that the tank needs skimmed.......In my thinking the object is to get consistent skimmate instead of having the skimmer going full bore maxed out working like a workhorse for a day or 2 then nothing.....Seems your parameters could possibly waver as well......

Well, I'm going to agree with you there...you would think parameters would flex, but remember, a skimmer skims what you can't test for (nitrates, phosphates and such are not pulled out by the skimmer) , so those parameters really won't change. I also skim 24/7. The fish guru says you just kind of know your tank, and that I would know when I would need to skim. (reminds me of the professional cook...just a pinch of that..Well..Whats a pinch?)
When my Octopus skimmer froze up here not too long ago...it was over 2 months before I got it up and working again. I would skim but if I unplugged it to clean the cup..it wouldn't start back up, I got frustrated and let it just go without a skimmer. By the end of the second month, my water looked green...now remember I don't do regular water changes on the 90g because I have the Aquaripure filter and I was testing out the claim of "if you are tired of water changes"....(I won't get into that now.) But I am..LOL..back to water changes, but nitrates stayed at 0 as Aquaripure claimed.
I did some water changes and I still had green tinged water...a little clearer, but it returned to the green by the days end. I managed to get the bottom of the sump cleaned up and got the skimmer working again, and not clogging up from crusty sediment. The skimmer is pulling out very dark skim, and the green is gone completely. So it's true you can notice a change in the water if you let the skimmer go too long. My tests read fine, the green water looked bad, but didn't hurt anything.
So to tell someone to let the skimmer sit off for a few days...won't make any difference. It takes a long time before you really see any change in the tank water. Also like I said, I have had bad skimmers that hardly worked at all...and my reef tank was fine, but I also do not have SPS corals.
 
wartooth1

wartooth1

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1guyDude http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463476
why not raise em in like a bucket or small container??? 50w heater and small ph, maybe a rock?!?!
sry i dont understand are u raising em in ur tank or hatching em in ur tank?
Bah raising shrimp in a seperate bucket is too much work! I'm lazy and crave convienence! :)
Just for fun I got this little device that goes inside the tank that houses live brine shrimp eggs and when the eggs hatch the baby shrimp are pumped into a seperate chamber where they are slowly released into the aquarium... sort of a hybrid hatchery/automatic feeder. It came with a jar of what looks like millions of brine eggs and I've been putting the eggs into the device once every few days. I could see tiny baby brine swimming around inside the device and I can see some exiting the gateway and swimming into the tank... but I've yet to actually see any brine swimming around in the tank, which leads me to believe either hundreds or thousands of baby brine are being eaten extremely quickly by averything else or they are all getting sucked up by my filtration or skimmer.
I believe atleast SOME brine are getting eaten because ever since I installed the device I've noticed some corals perking up and some fish out in the open (hunting maybe?) instead of lurking in their usual hiding spots.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wartooth1 http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463534
Bah raising shrimp in a seperate bucket is too much work! I'm lazy and crave convienence! :)
Just for fun I got this little device that goes inside the tank that houses live brine shrimp eggs and when the eggs hatch the baby shrimp are pumped into a seperate chamber where they are slowly released into the aquarium... sort of a hybrid hatchery/automatic feeder. It came with a jar of what looks like millions of brine eggs and I've been putting the eggs into the device once every few days. I could see tiny baby brine swimming around inside the device and I can see some exiting the gateway and swimming into the tank... but I've yet to actually see any brine swimming around in the tank, which leads me to believe either hundreds or thousands of baby brine are being eaten extremely quickly by averything else or they are all getting sucked up by my filtration or skimmer.
I believe atleast SOME brine are getting eaten because ever since I installed the device I've noticed some corals perking up and some fish out in the open (hunting maybe?) instead of lurking in their usual hiding spots.
Sounds like a cool little device....I wonder how useful such a thing would be to keep baby seahorses alive. All they eat are newly hatched baby brine shrimp....or does your gizmo hoard the shrimp past that stage?
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
I know what he's talking about flower, and its not designed to keep the shrimp to grow, they are supposed to hatch, and then swim right out into your tank, now I don't know how well it works, but thats how its supposed to work. lol
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/390862/how-long-can-a-protien-skimmer-be-turned-off-for#post_3463727
I know what he's talking about flower, and its not designed to keep the shrimp to grow, they are supposed to hatch, and then swim right out into your tank, now I don't know how well it works, but thats how its supposed to work. lol
If the newly hatched shrimp swim out...we might have the beginnings of a way to save my baby horses. Keeping big jars of different ages of shrimp just didn't sound too good. Wow...now I'm thinking about dwarf seahorses...
look what a monster you created.
 
wartooth1

wartooth1

Member
@ Flower after messing with this thing for the last few days I do believe it is possible to "hoard" some of the shrimp by simply not turning the air pump the device is attached to on. Without the bubbles the shrimp tend to stay in the "collection chamber" and don't get pushed out into the secondary chamber where the shrimp are eventually released into the tank... so yeah, even though it's not designed to hoard the shrimp, it is certainly possible.
So far, even when the thing is functioning as intended you don't really see tons of baby shrimp being pushed out anyway... just a few at a time. But last night after the lights have been off for a few hours I noticed tons of the little guys swimming around like little bugs so at least now I know they're surviving to hopefully grow up to become a nice snack! ;)
Here's a pic of the thing just so y'all know what I'm talking about.

You dump several scoops of eggs into the chamber at the upper right and bubbles are pumped through the main chamber. This shakes the eggs around and eventually they are deposited at the chamber at the bottom left. Notice all the eggs already deposited at the bottom. In this pic I turned off the air pump so you can see all the baby brine that hatched but are still in the main bubbly chamber (yes all those little specs are alive). However with the bubbles on, the shrimp that hatched in the left chamber have no where to go but up, which is where they are released into the tank.
And once all the eggs hatch and there are still shrimp stuck in the main chamber, all you got to do is take off the plastic roof and they can escape that way.
 
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