Protein Skimmer vs. UV

[scotikis]

Acrylic - thanks for the feedback. I was at my LFS tonight and asked if my guy was running a skimmer on any on the tanks that he has in the store and his personal tanks. He said for his fish tanks in both locations, he is not. In the store he has 1300 gallons running through 2 enormous canister filters - and I've gotta say, they look really nice. Now on his reef side of the display area, he is running one skimmer because he says the dissolved organics load justifies having a skimmer. At his home Reef and FOWLR, he has ecosystems running with miracle mud and calerpa (wrong spelling, I'm sure...seaweed).
His primary bones of contention are that for the cost of a skimmer (both financial and maintenance), they are not worth the benefit. According to him, a correctly sized eco with mud and seaweed in a FOWLR system will function just fine without a skimmer. Correctly sized being approximately 1/3 the size of the tank (eg. 38 gallon eco on a 125 tank).
This approach is perpendicular to literally ALL of the feedback on this thread..but IMO his display tanks and the fish inside look quite pristime.

 

[bdhutier]

Scotikis,
I'm no pro by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a difference between "clear" and "clean" water. the UV "sterilizer" is only really meant to kill bacteria etc. UV degrades DNA, which is why over-exposure to it is a factor in human cancer. If the bacterias' DNA is degraded enough, that effectively kills it (although I'd be interested to do some streak-plates to see how effective they really are... not very, would be my guess). Nitrates, ammonia, etc., being chemical compounds, are not affected at all by UV's.
Skimmers, on the other hand, trap much of the microscopic debris floating around in the water. Skimmers are really not a big deal to maintain, and are often pretty cheap depending on size. You can make one yourself for even less. The big advantage to skimmers is, they will trap the particles that would otherwise pass through even a polishing filter like a freeway underpass. The above mentioned chemical compounds, since they are dissolved within the water, will not be caught by the skimmer either, except incidental to the "goop's" moisture. Enter the Chaeto, etc. I'd guess his water looks good because of the macroscopic filtering of the cannisters, but I'd bet his water is chock full of little nasties and microscopic sludge.
Hope this helps!!

 

[al mc]

Scot...How long has he been running these 'natural' tanks? There are some people that do not use skimmers on these type of set ups. However, for the average hobbyist it is far better, IMO, to use a skimmer and a sump/refugium if possible.

 

[scotikis]

bd / al - thanks for the awesome feedback. This guy has been running these display cases in this fashion for 5 years. Thanks again for the feedback, your sharing of opinions is greatly appreciated.