acrylic51
Active Member
acekjd83 excellent argument smarls!
i agree that if there is "no bioload" then a protein skimmer is pointless, but.... who has a tank with no bioload? every organism (with the exception of plants) that an aquarist wants in their tank excretes ammonia, including corals, sponges, crabs, fish and starfish. even the little copepods and brine shrimp that you dont see because they only come out at night excrete ammonia. there is more bioload in your tank than you might at first think...
with this in mind, i believe that a skimmer is a very important part of a sw setup, and that going without will limit the numbers and types of animals you can keep, and create much more work and annoyance than what a low-end skimmer would cost. BUT, if you're bound and determined to go without it, then good luck, and do lots of water changes!
Acekjd83 Smarls argument is pointless every tank has a bioload if it has living organisms in like you said so how does he have a solid case????
He Doesn't!!!!!!
Smarls you say just a coral tank???? smarls Acrylic,
I think the question was if there is NO bioload, ie - a coral only tank, then is a skimmer needed? In my opinion I don't think so, particularly with regular water changes.
Obviously with a bioload, a skimmer (or some form of mechanical / biological filtration) is needed, but without a real bioload from any animals (and yes, snails etc make some bioload) what is the need for exporting nutrients that actually are never present in the system? The biological filtration should be able to handle minimal amounts of nutrients produced only by the corals. No fish, no inverts, no feeding...almost no bioload.
How do you know what the real bioload is on your system??? You don't so again "dead in the water" You are trying to persuade people to believe and you won't find to many that will go skimmerless. Not saying it can't be done, but I would really have to have NSW at my disposal to try it that way.....Do you have NSW at your disposal feeding the tank constantly???? Again your point of just having a "Coral tank" is pointless. YES their is a bioload and you corals can send out toxins to combat other corals and a skimmer would be a good line of defense along with carbon to combat these toxins!!!!!!!!! But I forgot your doing water changes everyday to remove the bioload from your system???? To many water changes on a system is more harmfull than good skimmer and filter system.....You system would never be stable, because their would to much influx in things with a daily water change unless you have a way of fixing your parameter match eveytime.....
In the case of a bioload tank, the bet is that the skimmer removes more of the bad than it does the good, and the good can be replenished through water changes, supplements etc. The benefit of removing the bad (no algae build up, better water quality, etc) outweights the damage of removing the good (loss of trace items that can be good for the tank).
Smarls again your point is way off base with a bioload a skimmer is removing bad and some good (trace elements) and you keep saying good and the only thing you've mentioned good it removes is trace elements so again pointless because water changes are going to replace them so what's your point in saying they remove good things when your replacing them anyways with a water change???? It's pointless!!!!
However, in a case where there is no bioload in a tank, and thus very few nutrients to be removed, a skimmer will be taking more of the good stuff than the bad stuff, as there is actually very little bad elements int he tank. Removing more positive elements from the water than negative elements is detrimental unless the bad stuff left creates a problem. In the event with a very low bioload, with water changes, I think the skimmer may do more harm than good, and may prove unnecassary.
Smarls there you go again saying no bioload!!!! If you have no bioload it means you only have water and salt in the tank dude!!!! Live rock, fish, inverts, corals all produce waste, so if you have a empty tank you have no bioload!!!!!!!! So again you point is pointless!!!!!
I'd like to see you post some hard facts about overskimming... I'd like to see a tank that is overskimmed??? Apparently you haven't looked at Steve Wests' tank and that is a real setup and you won't hear him say about overskimming a tank... So again if your keeping an anenome and a clown I would still say you need a skimmer.... It's up to you, but you won't win the argument of no bioload or no skimmer in a coral tank!!!!!! Wake up a skimmer is needed!!!!!!
i agree that if there is "no bioload" then a protein skimmer is pointless, but.... who has a tank with no bioload? every organism (with the exception of plants) that an aquarist wants in their tank excretes ammonia, including corals, sponges, crabs, fish and starfish. even the little copepods and brine shrimp that you dont see because they only come out at night excrete ammonia. there is more bioload in your tank than you might at first think...
with this in mind, i believe that a skimmer is a very important part of a sw setup, and that going without will limit the numbers and types of animals you can keep, and create much more work and annoyance than what a low-end skimmer would cost. BUT, if you're bound and determined to go without it, then good luck, and do lots of water changes!
Acekjd83 Smarls argument is pointless every tank has a bioload if it has living organisms in like you said so how does he have a solid case????
He Doesn't!!!!!! Smarls you say just a coral tank???? smarls Acrylic,
I think the question was if there is NO bioload, ie - a coral only tank, then is a skimmer needed? In my opinion I don't think so, particularly with regular water changes.
Obviously with a bioload, a skimmer (or some form of mechanical / biological filtration) is needed, but without a real bioload from any animals (and yes, snails etc make some bioload) what is the need for exporting nutrients that actually are never present in the system? The biological filtration should be able to handle minimal amounts of nutrients produced only by the corals. No fish, no inverts, no feeding...almost no bioload.
How do you know what the real bioload is on your system??? You don't so again "dead in the water" You are trying to persuade people to believe and you won't find to many that will go skimmerless. Not saying it can't be done, but I would really have to have NSW at my disposal to try it that way.....Do you have NSW at your disposal feeding the tank constantly???? Again your point of just having a "Coral tank" is pointless. YES their is a bioload and you corals can send out toxins to combat other corals and a skimmer would be a good line of defense along with carbon to combat these toxins!!!!!!!!! But I forgot your doing water changes everyday to remove the bioload from your system???? To many water changes on a system is more harmfull than good skimmer and filter system.....You system would never be stable, because their would to much influx in things with a daily water change unless you have a way of fixing your parameter match eveytime.....
In the case of a bioload tank, the bet is that the skimmer removes more of the bad than it does the good, and the good can be replenished through water changes, supplements etc. The benefit of removing the bad (no algae build up, better water quality, etc) outweights the damage of removing the good (loss of trace items that can be good for the tank).
Smarls again your point is way off base with a bioload a skimmer is removing bad and some good (trace elements) and you keep saying good and the only thing you've mentioned good it removes is trace elements so again pointless because water changes are going to replace them so what's your point in saying they remove good things when your replacing them anyways with a water change???? It's pointless!!!!
However, in a case where there is no bioload in a tank, and thus very few nutrients to be removed, a skimmer will be taking more of the good stuff than the bad stuff, as there is actually very little bad elements int he tank. Removing more positive elements from the water than negative elements is detrimental unless the bad stuff left creates a problem. In the event with a very low bioload, with water changes, I think the skimmer may do more harm than good, and may prove unnecassary.
Smarls there you go again saying no bioload!!!! If you have no bioload it means you only have water and salt in the tank dude!!!! Live rock, fish, inverts, corals all produce waste, so if you have a empty tank you have no bioload!!!!!!!! So again you point is pointless!!!!!
I'd like to see you post some hard facts about overskimming... I'd like to see a tank that is overskimmed??? Apparently you haven't looked at Steve Wests' tank and that is a real setup and you won't hear him say about overskimming a tank... So again if your keeping an anenome and a clown I would still say you need a skimmer.... It's up to you, but you won't win the argument of no bioload or no skimmer in a coral tank!!!!!! Wake up a skimmer is needed!!!!!!
