skimmer on a timer?

[jsab]

I was wondering what you thought about placing my skimmer on a timer. I thought since I was adding calcium and phytoplankton to my tank during the day, it would give the corals some time to extract them. I guess my question is would it hurt to only run it at night when the light is off. And, is it going to be a drastic change in water temperature that might cause ick or any other problem?

 

[xdave]

Personally I wouldn't have it off for that long, but having it off for a few hours after supplementing is cool. Depending on the size of the skimmer/size of tank, and whether or not it has its own pump, I doubt if the temp change would be significant. If it did make a difference retailers would start calling them skimmer/chillers :thinking:

 

[bojik]

Should work fine if you don't have a heavy bioload. Perhaps (if you do this) a slightly higher rated skimmer for the tank size.