Maturing? (Skimmer question)

[Nonfamous]

Not a complete noob, but I'm new enough to need to ask.


I was thinking of upgrading my skimmer since the one I have now (eShoppes 150) hasn't been pulling much lately. Seems to be working fine, just not much is being collected in the cup. So I shopped around and found a few. Many are WAY out of my price range, but I did find a Marineland<?> 300 at a LFS on sale for $209. I didn't buy it, yet, hoping to find other options. Ones that I have heard of anyway!

So I did some reading and it seems that once a tank matures significantly, lots of folks discontinue the use of a skimmer. The natural filtration takes over and a skimmer isn't needed. Is this happening to my tank? I have a sump with LR in it and the display, along with LR, has a medium depth sand bed. I've been adding to my CUC lately so maybe thats the cause of the lessening skim?

Whats up? Any ideas?

 

[kevdogg]

Good question! Tagging along.

 

[Bifferwine]

I think this is true, but I think it takes more than a year for a tank to be considered "mature". I had a heavy duty skimmer running on my 90 gallon, and eventually disconnected it -- but I had a 40 gallon fuge filled with live rock and chaeto that was able to handle the filtration of the tank.

Do you ever clean the neck and cup of your skimmer?

 

[Smitty]

+1 Biff

 

[hoopsdaddy]

What is your bio load? What are your nitrates reading? Skimmers pull waste out of your tank. If you have small fish or only a couple fish and you don't overfeed, then you will have a very small bio load and you will go through periods that your skimmer won't pull much out. On the other side, if you have a lot of fish, large fish, or overfeed then your bio load will be larger and you should be skimming more. With all that said, you may not need a new skimmer.

 

[Nonfamous]

My bio load, well, more than it should be. I have 10 fish. They are small but still one more than is recommended. Minimal CUC. Three turbos, 11 turbins, 6 Nass, and whatever the other hundreds of tiny ones are. They are hitch hikers or something but they are tiny. Posted about these and all say they are ok. Going to add a dozen or so more Nass next week. (LFS was out of them yesterday)

I have been running two phosban reactors. One with phosban and the other with carbon. One week on one week off. I also have a filter sock/bag that I run on and off like that. I have LR in the sump but no light so no cheato. I don't appear to have any algae problems right now. All my tests show:

pH 8.1
SG 1.025
All ammonia cycle readings are 0.0
Calcium is 420
Negative for phosphates

 

[hoopsdaddy]

I would not spend a dime on a skimmer then. Your parameters are great, you have no algae problems, and are running other media to take care of many of the issues that might crop up and are changing the media regularly. If you keep you water changes up then you are doing a great job. Spend that money on something else!!!:Cheers::bounce::^::bounce: