The reason I ask is; Dana Riddle told me about when he ran his coral farms. He used skimmers & the old school horizontal style Adey algae scrubbers. When servicing the scrubbers he would scrape off the excess algae on the screens, rinse them under fresh water, put them straight back into the system, and then his skimmers would go nuts for an hour or more.
I later read some science on algae (Ulva) in the tidal zone, & realised why this was happening.
When Dana cleaned the screens it stressed the algae, & rinsing the algae under fresh water stressed it even more. When algae gets stressed they release a lot of exudates (DOC) for a given period of time, & the skimmers would be processing this sudden influx of organic compounds released into the system.
I don't run a skimmer or GAC. After I clean my screen, & I mow it right down till you can see the plastic, I rinse it in fresh water, but then I sit it in a small container of aquarium water for 15 to 30 minutes while its stressed out.