Cheato and skimmer

[Coreys reef adventure]

So, my tank is up and running, I’m wondering when I should turn on my skimmer and put in cheato? I already have a light, skimmers in place, just not quite sure when to turn it on and out in the cheato, suggestions? My tank has been up and running for a week now

 

[andrewey]

As far as the skimmer is concerned, that's quite a long debate that's been fought over for decades (to skim or not to skim during a cycle). If you've finished cycling, go ahead and turn the skimmer on- if you haven't finished cycling, I'll leave it to whatever you choose

As far as cheato is concerned, I'd hold off. You likely don't have enough nutrients in the water yet for it to grow and it would slowly start to die, causing a nutrient spike fueling a worse "ugly phase". I usually wait until I've finished with my diatom explosion and start seeing a proliferation of green algae before throwing in the cheato.

 

[Fishy212]

Skimming will depend on your bioload. I usually turn my skimmers on after feeding the fish and corals, turn them off while dosing. There are plenty of articles on R2R that support skimming and plenty of reefers who don't use a skimmer at all.

Cheato is for your nutrient export. You wont really know what your needs are until your tank has matured a bit.

 

[Coreys reef adventure]

Oh thank you guys. I’ve gotten a lot of mixed signals for what I should do.. I just bought a bottle of bacteria, that I’m going to cycle in my tank (takes two months) and once that is done I’ll turn on my skimmer and put some cheato in