Can it be this easy. Certainly a week respected company
Anecdotally I have experienced success limiting cyano by adding beneficial bacteria and being more stringent with tank maintenance although I have not followed this recipe exactly. If you would be interested in following the recipe to a T and documenting it here on Reef2Reef for the benefit of the community, shoot me an email at
[email protected].
Jeff @ Marine Depot
Also I’ve heard Dr. Tim and others talk about over skimming before. So the question is how does one know if they are and if so how do you stop? Buy a new smaller skimmer or adjust the one you have to a drier skimmate?
This morning I invited Dr. Tim himself to join our discussion so he can share his experiences on over-skimming. One approach hobbyists take is to put their skimmer on a timer. Here is what
Colin Foord from Coral Morphologic told us about running a skimmer on a timer:
"While we’ve long run our protein skimmer continuously, I’m beginning to consider running our protein skimmer on a 6 hour on, 6 hour off cycle. When you think about the reef, corals are not always bathed in the same quality water all day long. Most reefs around the world get washed with 2 tidal cycles each day. At low tide, these corals are usually subject to water with less clarity… due to the higher concentrations of phytoplankton that are abundant in shallower, nearshore habitats. At high tide, cleaner, clearer oxygen-rich water comes back in to bathe them, just as a protein skimmer does. Last year we began live phytoplankton dosing in all our tanks, and couldn’t be happier with the results. Ideally, I’d love to dose live phytoplankton for 6 hours with the protein skimmer off, then run the protein skimmer for 6 hours to remove the excess phyto and nutrients from the system. Any time we can mimic the natural rhythms of life in our reef tanks, I think the corals and marine life stand to directly benefit."
Bryan from Santa Monica Filtration added:
The less it runs, the more food particles remain in the water. Since natural reefs have the most food particles at night, turning the skimmer off at night makes the most sense. This also matches what most reefers want: clear looking water during the day. I personally however like to see food particles swarming throughout the water column, knowing that the corals and small fish are getting the particles they are used to getting. Any diver will recognize and appreciate the huge amounts of food particles.
Jeff @ Marine Depot
has this been tested for dinoflagellates with any success?
Dr. Tim actually has another recipe for
dinoflagellates! Here it is:
Jeff @ Marine Depot
