How often do you run protein skimmer??
- Thread starter mpjmeyer
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24/7 here
mhaun
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I ONLY back mine off for very short intervals if my nutrients drop below my target. Not the norm if you feed well.
If I drop below I will turn it off for a night and do a heavy feeding. Usually gets things back on track relatively quickly.
If I drop below I will turn it off for a night and do a heavy feeding. Usually gets things back on track relatively quickly.
Mini Coop
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I just went through this with nutrients dropping way low. I could tell because my elegance coral and my Acans were NOT happy. I turned mine off for a couple of nights, but on during the day, and all has stabilized where everyone is happy! Other than that, I run 24/7, only turn off if corals aren't happy and NO3 test is too low.
david p.
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i believe people should give more details on their system when answering. Answers may vary from a LPS to a SPS tank, mix reef, Fish only. could be different answers also for different size of skimmer vs tank volume.
my 2 cents.
i have a 85 gal, SPS only system, with a 25g LPS system, all hooked to my 40B sump. I run skimmer 24/7 except for 2 feeding periods of 30min. i may stop my skimmer longer when feeding reef roid, phyto. skimmer is a ice cap k-160.
also, i would consider my current fish load low to medium.
my 2 cents.
i have a 85 gal, SPS only system, with a 25g LPS system, all hooked to my 40B sump. I run skimmer 24/7 except for 2 feeding periods of 30min. i may stop my skimmer longer when feeding reef roid, phyto. skimmer is a ice cap k-160.
also, i would consider my current fish load low to medium.
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Daniel Strickland
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Our tank is in our family/living room.. so I have it set up to shut down from 7 to 10 every night.. my skimmer is a RO 202 in a 200g system. New tank and low bioload but haven't seen any problems yet.. when my ATS gets going better I want to try to leave it off longer..
I would run it full time to start. You need air and good ph. Plus in a new tank it'll take out a lot of little things you don't want. Try wet and also try it dry. It's new so the break in may dive you nuts. But don't sweat it esp foe the first several weeks while you cycle imo.
DarkSky
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I run mine 24/7/365 in my SPS tank, but I forgot to turn it back on after some maintenance this Friday and left for the weekend. I've never seen my corals looking so colorful and as much polyp extension as I did today.
I'll still run it all the time but I think when I'm about to have people over I'll shut it down for a few days prior. My nutrients are fairly low but I do keep them above absolute zero. I should have tested my nutrients before I switched it back on.
I'll still run it all the time but I think when I'm about to have people over I'll shut it down for a few days prior. My nutrients are fairly low but I do keep them above absolute zero. I should have tested my nutrients before I switched it back on.
Dumaurier7
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If you think about it, corals are filter feeders and we also dose food in various forms , if you run the skimmer continuously all it is going to do is remove the nutrients from the water! It would be ok on a FOWLER tank though.
