Protein skimmers a discussion for different than everyday questions.

[L1g_reefer]

Hello! Thank you for visiting this thread. Some interesting things I have come across regarding protein skimmers. Most notably only running the protein skimmer 6 hours a day (Leng miracle system). Has anybody seen or heard of This benefiting at all? It makes some sense to me as it removes the bad and good while skimming. Feel free to answer and ask any question or just discuss about protein skimmers.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would run my skimmer 24/7 even if the only thing it did was aerate the water, because of the desirability of gas exchange. Most tanks do not exchange gas especially well. If they did that perfectly, there would be no day to night pH change.

On running it part time, I'm not sure I see the rationale. If you want to skim less, that's fine, but you can skim less 24/7. I'm also somewhat concerned about stagnant water standing in a skimmer for hours, potentially generating hydrogen sulfide.