Running vs Not Running A Protein Skimmer

[denverjon]

About a month ago my protein skimmer was overlflowing so I turned it off and forgot about it. Since that time, my corals have never looked better (I have a mixed reef tank). My zoas in particular are bigger than I've ever noticed and mutliplying at a good rate. I don't know if not running the protein skimmer is the reason but is there a chance it was pulling too many nutrients out of the system? Does anyone not run a protein skimmer at all? Another option I was thinking about was putting it on a timer and just run it during the day.

 

[t5Nitro]

I know that @Chaswood79 has his powered off during the day for a period of time to let his coral take up the nutrients during peak times. I just got a kasa smart power strip and will have my skimmer likely on a schedule.

 

[Pistondog]

About a month ago my protein skimmer was overlflowing so I turned it off and forgot about it. Since that time, my corals have never looked better (I have a mixed reef tank). My zoas in particular are bigger than I've ever noticed and mutliplying at a good rate. I don't know if not running the protein skimmer is the reason but is there a chance it was pulling too many nutrients out of the system? Does anyone not run a protein skimmer at all? Another option I was thinking about was putting it on a timer and just run it during the day.

I agree with your assessments. I do like the skimmer for air exchange. Maybe run yours with the collection up off, and assess as another data point.

 

[Darren in Tacoma]

We run ours at night for gas exchange and just let the water drain from the cup back into the sump. We are still very lightly stocked and keeping nitrates and phos up is our current challenge.

 

[Tired]

If you need to take gunk and/or nutrients out of the tank, a skimmer is great. If you don't, leave it off. Zoas often don't like protein skimmers because they like the nutrients the skimmer removes.

Plenty of very nice reefs run without skimmers.