It doesn't matter where you look research is showing the right microbial balance is essential. Whether it's sustanable farming or sustaining our own mental and physical well being we need the right microbial processes.
Feldman, et al, showed over 12 years ago skimmers are skewing the bacterial counts in reef aquariums and doing so by removing just the hydrophobic species. Skimmers also do nothing for the hydrophilic compounds research has shown promotes pathogenic shifts in coral microbiomes. (An excellent introduction to the roles of DOC and microbail processes is Forest ROhwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas", kindle is ~$10.) And what's been been pretty much overlooked for quite awhile is the cryptic zones in our reef systems recycle the labile hydrophobic DOC about 1000X faster than the bacterioplankton by skimming - success attributed to skimming may actually be due to the cryptic zones and sponges in the system. We need to be thinking in terms of how to maintain the proper microbial processes to maintain corals fo rtheir normal life expectancies. and we need to be thinking in terms of total total Nitrogen and total Phosphorus, not just nitrates and phosphates.
SOme may find these videos informative:
Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"
Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes
Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont
BActeria and Sponges
Some of my skimmerless systems:
90 Gallon Mixed Reef
500 gallon
Mixed Reef started in 1997, 10-07-19
220 Rimless 450 view
Some of links for those interested.
Element cycling on tropical coral reefs.
This is Jasper de Geoij's ground breaking research on reef sponges. (The introduction is in Dutch but the content is in English.)
Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle
Marine sponges are ubiquitous colonizers of shallow, clear-water environments in the oceans (1, 2). Sponges have emerged as significant mediators of biogeochemical fluxes in coastal zones by virtue of respiring organic matter and facilitating both the consumption and release of nutrients (3, 4)...
www.pnas.org
Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges
(Chris Kenndall had a problem with low PO4 and had problems raising it with Neophos. Samples sent off showed phosphorus crystals developing in some of the sponges in his system accounting for at least some of his systems consumption.)
Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that raise a conundrum called “Darwin’s paradox”: How can high production flourish in low-nutrient conditions? We show here that in three abundant Caribbean sponges, the granules that have been commonly observed in sponge tissue for decades are...
www.pnas.org
Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop.
Sponges treat DOC from algae differently than DOC from corals
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Surviving in a Marine Desert The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs
Dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen are quickly processed by sponges and released back into the reef food web in hours as carbon and nitrogen rich detritus.
PDF | On Jun 23, 2015, Jasper M de Goeij and others published 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net
Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)
Coral-excavating sponges are the most important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs and increase in abundance throughout the region. This increase is commonly attributed to a concomitant increase in food availability due to eutrophication and pollution. ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The Role of Marine Sponges in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles of COral Reefs and Nearshore Environments.
Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.
search.proquest.com
Protein Skimmer Performance, Pt 1
Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Protein skimmers have become indispensable for many aquarists who strive to maintain the high water quality necessary to keep stony corals.
reefs.com
Protein Skimmer Performance, Pt 2
Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Many factors contribute to the 'value' of a skimmer to an aquarist, including quality of construction, size, footprint, noise level, ease of cleaning, energy efficiency of the pump, and of course, the ability...
reefs.com
Skimmate Analysis
Elemental Analysis of Skimmate
Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. The chemical/elemental composition of skimmate generated by an H&S 200-1260 skimmer on a 175-gallon reef tank over the course of several days or a week had some surprises.
reefs.com
Not sure I would consider that a strong cause and effect argument though. People like myself who run without may just be lazier in general and would never put in the effort it takes to run a reef of the month quality tank regardless of what equipment we had. I know my tank looks better today than it did with a skimmer at least.
