too much filtration?

[djnzlab1]

HI,
I read a post about the over use of skimming and have decided to slow down on skimming, maybe a timer and only will skim at night when the fish are sleeping and many of the corals seem to close up.
I have also removed some of the fine filter to allow a little more stuff in the water to roll around and let the rocks and the sand do more work
I haven't see alot of those pods in the water maybe they are in the filter pads..
Will try it for a while see if I have a coral bloom or growth spurt,
Doug

[bulltrader]

Will be an interesting test. I've had some of the same thoughts. Keep us posted?

[Matt Rogers]

I've thought about this in the past but always wondered about how this would affect the calibration of the skimmer.

[bulltrader]

True, it usually takes a skimmer 24hrs and some adjustment to work properly once it's been stopped.

[djnzlab1]

Hi,
this is what made me re-think about over skimming.

Reef Central Online Community - Skimmerless

[amcarrig]

If you only keep soft corals, I wouldn't be too concerned about running a skimmer 24/7 but with SPS, a skimmer running 24/7 is an absolute must.

[omard]

Have often wondered if I was keeping water too "clean" --- good skimmer and use of filter socks.

Water is crystal clear & socks catch a lot of crud. Maybe I should shut of skimmer and pull off socks couple of days a week?

Corals seem to be doing OK as is...

Ummm, let us know how experiment goes.

[bulltrader]

In Additon to a skimmer I run an Ozonizer. My water is so clear people have actually asked me if there is water in my tank. No the fish fly!!
Everyone seems to be happy and growing..fish, inverts, coral and stuff

[djnzlab1]

HI,
I did add a rather large fluidized filter, its a real pain to prime so I put a rather large RIO pump on it with a adjusment valve so i can back it down if the sand is moving.
It prevents the need for priming the fluid bed if I lose power I just open the valve and that 1250 water flow gets that sand out and moving agin and then I back the water pressure down at the pump this allows more active bacterial action that dosen't need as much maint as many of the filter pads do.
will see how it goes. the water took almost three days to clear after the dust hit the water column but its gone now..
Those newer RIOs are much better than many of the older style pumps they have sealed motor with cermaic bearings.
Doug

[djnzlab1]

HI,
well things are going well, the sponges seem to be growing faster, the rooms are twice as big, and the new improved skimmer is working harder.
I cleaned the to large marine canister and found alot of that mud in them they were pretty caked up with silt so I rinsed them thru a little carbon in one and replaced the prefilter pads, to prevent that dust from fouling the media, so I have in a sense put some pads back in the equation, I alos put one filter back in the main tanks that have penguins that way it can run right back if the pad is loaded but will catch some dust when the critters are stirring the sand beds.
I ually shut the marine filters down when feeding so they don't catch any of the food.
I only try and take them down for less than a hour.
the large fluid filter is maintaining water height nicely with the oversized pump, I never shut that down beings it tends to be aerobic in nature.
Everyting is going well most green coraline with little flakes of purple starting to show.
My calcium is pretty high and need to watch KH more closely with the extra fluid bed aeorbic activity tends to add acid to the equation from what I ve read.
So far all goes well.
the skimmer is getting used more than I planed its pretty rank every 2 days and the cup needs to be lightly rinsed due to green stuff, most likely tang poop.. I guess they help export that phos due to their constant removal of any algae excess.
Doug