My skimmerless goal

Yes I have read that. But I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that your also running a skimmer? The silica is used (which is very beneficial to the reef) but is then also exported after it has served its puropse via skimmer. So you don't have the buildup over time!
I do agree with Randy though... And I think I have even spoke with you before about dosing silica?

 

Yes, we have discussed and I see what your saying now. Good point Although, I'm not sure how much accumulation would occur, after all, the amounts are still fairly small. So, it's possible water changes would be sufficient. Definitely would get a test kit and see. The Hach kit is probably the best. However, is expensive Silica Test Kit - Overview | Hach Sailfert makes one, that is a lot cheaper, but it won't be as accurate in a reef tank unfortunately. Of course, I guess if you have diatom problems after the tank is established, then that is a sign that the skimmer was helping in that regard :-/

As to turning the skimmer on and off. Some people do, but my experience is that aquarium pumps sometimes die quick when turned on and off. Also, As others have said, changes in the biofilms inside the skimmer could make it inconsistent. My own feeling is filter more and just feed more. It basically accomplishes the same thing, but of course, there is no "correct" way to run a reef.

 

is it possible to have too large of a skimmer for a tank granted your providing the right amount of nutrients?

 

Debateable.. but I don't think the downsides of aggressive skimming are worth worrying about. As long as you are feeding your system you won't strip the water to 0 nutrient levels with a strong skimmer alone... But combine a strong skimmer with carbon dosing, aggresive water change schedule, light bio load and algae scrubbing... (maybe even less than all that) and you can cause stress to even SPS at that low of a nutrient level.

 

Yeah, I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that besides being "different" for novelty sakes.. there is good reason we all have a protien skimmer at the top of our filtration list.

More of a pain than it's worth removing the skimmer. Also more of a risk than I had originally figured it to be.

 

As polar opposite as it may be... as I'm sitting here programming my Apex for the first time trying to come up with ways to maximize it's potential and I had a thought... If you can't beat them join them...

I have the conductivity module that allows extremely accurate up to the second salinity monitoring. I could relatively easily plumb a waste line. I was thinking about using my skimmer to wet skim out about 2 gallons of water a day, and keep my current ATO running. Only have my apex tell a pump in a premade batch of salt water to pump 1 gallon of salt water (measured in approximate time equivalent doesn't have to be dead on, just close enough) when the salinity drops below a certain threshold.

Is my thinking on this right? Have the skimmer drain straight to a waste drain and replace... auto water change? Then just vaccum once a month.. or even through a sock on and stir up the detritus every sunday.

 

A lot of people say that when growing Xenia corals, that they sometimes experience a Mass Die off, with no obvious reason....but others say that they see the corals growing and even pulsing much better when the water is sort of "Dirty". If the ocean was "Sterile", then nothing would really live there would it?

 

Xenia is the only coral known to not grow when running an algae scrubber. This is due to the corals need for directly feeding on available nitrates.

Algae scrubbers are very powerful filters, and can easily run as a sole filtration. I started a thread on RC that details everything you need to know about algae scrubbers. It's called algae scrubber basics and is located in the advanced topics section. I am happy to answer any questions you have about them.

 

Some people have even gone as far to use xenia in a Fuge.. though I think nearly all types of macros are more efficient for that use..

Your thread on RC is actually what first turned me on to the success rate of algae scrubbers and eventually led me to the Santa Monica 100.. I bought one new then stumbled upon two used ones for $500 for both.. So in about a month I'll be sitting around with three of theses bad boys, lol.

 

Xenia does directly feed off Nitrate, but it's the only one I'm aware of. The rest of the corals depend on food in the water, not waste. The problem with providing enough food for LPS in a SPS tank is that the unused portion quickly turns to waste, that without an export method build up quickly. The most common form of export is water changes. But that gets exhausting and is hard to do on large tanks in quantites that are needed to keep lps and sps happy...

That is until the algae scrubber. Properly built/designed algae scrubbers are unbelievably good at nitrate and phosphate removal! With weekly cleaning they are like gods gift to mixed reefs IMO.