New person with a question about skimmers

The 3 most important pieces of a reef system are:
1. live rock -- you need at least 1.5lbs per gallon, IME. This will give you the denitrifying bacteria you need to properly filter your system.
2. a 4-8" DSB -- without at least 4" of sand (not crushed coral) you are not going to get the full benefit of your sand bed. You can use aragonite sand, which is a little more coarse than playsand, but I wouldn't use anthing coarser than that.
3. the BEST protien skimmer you can afford -- DO NOT skimp on your skimmer, you will regret it later. If you do have to cut corners in the beginning, buy less live rock, or wait on those expensive fish. You have to have that skimmer. Without your mean machine protien skimmer, you are just not going to have the kind of tank you would like. It will always smell dirty. It will always have an algae problem. And you will always be fighting nitrates. Bite the bullet, and buy the skimmer. 8)

 

Wrassman:
Ok, now I do a weekly water change of 10% (2gals) on my 20H. The only problem I see with a protein skimmer is with all the water changes, the skimmer will not be worth its cost.

Do you agree?

 

Hey mR,

You could argue the other way and say that a skimmer would keep you from having to do all those water changes. ;D

No, really, if you are doing 10% weekly on a 20H I don't see a reason for a skimmer. To me, that's a nano tank (barely) and they rarely need skimmers. The last nano I had, a 15g, I ran with a 4" DSB, 25lbs of LR, and 20% water changes every other week. The only reason I took it down was because it was in the bedroom, and my wifey said it made too much noise (two small PH for circulation).

That's what I love about "rules of thumb," there are always exceptions. 8)

 

Thanx Wrassman! I had to move my 20H from my bedroom to the living room for the sam reason! [smiley=beer.gif]

 

I have 2 30g tanks side by side, 2 years old each. Both mhave same everything, excepts for skimmers.  One has a POS Lee airstone driven skimmer, the other has none.  The one with the skimmer looks insane, while the other has a hair algae problem and now with age, a cyano problem.  I feel that skimmers do many things, one being the removel of organics.  I think the areation from skimmers is mandatory, drive out co2 and and oxygen.

Just my opinions.

Gresham

 

Hey Gresham,

I'm just trying to understand your post???

You said, "The one with the skimmer looks insane." What does that mean? Is that good? Is it bad? I guess I'm too old to understand. [smiley=freak3.gif]

I understand clearly what you mean when you talk about the second 30g, saying that it has a "a hair algae problem and now with age, a cyano problem." Are you also saying that this is caused by a lack of skimmer on the tank???

Then finally, you say this that I can not make any sense of. "I think the areation from skimmers is mandatory, drive out co2 and and oxygen." I'm not picking on you dude, just trying to understand your post. If you could help me understand it, I'm sure we have some points of agreement. I'm just not sure what they are

 

Wrasseman-

You say you to old to understand insane, yet you use "dude"? Same era buddy! Where I'm from, we've got 60-70 years olds using the same slang as us 30 year olds, guess thats just California for yah though.

Insane, when used how I did, means good, better then good, great.

Yes, I'm saying its doing bad because of a lack of a skimmer. One is doing good, it has a skimmer. One isn't doing good, and it doesn't have a skimmer.

"I think the areation from skimmers is mandatory (skimmers areate the water by driving air into the water(downdraft/air stone/venturi/beckett)) and drive out the co2 (same action causes co2 to be driven out) and and oxygen (I was tired, working hard, and didn't even notice I added this. I wanted to say, and adds oxygen (o2))

 

insane= amazing, great, cool, awesome ;D

 

I've got to stop using quick post so I can use the smileys more often.

 

Thank you Gresham!

Honestly, I didn't understand. And when you explain it, it makes perfect sense (except for the last part, which was a typo).

I've never used "insane" like that before. If I was going to attempt to use contemporary slang I might have said "dope," or from my era, "cool," "awesome," "outta sight."

I'm from the "right coast" too. I think that makes a difference, not just age, or eras. ;D