buying skimmer tomorrow

I have some white little tiny partical flying all over the tank for long as I can remember now, tank is 2 years old.

It might be sand..I used super fine sand when I started this tank, so they fly away even when hermit crab walks over it, very little atleast

Will skimmer make the water more clear? Do they also like..low ammonia levels, nitrate, nitrite as well?

 

You must have a ton of flow in the tank, the skimmer's not gonna solve that problem and unless you have sps corals you don't need it, if your doing regular water changes that is, just turn down the flow.

 

I'd have to disagree with that. Skimmers will benefit every tank. They are not just for SPS. Skimmers are basically mechanical filters and yes they will remove particulates. They are not as good as say running a 2 micro filter... but they do work.

Fine sand is always a problem... but all sand has very fine particles. Once they are removed that problem will be solved. You can do that running filter socks or skimmer. If the fine sand that is left is just getting blown around with too much flow... well ya... slow it down.

 

Skimmer is a must in any saltwater environment.

 

Not in a softie tank, they like dirtier water, a tank that's too clean or too dirty is not good, somewhere in the middle is great if it's a mixed reef then all will be happy. I still think they strip too much good out, with regular maintenance, a sump with fuge and don't over stock or over feed you don't even need one, my tank doesn't have one and everything is very happy and healthy, they are not a bad thing but people rely on ton's of equipment to do their job, it's like the doctor telling you to take medication for something that eating right and exercising will fix. A lot of people go way over board with their tank's I've had tanks since I was a kid never had any major problems with any, I'm about too start my second marine tank a lot bigger than the first and it won't have a skimmer.

 

Skimmers are no different than running with or without mechanical filters. So do some don't. A natural reef is some of the most nutrient deficient water in the world... yet things thrive. Food it taken up as soon as it becomes available.

Most people that say skimmers strip too much out don't feed their reefs enough. In fact, one of the basic reasons to get a skimmer is to be able to feed more and still maintain low nutrient levels. Some of food is filtered out, but not all of it. Reefs are not like dogs, they don't do as well being fed once a day. Corals feed 24/7 on anything available. The more food you can give them and still maintain low nutrients the better they are.

The other problem is there is no such blanket statement that says a coral likes high or low nutrient water. Again, a coral reef is one of the most nutrient deficient places in the world. But not all corals live on a reef. They live anywhere from a deep low light reef to a river outlet to a lagoon. Corals can thrive in high nutrient water and low nutrient water, but not many corals will do great in both. Softies do live on reefs too though. Most hobbyist just think they can throw any coral in their tank and don't understand why their Elegance died. Of course their Elegance was harvested from a high nutrient river outlet and they threw it in their ULNS tank thinking it should thrive in their starved out pristine tank water.

Blanket statements do not hold up very well across this very diverse hobby andf the diverse life we try to put in it.

 

Im always ok with being wrong if I learn from it.Thanks Powerman.

 

yeah problem is, well i cant even slow down my powerhead because its koralia not vortech, also if I face it up, my sand starts to get cyano and algaes due to no flow on sand

 

That's cool. I have added sand to my system before. Total white out for a few hours. Skimmer is full of powder for days till is all gets cycled through. I would suspect that is some of your problem. You have just never got rid of the really fine stuff that stays suspended and easily stirred up.