Can i turn my skimmer off at night?

I have a 28 gal tank set up in my bedroom with a few soft corals and couple fish. the only source of filtration is my hang on back skimmer. It is a bit loud at night. i can tolerate it but i was wondering if i turned it off when i went to sleep and turned it on first thing in the morning if it would effect my tank? i would still leave the power head on. If its a bad idea i will not do it.

any thoughts on that?

 

People said i could, and i did..but people also told me it was bad..

I think the reason they told me it was bad, was cuz it may not skim as well being turned off every night, i would suggest you just keep it running..But honestly i really cant answer that completely..

But i would really just leave it running is the best thing.

 

Leave it running. When you turn it on and off, among other things, your water quality fluctuates back and forth from skimmed to non-skimmed water every day. With it running all the time your water quality tends to stay constant (to an extent) and consistency is more important. If its loud at night, what part is making it loud? The water running, the air being sucked in or what? Typically, whatever makes a skimmer loud can be done something with to make it quiet.

 

+1...

Im guessing the loud part may be the air coming into it..

Do you have a venturi?

 

Turning it off also reduces the amount of gas exchange. Turning it off at night is the worst time for gas exchange because that is when CO2 is produced the greatest.

 

Thanks.. i will leave it running.. Its the pump itself that is making the noise i believe. its a aqua euro usa 100 hang on back. its my first skimmer so i do not really no what to expect from it. its been running for about 6 months now. and i empty the catch cup every couple days. i assume its running properly. and i do have the silencer on the air tube.

 

I don't know if I agree with all this. The best tanks I've seen don't skim 24-7 because it takes too much out of the water. I don't really know enough to make this call, but I do know most of the people that have tanks I really look up to don't skim more that 4 days a week and have some odd time system of skimming. I'd do it and see if I started to get algae or not.

 

i do agree with this!!!

 

Systems all run differently..But i agree SOMEwhat with this,because if you dont skim 24/7 then you get more nutrients..

 

I turn mine off when I leave the house, always have. Mainly cause it drives my dog nuts... she is fine when someone is home but if you leave, she starts scratching at the tank... weirdest thing ever if you ask me... My tank has been up like 8 months with no issues, and when I had my 200 gallon up last year, it was up for 3 years, and this has always been the way I have had to do things except with the 200 was the skimmer was in the sump still turned off though

I have never had any water quality issues, and when I have an algae problem, I skim wet and it clears up.

I have a hang on back skimmer, and it generally goes off for around 6 hours per day. I think it really depends on how your system is running. No two systems are the same, and this is something that I dont really have much of a choice over, I had to replace my original stand because it bugged the dog so much