Re: Protein skimmer - what SHOULD I be seeing in the waste cup?

On Nov 30, 1:40 pm, "jthread" <jthr...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
"Big Habeeb" <mitch.bren...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:1949b2fc-f43a-4051-abfa-cce332a9cf55@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





On Nov 30, 11:15 am, "jthread" <jthr...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
George,
Thanks for setting my mind at ease. The water certainly tests as
clean, and for a 72 gallon tank my bioload is very small right now...8
snails, 6 hermits, ocellaris clown (sp), golden headed sleeper goby,
PJ cardinal, and a cleaner shrimp...so yeah, to respond to another
poster, there isn't much 'poop' in the tank. I've also done my best
not to overfeed, putting in only a tiny pinch of food twice a day.
Seems that just about everyhting I put in gets snapped up between the
clown, card, and shrimp.

Going this weekend to the LFS to add some more snails to help a bit
more with the algae situation, and potentially adding a hippo tang as
well (if they have any smaller ones...I know they get quite large, but
I'd like to start off with it a bit smaller...and according to the
LFS, its rare to find juvenile hippos this time of year).

Mitch

Are you poo pooing my "poop"? :-)

Was that the first skimmer you had on your tank?

Jim- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Jim,

Not at all, I enjoyed the 'poop' reference.
Yes, this is my first skimmer...I've never needed one because I've
never done a reef tank prior to this one, so the technology is a bit
new to me...to the point hwere when my LFS pulled one out, I was
trying to figure out why he was selling me a bong to go with my tank.

Mitch

Bahwaaaaa. Good one. I'm surprised your water is so clean w/o a skimmer. The
first time we put a bong on our tank it went to work right away. Seems
everybody's water is cleaner than mine. :( That's why I'm getting rid of a
lot of my fish.

I'm not a very technical type. That's why I rely on this group and my LFS.

Jim- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Jim,
From my understanding of it (and mind you I'm new to this part of
things too), the protein skimmers primary use is to remove organic
crap, before it breaks down fully and pollutes the water. The reason
I've never had one is, that in a fish only system I typically notice
if something is laying dead at the bottom of the tank, and get it ouf
ot there before decomposition becomes an issue. In a system with
liverock, on the other hand, as I'm sure you know theres a TON of crap
living in the rock...worms, stars, little snails, copepods etc which
live and die on a daily basis...so as a result you can end up with a
lot more organic 'crud' in the water...which is what the skimmer is
for. I've heard of it being used in salt water fish only environments
as well, and it probably reduces the frequency of water changes, but
it's not as much a necessity as a live rock system.

Now mind you, most of what I'm typing here is just stuff I'm
regurgitating from reading, so don't take my word for it, but that's
my understanding of the whole shpiel.

Mitch
.

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