Do any of you turn your skimmer of at night ?

F

Flamenco-t

I red on RC on one of the post that there were some members that actually turn their skimmer off at night from 10 until 6 am.

Anyone ever heard of that ? Other than energy savings, are there any other benefit to that ?

stan
 
It works to allow nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton to stay in water column and not be removed by the skimmer, when a lot of corals are feeding. Which happens a lot more when the lights are out on the tank.
I tried it once, but I had a major problem with the Ph really dropping and I discontinued doing it.
 
I was going to put it on my light timmer but After reading I found the benifit of having it on out weights turning it off. You can do water cahnges and supliments to feed the corals... but when your PH drops and your Oxegen drops it is harder to get back in shape and the corals seem to die faster then just not being feed...
 
on my skimmer when i feed my corals pappone... i just take the skimmer cup off so it just bubbles over.
 
When I feed, I turn off the return pump. The skimmer is in the sump, so it is unable to skim the display tank's water until the return pump is turned on again. My return pump is usually off 30 minutes to an hour, so the corals have their opportunity to grab what they want during that period, and for about another hour until the skimmer pulls out what it can from the water.
 
Additionally, I would wonder if your skimmer dried out, how long does it take to get back up to snuff in the morning..
 
I do it. The reason is I have alot of filter feeders. I dose feed at night so i need stuff to stay in the water colum, of course for 4 hours I turn off the maain pump.. The only ppl that do this is ppl that have filter feeders.
 
Hey Stan,

How have you been? I usually would keep the skimmer for my bioload. If your bioload is low and you have a mature tank, you can probably run without a skimmer from that point on.

If you are concerned about electricity consumption, then get a Quiet pump and rid all MAG pumps.
 
Doing good tri...hope everything are well with you and your family.

My main concern with turning the skimmer off is that I have a flaky sedra pump. Last time, I shut it off it won't turn back on.

I think I will do marc's method by shutting off the return pump for a few hours or so. I just need time for the livestock and coral to get a chance on some food.

stan
 
Remember that you MUST turn on the return pump later. Don't forget like I did.

If you have a mechanical timer, set it to turn on every other hour or every three hours. Then plug the return pump into that, and turn the little knob to off. As the timer rotates forward 24 hours a day, it will trip the power back on shortly. That way if you forget, it will get the flow moving again automatically.
 
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