Is It Possible to Over-Skim?

[Spanky]

Is It Possible to Over-Skim?

[gregt]

I know one expert claims it is. However, in the same breathe he says:

I still feel there is too little information on exactly what, how much, and how effectively foam fractionation affects various components of the water column of reef aquaria.

I'm having a bit of trouble reconciling his conclusions after reading that statement. How can he draw conclusions when he doesn't know exactly what, how much and how effectively skimming works.

[Casey]

no its not there thats settled

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Casey
no its not there thats settled

Ok, so now what will we talk about Mr Smarty Pants?

[Spanky]

Greg,

The more I read from those guys, the more I'm convinced they are in the retail business. Have you noticed they never define what corals they are talking about?

There's two basic schools of thought on this.

Those that under skim or don't skim at all.

Those that can't skim enough.

[Casey]

Jerel you just love to make long threads dont ya man? God skims 24/7 on the beach I have seen the foam

[Spanky]

Ah, but that's not the same thing.

[photobarry]

Jerel: should I post what I said to you or wait awhile?

Greg: How did you like my marathon session in that "experts" forum today?

[Casey]

Jerel I picked some up and it smells the same

[Spanky]

Go for it.

[Spanky]

Casey, It's the same principle that's at work if you let it coat the inside of the riser and it's not removed. On the beach you have the UV/infrared thing/bacterial thing though.
Only in tanks, it's a multitude higher.

[Casey]

so why shouldnt I build a skimmer 20 ft tall to prolong the rising bubbless contact with counter current?

[photobarry]

OK, here's my experience. I use NSW (remember, I'm in CA with 'dirty' water) for my tanks and also for the research we do at work. If I put a skimmer on a large volume of water straight from the ocean it does nothing. It won't skim. Hmm, that seems to indicate that we can't overskim our tanks.

[photobarry]

The experts response to my above statement would be that its different in an aquarium because there aren't the same levels of food for the corals. I think that was a past discussion here already.

[Casey]

Really Barry thats very interesting I guess nature does a better job than us.