Skimmerless

[RyanYWG]

Hi SM,

With your help, I’ve now built 2 UAS scrubbers equivalent to the HOG1xs with the goal of going skimmerless; both on for 18 hours a day. My bioload and feeding is very light and as a result am growing GHA in the scrubber slowly (My specs and feeding below). I am thinking to turn off my skimmer or at least run on a timer for 12 hours to increase my nutrients to therefore increase GHA growth in my scrubbers.

Week 1 (second scrubber added this week)
6866

My questions;

Do you suggest I turn my skimmer off or on for 12 hours daily, or feed more?

What should I look for to know to turn the skimmer on or increase skimming time? How much more to feed?

I have a Seachem ammonia alert badge. Would this suffice to alert if things are dangerously high, or should priority be testing for nitrates or phosphates above ammonia? (From research, I know algae spores feed on ammonia and algae itself feed on nitrates, which we want, but not at levels dangerous to my fish, inverts, and corals)

Thank you.

Specs: Established for 16 months 46 gallons, one pinch flakes daily, shrimp cube weekly, 40 lbs live rock, 2 Snowflake Ocellaris Clownfish, a couple LPS corals, Bubble Tip anemone, 3 Turbo snails, Hydrofarm AAPA15L adjustable quad air pump, 2 Hydor powerheads, 125W Eheim Jager heater attached to temperature controller, AquaC Remora HOB skimmer, 300W LED black box, and ATO.

[SantaMonica]

Just let them both grow and see how they fill in.

You can leave or remove the skimmer; will not affect the scrubbers. Skimmers don't remove nutrients, including ammonia, so it will not help. They just remove food particles to make the water look more clear; then you have to feed more.

Algae eat ammonia mostly, then nitrite, then nitrate. But you won't have much ammonia if because your sand and rock.

How is the air and noise of the Hydrofarm?

[RyanYWG]

Thanks for the reply!

I think the Hydrofarm is great. It has a quad outlet so use tee adapters to make 2 air lines with check valves. These 2 lines now have a potential to push out 7.5LPM if needed but I've adjusted to use maybe only a third of this for both scrubbers (just enough for the bubbles to make good movement). Noise could be loud if functioning at maximum. The pump is not really heard from inside my stand when compared to the sound of the skimmer and bubbles.

I will go ahead and remove my skimmer. This will result in food particles remaining in the water (i.e. not skimmed out) and eventually turning into ammonia for the algae? My ammonia badge will alert me if ammonia levels are getting high and not being used by algae quick enough, prompting me to ease up on the feeding. Am I right? Please correct my thought process if I'm wrong.

Thanks!

[SantaMonica]

The particles remain in the water... to feed corals, and small fish and inverts. Your detector won't ever measure ammonia though because you have so much rock and sand to convert it to nitrate. Detectors are more for freshwater that does not have lots of sand and rock.