I put my aqua-c urchin skimmer online when I first read this and left it for a few weeks just to see what happened. The skimmer took a few days to "break-in" then it started to make lots of green skimate. It only made the skimate for about a week. After that it just made light tea collared water. during this time of skimming my algae did grow a bit faster than normal. My displays water looked a little more "sparkely" but my corals spent much more time closed , and my pod populations wear on the decline! I took the skimmer off line last week and put it back in storage where it has been for the last 5 years
I know this is not a skimmer vs scrubber thread BUT I am sold on the scrubber and my skimmer will be getting dusty as it sits in storage! Hope this helps!