Skimmer Question

[Spongerob]

Is it ok to cycle a skimmer off for 8 hours a day? My tank is going to be in my bedroom and the skimmer makes enough noise that I know it will annoy me. Any thoughts?

[uwish]

I know several people that only run their skimmers for a specific time period for a variety of reasons. I can't see it being an issue other than it could be slightly 'harder' on the pump (on / off cycling) and of course the fact that you won't be skimming for a good part of the day.

what size is the set up ? (more out of my own curiosity than anything to do with the skimmer)

[cainechow]

I know this was a while ago. Did you decide on a solution?

Remember that a skimmer is essentially a dissolved organic compound concentrator that works through foam fractionation. Ever notice how if you clean out your skimmer, it can take up to a few hours to get a good foam going again? When the skimmer is running, the DOCs are captured in the bubbles and kept out of the water because the foam is rising. When you turn the skimmer off the foam, and DOCs, that hasn't made it into the collector cup can essentially dissipate back into your water column, at least to some degree. So you'll be dropping some of the DOC back into your water and then have to skim it back out when you start up the skimmer again which will take some time.

In practice, what it really comes down to is how much crap is your system generating? If you aren't feeding a lot and don't have a lot of dirty fish in there, you could be fine turning off the skimmer for 8 hrs as you sleep. If you have a lot of livestock and you find that turning off the skimmer for 8 hours is doing bad things to the water, you could run the skimmer more aggressively (wetter) to get more stuff out while it is running or maybe do more water changes.

Maybe you can soundproof your cabinet? :P