treatments that depend heavily on your skimmer...

[Sk8r]

The skimmer is how die-off gets out of your tank. It's not like a pool skimmer that just collects leaves and junk. It's actually, technically, a foam fractionator, and the more it foams (instead of just bubbles) the more efficient it is. I'm not sure they make a good foaming one for small tanks, but in the larger tanks, they certainly do---foam that approaches a 'whipped cream' consistency before it melts into dark green opacity.

How does a skimmer turn water into THAT? Well, it doesn't. The bubble walls are actually protein break-down, amino acids that your tank doesn't need, and that's the 'fractionator' or 'whipped cream' action---similar to what surf does when it whips up sea foam. [And after you've cleaned a few skimmer cups, you don't think of it as romantical stuff to play in on the beach. It's waste. Nasty stuff!]

So when you purposely (or accidentally) kill off something in your tank, that waste has to go somewhere. Water changes are CERTAINLY beneficial, just diluting the problem and ejecting some waste. If you're in trouble, that's the first thing to think of, a good ol' 30% water change and running carbon.

But having as good a skimmer as you can is important. You won't get much out of it at first---novices struggle to 'tune' [adjust for efficiency] the skimmer and get disappointed when it doesn't immediately produce dark green skimmate: well, ain't gonna happen, because there's not very much waste going on in that tank---yet.

Life, however, happens, the tank gets older, the biosystem starts cranking, and well, you get skimmate.

But say you have to kill off cyanobacteria, flatworms or some other plague. Now you've got dead stuff. Biological stuff. THIS is why you have a skimmer, and the better your skimmer is at getting the waste products out, the better you recover from it.

So particularly if you aim for a larger tank, plan on a better skimmer.

Any chemical treatment that kills stuff off, like Chemiclean or Red Slime Remover, or a 3-day lights-out (my own preferred and natural method of removing cyanobacteria), or Fluconasole, for a serious and stubborn bryopsis or algae mess that won't respond to GFO---is going to kill stuff off. As in---make your water nasty; which is why, unless you've got a GOOD skimmer, one that can really pull the stuff, the more extreme treatments pose some threat to your tank. You can go for water changes, several in a row. But the more effective the treatment, the more it relies on a skimmer to get the die-off out before it fuels more problems.

So before you launch on some recommended treatment, read the original instructions all the way to the cleanup afterward---and be SURE your skimmer is up to the job, plus have your water change standing by. If something screws up really, REALLY badly, you do have that clean water that can be a refuge for your fish (there is never anything wrong with putting a fish or coral or invert into clean new water!) until you can get it solved.

If you have a little tank, your water changes are going to be really more important than your skimmer's ability to handle things, and I personally tend to do a 30% water change, then wait 2 days and do a 10%. If you have a bigger tank, that better skimmer will help you a lot, but still don't forget those water changes.

HTH.

[Drewbe147]

Sk8r you always post useful stuff. Even when it’s stuff I have already learned I enjoy the read and its nice for people learning to have something useful to look in on and answer questions for them before they even have to ask. Thanks for the time you put into your posts

[Sk8r]

You're very welcome.

[Uncle99]

Well written, easy reading and very interesting!
Thank you