how lng to run your protien skimmer

Tommy that link is great.  lots of info.

really interesting article.  kind of always the risk you take with a skimmer full time.  we all know that skimmers can take out a lot of good stuff, so water changes, additives, and target feeding are the best way to keep things running smoothly.  and there's the constant debate of wether to put your skimmer BEFORE or AFTER or SEPERATE from your fuge because of what it can take out at any point in time...personally i have my skimmer running in a seperate sump from my fuge...but, anyway, with a mixed reef, i would be REALLY uncomfortable turning my skimmer off for more than the time it takes to do a water change.  but that's just me.  if anyone bites the bullet and attempts this, DEFINITELY let us know your results.  make sure to test your water A LOT!  Like, A LOT A LOT!!  lol!  As for me...NOT IT!   haha!  -Ash

in my 60gal. mixed reef i only run mine for 2 hours a day on a timer i only have leathere and LPS'S. but on my 55 mixed reef i run it full time becouse i keep my sun corals in there and it gets fed heavy.

do you have fish in your 60gallon?  i'm assuming so, since you said it's "mixed reef", but just making sure.  anyway, leathers and lps can do MUCH better in higher nutrient waters.  it's the sps that can't tolerate it so much.  sps need a BIT of nutrients in the water, but keeping them with leathers, mushrooms, lps, and other higher waste producing corals is rasking for trouble without a skimmer running 24/7.  they will NOT do well, imo, AND in my experience.  when I had my mixed 45, before i upgraded to my 125, i tried keeping some sps.  i had the lighting and the flow all perfect, but the fact that they were in such close quarters with my leathers, lps, and other polyps made it impossible to keep them.  i did water changes like i needed to, and kept the water quality great, but the fact that the skimmer couldn't really keep up with the high volume of high waste output corals and the fish made it too difficult to keep sps.  i have ALL the same corals and fish from my other tank, plus MANY MANY more, but now I have a VERY efficient skimmer in one sump, a VERY healthy refugium in the larger sump, and plenty of flow and MUCH more room, I can keep sps, no problem!  in fact, now my tank is primarily sps and zoas!  I target feed almost every night, put my A & B solutions in (i'm old school, and don't want a calcium reactor unless I ABSOLUTELY need one), add mag and trace elements when I need to, and the growth and color of my corals, including the sps, is incredible.  i WAS running my skimmer pretty dry before, but I started getting cyano, so I got a new phosphate reactor, started running my skimmer VERY wet (pulls out LOTS more, in MUCH shorter time), and no sign of cyano (knock on wood).  Some would say that running my skimmer so wet takes out too much good, along with the bad, but like i said, i dose, and target feed, and have NO problem...Well, actually, i'm not going to lie...my coralline algae is getting to be a nuisance, i tell you what.  all that damn hot pink, hot orange, bright purple, and electric green everywhere!!!  ECH!!!  even my snail's shells are blinding, they are so bright!!  and can't see into my refugium!  i scrape off the coralline, and less than a week later, it's back again!  we need a thred on what to do about nuisance coralline!  lol!  did i go too far with my sarcasm right there?  if so, i apologize!  haha!   if you didn't catch the sarcasm...well...uhhh...    i'm sorry for that too.  lol! 

yes i agree with you about SPS'S. One day I will be setting up a SPS tank. What do you think about no fish in a SPS tank?

well, i think that you would probably have less issues as water quality goes, and less risk of fish nipping at stuff (if you tend to put the "with caution" "reef safe fish" in...i do sometimes)...but personally, i would get bored!  lol   Plus, i really think that when it comes to reef tanks, mixed reefs are the way to go.  it's more nature.  just keep the filtration as natural as possible.  get a nice fuge running, with Fiji Mud (i swear by this stuff) as substrate, cheato to reduce nitrates and phosphates, and ALWAYS have a VERY good skimmer.  Honestly, going with having a large fuge in one sump and a seperate smaller sump for my nice protein skimmer was the best choice i could have made.  And what's really cool is, i found that if ever i have any zoa colonies or frags looking like they aren't doing well, i put them in my fuge, after a nice dip, and after a couple weeks, i bring them back into the main tank...i almost lost SEVERAL colonies of zoas, for some odd reason, and I swear to you, i don't know if it was the extra flow, the extra nutrient, the Fiji Mud, or the combo, but these zoas came back with even NICER and BRIGHTER colors than they had before. it started just as an experiment, because i was going to lose the colonies anyhow, so i figured, "what the hell?!", and I threw all the sad looking ones in the fuge.  I actually forgot about them, and one day my gf came running and screaming up to me saying that there were a bunch of our zoas that were dying that were open and stretching for light (since i only have 2 75 watt energy saving bulbs over my fuge). i lost a lot of  zoas, but i honestly think if i would have thrown them in there sooner, I wouldn't have lost so many.  but i saved A LOT! 

anyway, so, when you are ready to set up that new tank, leme know, and i will let you know what i did.  it's been working wonders!  as for the fishies...i couldn't do without.  they just bring so much life and personality to the tank, you know?  they may poo too much, but it's all a part of the circle of life (as corny as that may sound).  you know i couldn't figure out why my tangs were constantly pooing all over my zoas...it was like, there litter box or something.  i did some research.  turns out, studies show that zoas get A LOT of their nutrients from fish poo!  go figure!  maybe i will start a thred about that!  lol!  -Ash

Thanks for the info and i agree again with out some fish it might be kinda boring

In my 155 gal mixed reef i run it for only 6 hrs a day from 10am to 4pm. Been doing that for about 8 months. Tank is doing awesome!

I run my protien skimmer 24/7, only turn off during water changes and spot feeding every other night for an hr.  All levels are excellent, I do 10% water changes every week on all 4 tanks. I would love to do every other week but scared to death that water quality would be bad if I did that because I tend to over feed everything.....lol

just got in my latest order from aquacave...this time i ordered some brightwell products that i've been reading and hearing good things about...microbacter and reef biofuel.  supposedly they work really well together at keeping water quality high and nutrient levels low.  supposedly skimmer efficiency increases dramatically as well.  have a few friends who swear by them...i will be observing my tank over the next few days-weeks, and i will post a new topic on what results i see.  have only dosed once for each and have already noticed my skimmer working over time.  stay tuned for more!