Skimmer for intermittent use

[mike31154]

Go old school with a simple wooden air stone job & run it 24/7. A small powerhead to circulate the water & an air pump to produce bubbles. Very 'gentle' way to skim since there's no venturi or needle wheel chopping the water to produce bubbles. I've been running one for years on my system, it's cheap & works fine.

Not sure I've ever heard about skimmers stripping zooplankton or other life? I think generally all they do is remove proteins which is 'dead' material (detritus etc.) & even the most efficient ones only get about 40%, but I could be mistaken.