Protein Skimmer Power Bar Failure Death Toll....

[kien]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

The thing with oxygen is not adding it, but removing CO2. any water surface movement should off gas the CO2 in the system, making the water absorb more O2. If the power heads were causing any type of water surface movement, you should have been fine. Lots of tanks run without a skimmer at all, and do just fine. Not sure what to look for, but I can't see this being from the skimmer turning off.

I have a skimmerless tank too and ya it has done just fine. Thankfully it is not my primary source of oxygen or surface agitation on that tank tho and there aren't a lot of fish in there. But, what if a tank had it's powerheads pointing down and there was little to no surface agitation? It looked to me like the skimmer was the only thing agitating the surface and as you said, CO2 needs to exhaust from the tank as well. Loss off primary oxygen source and surface agitation to expel excess CO2 to me spells doom. I don't see why the loss of a skimmer CAN'T be the cause. Sure, there MAY have been some other cause but given the facts we know, the skimmer seems to me to be the most likely culprit by making the least number of add assumptions. Fish are perfectly fine one day, then skimmer dies over night, fish dead the next day.. No, can't be the skimmer??

I realize that a lot of people, myself included run skimmerless just fine but I don't see that being the point here. My skimmerless tank and your skimmerless tank is not the same as this skimmerless tank. We all know perfectly well that every single tank is different. Two people could be running the exact same setup but still get different results. Just because you are successful without a skimmer doesn't mean another tank without a skimmer will be equally successful. The same applies to pretty much everything in this hobby, biopellets, zeovit, salt brands, RO water vs tap water, etc..

[Aquattro]

Kien, I can't really disagree with you, as it does seem that obviously that was the deciding factor. I can't tell why, but the skimmer appears to have been the "last straw", indicating some other factor in play. My point, I guess, was that it "shouldn't" have been the skimmer, as lots of skimmerless tanks don't have powerheads pointing at the surface, or other forms of noticeable surface agitation. Maybe a too heavily stocked tank, high CO2 content in the room, etc. Lots of factors could have contributed, with the skimmer being the buffer. No skimmer, tank crossed the boundary into this situation.
It's always tough to diagnose something like this online. I'll revise my comment to be " while it's obvious the skimmer was the major contributor, it shouldn't have been", meaning I think there was a secondary cause.

[ensquire]

Originally Posted by outacontrol

What is the temp of the tank, the higher the temp the lower the oxygen capacity of the water is and the wasted the metabolic rate of the fish is.
I do not think the death is from the skimmer failure, I have 7 fish in a 33gallon tank that has no overflow, no sump, no skimmer and I have no problems. I have an mp10 turned way down and a koralia that's it that's all. With weekly water changes everything is awesome.
How often do you do water changes? Do you have a lid? What about salinity swings due to evaporation?

Current temp is 79

[The Grizz]

Hey Mike, canister filter can be nitrate bombs if they are not cleaned out weekly. I found this out the hard way as well when I first started SW. There are a few peeps using canisters so it would be interesting to find out how often they clean them out.

[jorjef]

Weekly with water changes... Floss should be twice a week.... only run carbon and floss in canister.

[daniella3d]

I do have one large canister filter on my tank and my nitrates are undetectible. I clean mine every 6 to 8 weeks when I do my water change. Never had a problem with my canister filters. I had one before on the nano 21 gallons but it broke so I stop using it but I still use it in my 75 gallons.

I have filter floss in it and GFO.

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Hey Mike, canister filter can be nitrate bombs if they are not cleaned out weekly. I found this out the hard way as well when I first started SW. There are a few peeps using canisters so it would be interesting to find out how often they clean them out.