Acans and skimmer?

You will get some people that say acans love dirty water, but I have never found a coral that prefers polluted water. While they may be more tolerant of organic waste than other corals, it is always better to keep your water column clean.

I run an extremely low waste system and my acans are growing like weeds.

+2 to what Pete said.

Eh, I'd still skim it. Depends how frequently you do water changes and what your bioload is like ultimately.

Corals most definitely do like consistency.

I feel like skimmers draw out waste slowly enough that it wouldn't cause a shock to the system. I personally have never seen a decline in coral health after adding a skimmer. Guess it all depends on the quality of the water before you add the skimmer. When I worked at aquatic dreams, they added an 8 foot tall skimmer to their system. Coral health increased drastically over the next week.

Has anyone else seen any negative impacts when they've added a skimmer? I'm curious now.

Edited by Pete Moss - March 10 2015 at 9:04am

More specifically, my experience has been that some coral, having grown accustomed to the nutrients available in a non-skimmed reef, actually slow their growth. I cannot remember any specific deaths resulting from adding a skimmer, though they may have come after a month or two, mainly just stunted growth initially and later a noticeable change in structure and color.