Turning Skimmer Off

[weezawoo]

I started my skimmer running today but the water splashing back into the sump makes a lot of noise and my BF is getting annoyed about it, how much of a problem would it be if I turned it off at night. It would be turned on at 8 in morning before I go to work and off at around 12-1 ish at night. So its only off for 8 hours max.
Otherwise is there a way to stop it making so much of a noise?

 

[lewiss]

Some Skimmers are really annoying! Mine was loud. I don't see an issue with turning it off for 8 hours. Some don't even run one.

 

[woody88]

I turn mine off of an evening for about 5 hours. Never had any probs.

 

[ben1987]

each time you turn it off it takes a while to bed back in.

also if something dies, it goes at night...so the time when its most needed it will be off.

Just my opinion but its not a good idea

 

[seffieuk]

I turn mine off in the evening and put it back on when I go to bed - I have to turn it off for a while for the red sea programme additives to be added. However, I have added a large sponge to stop the water cascading noise, it was doing my head in

 

[weezawoo]

Its just the water noise thats annoying! I could possibly fit something like a sponge across, its only until we fall asleep haha! I might just persuade him to let me leave it on! I think at the moment it shouldn't matter as there is hardly anything in the tank!
Thank you for the help!

 

[dayzofspeed]

what about a longer return pipe that would be under the water rather than having water cascading into the sump

 

[weezawoo]

Well there are 2 pipes exiting the skimmer, one with a pipe one the pipe has been broken off! Yup my skimmer sucks Nothing to attach a pipe too!

 

[woody88]

Well there are 2 pipes exiting the skimmer, one with a pipe one the pipe has been broken off! Yup my skimmer sucks Nothing to attach a pipe too!

Well put that in yer pipe n smoke it! Lol

I have my skimmer on a plug in timer. It goes off at 7pm and comes back on at midnight. Never done any harm but make sure you leave it on overnight.

 

[weezawoo]

It would be overnight it is off, purely because my BF cant sleep with it on! haha! He can cope as we have the TV to cover it up. So turned off when we go to sleep! On as soon as I wake up

 

[HappyGeorge]

I turn both mine off at about 23.30 and back on at 07.00 as the sound although fine whilst in the room, resounds through the house as we have wooden floors and I now have 6000lph of return pumps running and 2 x mp40's but the skimmers drone through the chimney breasts and having a water bed its like someone humming in your ear. They don't need to bed in at all they start up just as they stopped. Maybe I'm due for disaster but my reef is still showing zero nitrates and have been turning off skimmer at night for months. As someone said, not everyone runs one so having one on 2/3 of the time must be better than that. I'm not an expert but common sense shouts to me that any incident would either have to be pretty serious and terminal or of so little consequence that the skimmer being off will be not be important.

Having said that if its just the noise of water crashing down try rigging up something with a load of filter floss as a cushion, the MCE600 has a triangular perspex spout stuck in the pipe and then extends down into the water, mine is wrapped with filter floss and there is no water noise at all. May be possible to rig something similar with a piece cut out of a plastic bottle or a salt bucket? Look up the Deltec MCE600 and have a look at the design.

 

[weezawoo]

I think the main problem will be stopping the noise from the one with no pipe! I am going to try rearranging the sump to get something there to quieten it a bit! For now I will turn it off, glad you haven't had any issues!! I would hope if I had a disaster in the night that being a 6foot tank it could survive with the volume of water in there *fingers crossed*

 

[HappyGeorge]

Well if everything dies then everything dies and the skimmer won't help, if one thing dies I'm sure the beasties that come out at night will dispose of it and then in the morning the skimmer can take care of any stray nitrates. I lost a Chromis overnight a while ago with skimmer off and didn't see any evidence of it in tests or other tank inhabitants.

 

[weezawoo]

Thats sad would hate to lose a fish and not eve find a trace of it!!!
My skimmer seems to be working better now its been running for a while!

 

[HappyGeorge]

Thats sad would hate to lose a fish and not eve find a trace of it!!!

I take it as a sign that my CUC is perfectly balanced.