[reefkprZ]

well I just took the time to read through the first half of that link. not much in the way of suprising revelations to me. some interesting facts I didnt know came to the fore though.

I ran an unnofficial/very unscientific expiriment some months ago to see if I could visually notice a difference in my tank from week to week while running my skimmer on one week and off the next. in the corals I did not notice ANy difference that I could pick out. the only visible difference was my front glass seemed to aquire the "film of obscurity" quicker by about half a day to a day towards the end of the skimmerless week. I would guess due to a slow build up of available phosphates to be consumed.

I then ran skimmer-less for an entire month (due to a skimmer malfunction that I was to lazy to repair). I did not notice any difference in the appearance of my tank and inhabitants other than the aforementioned "film of obscurity" having to be cleared every day instead of every 3-4 days at the end of the month.

I would like to mention on these points I have an extremly strict water change schedual that is not deviated from. being 25% a week and 50% once a month. I do this because of my very high rate of feeding and lack of any means of mechanical filtration. (I feed 5-7 times a day of various foods) this is my attempt to mimic the oceans 100% water change every day (or relocation rather than change) also to keep my trace elemants as high as possible without the risk of overdosing.

any feedback or thoughts or similar "unscientific" expiriments would be a great addition to this one sided conversation I have started.