Tank without Skimmer

[rtsen]

I'm thinking about running my tank without a skimmer. How will this affect my water conditions? Anyone else on the board do the same?

75 gal
100 lbs LR
2 clowns
2 mandarins
cleaner shrimp

[marcingo]

I am currently running a 55 gal without a skimmer and all my levels seem ok. What I do is top off the water when it evaporates. The only problem I am currently having by running skimmerless is lots of hair algae on the glass but it seems the turbo snails are getting rid of it. I also ran a 10 gal skimmerless and did the same. I had the hair algae issue too but after a few weeks it dissapeared on its own and the tank ran no problem after that. I find that the corals I keep seem to grow better in the conditions mentioned above since they are mostly filter feeders (gsp, xenia, zoos, palys) not sure how other stuff would do in my water. Levels running this way are all zero except for minimal nitrates.

[Pan]

I've noticed some people on reefcentral have 120+ up to a 220 or so without a skimmer and they claim their tanks have flourished for years, so yiu should be alright as long as you are near religious in the maintenace...

[Kabong]

I've even run nano tanks with out a skimmer.
As long as you keep up on the water changes you will be fine.

I think your bigger issue would be keeping a large enough pod population in a 75Gal to keep to mandarins fed.
Unless of course there accepting processed.

[Farrmanchu]

Soft Corals like a Skimmerless system.

[Squiddy]

Have a look at Andreas' 72G skimmerless reef on http://www.reefvideos.com/. (http://www.reefvideos.com/) He has no skimmer and his tank is very healthy.

[Saltysteve]

I'm willing to bet that 80% or more of us are running less than adequate skimmers to begin with :D

Removing the skimmer from most of our systems due to above would more than likely account for less than 10% difference in what you're seeing now!

[Beverly]

I've run tanks as small as 2.5g and as large as our current BB 120g skimmerless. As long as the fish load is low, you don't over feed, keep non-invasive macroalgae to consume nutrients, and you do weekly maintenance all should be well. Have been running our skimmerless BB 120g for well over a year with no nitrate.

Also, as with any reef, make sure you keep an eye on alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels to help your corals grow.

[danny zubot]

If you want to keep a bunch of SPS I don't think going skimmerless is a good idea. Softies and LPS won't mind though. I just picked up a bunch of corals from my friends virtually skimmerless system, and his softies were amazing, even though the rest of the tank was covered with bubble algae.:mrgreen:

[rtsen]

sounds good. I'll start running my tank skimmerless and see what happens. I do weekly water changes so that shouldnt be a problem.


I think your bigger issue would be keeping a large enough pod population in a 75Gal to keep to mandarins fed.
Unless of course there accepting processed.

not to worry, they eat frozen mysis shrimp :biggrin:

[Beverly]

If you want to keep a bunch of SPS I don't think going skimmerless is a good idea.

I have sps in my skimmerless BB 120g and they are growing well.

[Parker]

I run my 30 skimmerless 75% of the time. ( Not because I want to, my CSS throws a ton of microbubble into the tank) and have had zero problems so far (knocks on wood)

[danny zubot]

I have sps in my skimmerless BB 120g and they are growing well.

Is it a good idea though? To me it's not because I don't have enough time to do weekly water changes.:redface:

[Mr. Scratch]

From personal experience, and a little reading between the lines, and seeing the myriad of people who have beautiful tanks with little to no technology, i would surmise that the majority of the technology we use in our tanks, while no doubt helps, is not required. Simple maintenace and I hate to say it some luck i think goes a long way to the quality of our tanks. I know i guy who has an incredible tank, over populated with fish, sps, clams etc, softies, etc.. no skimmer, no dosing other than a alk/calc combo (kent i believe) no sump, no sulphur denitrator, no ozone, 4 powerheads, 2 xp4's (now, they were eheims i believe) he has expensive lighting etc, and does water changes every 2 months...proof you don't need a room full of equipment. I think technology is more for convienence then anything. that being said i do have a skimmer on mine 2 in fact, they were bought for me and I believe should i desire for whatever reason to do less .frequent water changes they would enable me to do so without as much concern. I to though enjoy gadgets and like most other feel "I" "NEED" to be doing something in order for the tank to be healthy, rather than let it do its thing (to some degree at least, this is changing the more i learn, water changes are the one thing that will never change, wether they are biweekly, monthly etc... I think they do help for sure)

[Salinity Now]

Here is thread by Eric Borneman about some of the research he's doing on skimmers and what they remove.

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic52254-9-1.aspx

[Beverly]

Interesting thread. Thanks for posting it.

[StirCrazy]

having run my tank both skimmerless and with a skimmer I would have to say use a skimmer.

Some one said "soft corals like a skimmerless system" thats a pretty bold statment and full of bunk. I had the best growth and color with a skimmer running from all my corals, even my softies. as a bonus it was cheaper in the long run to have the skimmer as instead of changing 20 to 50% of the water ever week, I did a 15% change once a month. without the skimmer I had algae breakouts (especialy hair) with it ... not even worth mentioning.

I think the trick is "Ballance" some people like working on there tank every week, I personaly like looking at it and maybe cleaning the glass once and a while, with one day a month where I spend a couple hours cleaning and such. a lot of firstimers who rush to get a tank going and can't aford a skimmer fail because they either can't or won't devote the time that a skimmerless tank takes. Then you see cheep stuff for sale.

I recomend if nothing else, buy a skimmer. It is by far the most important piece of "tech" equipment on your tank, well aside from lighting. :mrgreen:

Steve