Coral Only Tanks?

[Ruth]

I had that brainiac idea when I started up my 110g cube. My water quality was pristine, my corals just sat there and did........nothing. Some colored up a bit but for the most part there was little or no growth.
So being the wizard I am I started to do some research and found a couple of articles (somewhere) that there had been some research or experiments done on this before and apparently the corals need the tank to work like it should - ie: bacteria, bugs, fish waste.. constant cycle to really thrive.
I now have 2 firefish and a madarin as well as numerous shrimp, a couple of hermits and one big a$$ black harry crab that has so far outsmarted me (like that's difficult......see above comment about doing research after the fact).
My corals (mostly SPS) are growing well and my tank is doing great.
As for skimming - I have a very light bioload but I still get about 1/2 cup of fairly dark skimmate every other day. Right now I am skimming with a HOB Deltec but one of these days when I get time I am going to try and hook up my H&S skimmer to this system and start using all of the Zeovit product again.