50 gallon skimmerless & sumpless

[Carrera75]

Yeah, the Rics and Anemones are my favorite too :-)

[whatcaneyedo]

Do you have any secrets on how you've got your hammer coral looking so happy? Mine used to look like that but hasn't for the past year. I think I ****ed it off by moving it into a spot (for a few months) that it didn't like and it hasn't recovered yet.

[brianlow]

Great tank! Any tips for others running sumpless and skimmerless? How often and how large are your water changes? Dosing? Lighting?

[DisneyCoralReef]

Outstanding! why are you shutting the tank down?!

[Carrera75]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Do you have any secrets on how you've got your hammer coral looking so happy? Mine used to look like that but hasn't for the past year. I think I ****ed it off by moving it into a spot (for a few months) that it didn't like and it hasn't recovered yet.

I have had it for over a year and it has doubled in size. Right now it's about 8" x 5" when fully extended. It seems that the Hammer coral likes medium flow. I wish I could help you more but all I did was to move it around the tank to find the best spot for it.

[Carrera75]

Originally Posted by brianlow

Great tank! Any tips for others running sumpless and skimmerless? How often and how large are your water changes? Dosing? Lighting?

Hi there,

Going skimmerless and sumpless is not for everyone. You have to be patient and go slow and a lot of people don't know how to do this. All the corals you see in the tank started from one single head or polyp. I took my time and planned this set up well. The goal was to create a low maintenance reef. If you want to go skimmerless and sumpless I would say go slow, take your time. Don't add 5 fish or lots of corals at the same time. Allow the tank to mature and achieve a good balance.

At the beginning I used to do 10% weekly water changes but as the tank matured that changed. At one point I was doing only a couple water changes a year but this is NOT something I recommend you to do. When this happened, my tank had already been set up for 4 years and it was pretty mature. I know do 10% monthly water changes and I don't add any additives.

There is also an AC110 that was turned into a refugium and I run another HOB filter with some filter pad in there to keep the water clear. The lighting is 2x150w MH + 4x39 T5's.

I feed the fish twice a day and feed the corals once in a while. One thing that I would recommend you to do is to rinse the frozen food before you feed your fish. If you don't do this you will adding a lot of extra nutrients into your set up. I should mention that I have always kept around 5 to 6 small fish and perhaps this has also helped to keep the bio-load in check.

I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by DisneyCoralReef

Outstanding! why are you shutting the tank down?!

Thanks for your comments. why am I shutting down this? I have been told that I have to downsize

[Carrera75]

This FTS is from 2009. I was out of the country for almost the whole year and a friend of mine took care of the tank. He didn't have any experience in saltwater tanks. All he did was to stop by my place once a day to feed the fish and did monthly water changes.





These are shots that were taken within the last few months.

[BitShifter]

Hey man, I know a photographer who lives downtown who could take some pics for you.

[reefermadness]

Very nice work....props for success with an unconventional method!

[toytech]

WOW, you tank is epic ! Love the ricks and nems . Wish my 50 sumpless and skimmerless looked this good.