Hey y'all! I've always had super lowtech tanks and never had a skimmer in my tanks and have never had a tank crash or anything. But I am about to get deep into the reef tank game as all my other tanks have been fowlr. I am shopping for a super quiet skimmer for my tank build in my bedroom. But I was wondering if there are any success stories out there about tanks without skimmers. Pics of your tanks would be cool too. Apart from more frequent water changes and not overstocking, any tips?
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Non skimmer tanks (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter OHenry
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There are skimmerless tanks out there, but honestly I'm not sure why reefers want to aviod a very important piece of equipment. The hobby is hard enough as it is.
The way I see it...we need all the help we can get.
It's all about balance. I like to use every tool possible to balance the equation when needed.
The way I see it...we need all the help we can get.
It's all about balance. I like to use every tool possible to balance the equation when needed.
Clownfish Chris
Moved On
I agree with Jared in that a skimmer is a very important piece of equipment. I would not run a tank without one unless there are few fish and you can keep up with nutrients with water changes.
So so how about running an algae scrubber instead. Cheaper and won't it do the same thing naturally?
No doubt scrubbers work. I think a skimmer is better though.
Clownfish Chris
Moved On
Yep. The reason that skimmers are better is that they remove solid particulate matter before it breaks down into ammonia providing better stability. Adding a scrubber helps with nutrients after they have broken down. If you have the space, do both. If you do not have the space, the skimmer is much more efficient over all.
Skimmers and algae scrubbers do not do the same thing. Skimmers remove soluable proteins and fats as well as some particulate matter. The idea is to get that stuff out of your system before it has a chance to decay. Scrubbers target phosphates and nitrates and don't do much else.
There used to be a guy in Texas City who had a 70 gal softy tank with some big tangs in it. He did not run a skimmer or refugium, very low tech. His tank was successful but truthfully, not very attractive. Lotsa algae and yellow water.
Good luck,
Steve
reefling
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I have gone skimmerless about 90% of my reef hobby time. I always kept a light bio load. My 125G had 2 tangs, 5 chromis, 2 clowns, and that was about the most I ever did. Your tank will grow sponges and stuff to do that work for you when you go skimmerless. You really need to vacuum it often or go barebottom to pull it off. you will be vacuuming often. My current tank has not had a skimmer running on it in almost 2 years. i have great growth on my stuff and very minimal algae. I started seeing a light diatom bloom and Cyano, but my resin has been spent for 6months. I changed it a couple days ago and still need to do a waterchange. I have macro in my display and macro in my sump. Sponges are developing on the bottom of my rocks and my water looks polished. I was talking to steve tyree at reef currents and mentioned some of his research i read years ago. He goes skimmerless on all his systems, if i recall correctly. He has a special low flow fuge for cryptic zone filtering. Feel free to look it up.
