Going Skimmerless

[sen5241b]

I have a 29 and a 20G. Neither have skimmers and both have nitrates and phosphates consistently at zero. I fish died in the 20 not too long ago and nitrates did rise to 10ppm. 'trates in the 29 have been at zero for about a year and I've had fish rot and die in there under the rock and 'trates stayed at zero. I'm a little lazy with water changes --I do a 25 to 50% change once a month. I have a Purple Firefish, Blue-green reef Chromis, Mandarin Dragonette, Pajama Cardinal (he's grown), and a Skunk-cleaner shrimp. Probably about 5 to 6 inches of fish total. What did I do?

1) Over 30lbs of LR --much of it collected and cured by myself.
2) Excellent flow, I propped up much of the LR off the sand on short pieces of hidden PVC pipe and have a Koralia blasting water under the rock.
3) All water goes thru floss and sponge. I change the floss twice a week and clean the sponge once or twice a month.
4) Carbon
5) Good CUC --too many hermits.
6) In both tanks I have a fuge that is 10 to 20% the size of the main display --and both are filled with chaetomorphia and two strong lights on each fuge. When I Iook at pics of most fuges I see a rather small softball size clump of chaeto. I have big basketball sized clumps in both my fuges.
7) Good surface agitation

Once the fuge light broke and sure enough in 24-48 hours my LPS corals began to bleach. I'm thinking the chaeto is the primary reason for my low 'trates. Comments?

 

[d2mini]

I've noticed that now that I tried running a filter sock (200 micron), it is BROWN in a couple days and my skimmer pulls much less. So as long as your filter media is cleaned often, it should workout just fine. And keep up with strict water changes.

 

[wontonflip]

Yeah, I agree, cuz I got super lazy w/ my 45g as far as water changes go (and sometimes I just didn't feel like getting more salt). My nitrates were always 0, and while my 10g that had no fuge always had 10ppm+ nitrates, so I did frequent water changes there. Albeit, unlike yours, I had a skimmer on my 45g, and my bioload was extremely small -- no more than 3 fish in there.

But prior to having the fuge up and running, I was battling nitrates constantly.

 

[cthegame]

im confused by your post and the thread title. Im not sure exactly what you;re asking...:(

 

[VAreef]

I'm a little confused as well. Skimmers don't remove nitrates. They remove proteins and other harmful contaminants as well as some good things too. The cheato is of course removing nitrates and phosphates. It's an algae algae use those to grow.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yep skimmers remove the organics BEFORE they can turn into nitrates.

In my 10 gallon tank, I have no protein skimmer, no filters of any sort, and no macroalgae/fuge. And nitrates are at 0 in that tank.

What's the question again?

 

[sen5241b]

If you have a fuge filled with chaeto --why do you need a skimmer?

 

[DAvis]

I don't think there is a question, just sen telling us what he's done and how. :)

I have a 29G JBJ NanoCube, 50 lbs FL LR (dense), 30 lbs aragamax oolytic sand, lots of nassarius and trochus FL Conch, abalone, 2 peppermint for cuc, 2 clowns and 2 Banggai cardinals (small)

I just use the filter sponge, and no media, and do 10 - 20% water changes weekly. Nitrates are always near zero. A couple times it read 2.5 ppm, prolly because I forgot to rinse the sponge. I always rinse the filter sponge in the water I take out. The 'sump' on this, if you could call it that, is 3 gallons. I had planned on buying a skimmer but the stock skimmer I hear is sub-par and many don't fit, are too expensive , or fill the whole filter compartment.

i opted to keep up what I'm doing and so far so good! When I set up the big tank (65g, big for me!) I'll get a good skimmer.

 

[d2mini]

I assumed the question was, "is a protein skimmer necessary?".

I believe it's a helpful tool, that I choose to use, but no it is not necessary, depending on the rest of the setup and your personal husbandry practices. I've seen plenty of amazing skimmerless tanks.

 

[Solarfall]

I've been skimmerless for a while now and nitrates/phosphates have remained at zero. And I'm kind of lazy about changing my filter sock.

I do weekly 15% water changes religiously though. And I have a fuge. And a rediculous amount of flow which I think helps more than a lot of people realise.

I really don't think it's completely neccesary, but I would always advise a brand new hobbyist to use one at least until they get a good feel for their water parameters and routine maintenence.

 

[ccCapt]

In addition to all other methods of nutrient removal, a skimmer pulls 20%-30% of the TOC's (Total Organic Compounds) out of the water. Without a skimmer, this 20%-30% remains.

 

[DAvis]

2) Excellent flow, I propped up much of the LR off the sand on short pieces of hidden PVC pipe and have a Koralia blasting water under the rock.

My 29G has 2 x 294 gpm pumps, but I'm going to hide a Korolia nano in there somewhere, like sen5341b!

 

[cthegame]

+1 capt

Its great that a lot can do without, but i personally would never recommend someone not to use a skimmer. There seems to be a lot of "no skimmer" trend going on lately with people trying to convince others that a skimmer is just a luxury. Lets not tell noobs this. Skimmers are an essential part of reef keeping and after having not had one myself for a long time, i will never stop using a skimmer.

 

[Bifferwine]

I think it's perfectly fine to go skimmerless on a small tank, where it's easy to do large water changes. But having one definitely helps keep larger tanks healthier. Then again, there are times when I hate my skimmer -- like last night, when I dosed calcium in my sump, but before I turned the return pump on I had to help NDB with something, and by the time I got back to plug the return pump back in, the skimmer had sucked up all the new calcium I just added and it was sitting in my skimmate bottle all mixed in with fish crap!

 

[VAreef]

by the time I got back to plug the return pump back in, the skimmer had sucked up all the new calcium I just added and it was sitting in my skimmate bottle all mixed in with fish crap!

haha well at least your skimmer actually skims. Mine is more of a slow water remover.

aren't you suppossed to turn off the skimmer when dosing?

 

[Bifferwine]

I've never turned off the skimmer. Usually I have the return pump running and it shoots the calcium right into the tank. This time, the pump had stopped working (it turns out there was a zip tie clogging it up inside, oops), so I had to take the return pump out and NDB and I were taking it apart in the kitchen sink to try and figure out why it had stopped working. By the time I got back to the tank, the skimmer had sucked all the calcium out :(

 

[VAreef]

I've never turned off the skimmer. Usually I have the return pump running and it shoots the calcium right into the tank. This time, the pump had stopped working (it turns out there was a zip tie clogging it up inside, oops), so I had to take the return pump out and NDB and I were taking it apart in the kitchen sink to try and figure out why it had stopped working. By the time I got back to the tank, the skimmer had sucked all the calcium out :(

Ah that explains it. Maybe I should throw some calc in to my tank just to give my skimmer something to skim

 

[Bifferwine]

Hey if that makes you feel better ;)

 

[sen5241b]

Although its possible to go without a skimmer -it might save your tank if a big fish died and your existing filtration couldn't handle it.

 

[SalteeDogg]

When setting up my 160 I had done decided I was going to try going skimmerless since alot of people on my local board told me it would be alright. The 5 months I went without a skimmer were the hardest months I ever had on a saltwater aquarium. Since adding a skimmer I felt like a thousand pounds have been lifted off my shoulders. I was having all sorts of problems that my skimmer ended up fixing such as cloudy water, diatoms everywhere, nitrates due to the fish waste, and on and on. If you can afford the skimmer then that is what I would recommend. Even though smaller tanks are easier to deal with without a skimmer, I would still put a skimmer on for insurance