Thoughts on running a skimmerless system?

[Hiker4twenty]

For about the past 3 months(give or take a week or 2) I've been running my system skimmerless. I have a 29dt and a 10g fuge and 56lbs of LR. I do a 5g water change every 10 days. My water params are all in a good range and my corals have never been better. I also have 6 fish in my tank and feed 2x per week. For the record I do have a Reef Octo 160 Extreme sitting in the box just waiting to be used. I bought it for the tank upgrade. What does everyone think about the skimmerless setup? Why is it working for me? Would you suggest I keep it going for my upgrade to a larger tank?

 

[wontonflip]

There are people here who've gone skimmerless. I think Sen is or was skimmerless. Maintenance is the key and controlled bioload. It's not impossible :)

 

[AdeptMrSniffles]

I've been running skimmerless on my 29G for the past 2 weeks and everything is fine as well. I do a 3 gallon water change every Sunday. I'm certainly going to hookup my sump once again whenever my new stand comes in though. The top of my water gets pretty nasty without the skimmer. Also, I have 5 fish in my tank.

 

[reeffreak]

My guess is the fuge is doing its job.Low bioload and consistant waterchanges is the key.

 

[Bifferwine]

My 10 gallon was skimmerless. Water changes will cure all in a system like that... It's just much harder to do with large tanks.

 

[PRC]

I've never had a skimmer. I use an algae scrubber on my system, that's it. I do a 20-30g water change every week, that's it.

Take a look at the DIY section under algae scrubbers..I seriously have no idea why more people aren't using these things. I have 0 nitrates, and my parameters are stable... Costs less than $10 to set up if you have a sump.

 

[d2mini]

hmmm... might just be co-inky-dink... but i'm just now realizing that since I've been doing my continuous water change system, my skimmer is skimming much less and being more finicky. I was wondering what's going on.

 

[yote]

Dont try to fix what aint broke.:D
Since your tank is doing great without the skimmer,just hold it back for the upgrade.

 

[sen5241b]

Both my tanks are skimmerless.

Many things combine to create a system with low 'trates. Good flow, NOT-overstocking, fuge which increases overall water volume, water changes, macro-algae.

My tanks have zero 'trates for 3 reasons:
1 good flow including flow under the rock. I have most rock propped up on hidden PVC and koralia 1 pushing water under the rock --THIS PREVENTS DETRITUS TRAPS.
2 Do NOT over-stock
3 Cheato --biggest factor in keeping trates low.

I've actually gone over a month without a water change and trates stayed low although I had other chemistry issues because of this.

The problem with going skimmerless and relying on cheato is that if the cheato dies off suddenly (it happens), phosphates will rise to 0.25 ppm and stony corals will start dying fast! What will you do? You have back up cheato in a different tank? Spare bulbs for the fuge light? A skimmer will probably mop up most 'trates if your fuge/cheato fails.

But keep in mind that skimmers are not perfect. Studies have shown they will NOT mop up 100% of 'trates even with a skimmer rated for a larger tank.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

Thanks Sen. How do you have your algae scrubber set up?

 

[daugherty]

you will just have to keep up on the maintence and you will be fine

 

[OhNoNemo]

No skimmer here either.Never had one.

 

[sen5241b]

Thanks Sen. How do you have your algae scrubber set up?

The Biocube 29 has a 2G chamber in the back (chamber #2). I have it filled with cheato, two 25 watt Halogen bulbs on it, and a 365gph pump pushing water thru the fuge.

A month or so ago, one of the bulbs burned out while I was away and you could see the corals starting to retract. I replaced bulb and a day or so later corals are back to normal. I DO keep backup cheato in my other tank.

 

[PRC]

As far as my scrubber goes, I've got 2 overflow pipes coming off my HOB. 1 goes directly into the sump, the other has the scrubber attached. It's just a pvc elbow with another piece of PVC that has a 1/4 slit cut all the way across the bottom.

Then you get a sheet of embroidery screen from a craft store (it costs .39) rough it up real good, I use a sawzall blade to scuff mine up, slide it into the slit and tie strap it. Then you install the lights. That's it. It takes about 3-4 weeks for it to really turn green. You clean it once a week, even if it looks like you don't need to. Easy.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

I'm gonna have to set one of those algae scrubbers up.

 

[sen5241b]

I'm gonna have to set one of those algae scrubbers up.

Algae scrubbers do a good job but I wonder if they are worth the trouble. I think a fuge with a big ball of cheato that has strong light and flow on it would do just as well.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

Well, I've got the fuge and chaeto covered. My ball of chaeto is about the size of a girls basketball.

 

[dcantucson]

With my Red Sea Max the skimmer has not done anything for more than a year now. So in reality I guess one of my tanks is Skimmerless! Just keep up with your maintenance and you'll be fine.

 

[PRC]

Algae scrubbers do a good job but I wonder if they are worth the trouble. I think a fuge with a big ball of cheato that has strong light and flow on it would do just as well.

They're not any trouble really, it takes less than 30 minutes to install and once it's done, you clean it once a week, which takes about 5 minutes. Here's what I've noticed, every tank I've ever seen at some point has algae in it. Once I installed the scrubber I've never had any algae in my tank, and have 0 nitrates. I buy alot of stuff on CL so I visit alot of personal tanks, 100% of the tanks that I've seen have algae in them, in some fashion. I don't have 1 strand of algae. And if I buy a rock that has algae on it, I put it in the tank, my foxface will eat the algae off the rock and after that it's gone forever. I run my lights (halides) longer than most people do, and still no algae.

 

[Solarfall]

I've been skimmerless for months now, fuge seems to handle nitrates and phosphates just fine. But like everybody else says though, maintenence and bioload are the biggest things to keep in mind, especially without a skimmer. I do 15% PWCs once a week and I plan on sticking with just the 5 fish that I have. I have SPS growing pretty well too.