Skimmerless

[DonW]

Ok lets dig this topic back out. I showed the below pick of my collection funnel for my new system to a friend. The first comment was why dont I use it for a refugium filled with chaeto and move the pump down to where the skimmer goes and go skimmerless?????
The reasoning made pretty good sense. There is alot of space for chaeto. Lots of flow gravity fed flow about 3K gph. The funnel is capturing the detritus and going to the sewer. The overflowing tank has more chance at getting the oxygen than the skimmer would give. The tank is going to be more of a lagoon anyways.
Now my thoughts are the tank is to small to have enough LR and still look good and be a lagoon. I dont want a dsb only a shallow sand bed. I want to run ozone for water clarity. I dont want to have to clean the glass daily.
Finally I hesitate just because Ive never seen a skimmerless reef that was much to look at. I would love to see some pictures of success but cant find any on the WWW so I really question wether or not it would even work.

Comments?

 

[Scooterman]

I've been skimmerless for some time, I have a skimmer but It isn't on at the moment, I do run it at times but basically I can remove it completely.

 

[DonW]

I've been skimmerless for some time, I have a skimmer but It isn't on at the moment, I do run it at times but basically I can remove it completely.

Is that just because its so new or do you intend to keep it that way?

Don

 

[Scooterman]

Guess I should elaborate:
Detritus cakes up in the sump, weekly I crank up the return which stirs up the main tank & through the coast to coast funnels the particulate onto the trough & down into the sump, where I put a sock. When the sump gets clumps I suck it into the sock at the same time, within a few hours the main is very clear, sump clean & I didn't have to sweat much doing it. Like I said I have a skimmer & do run it at times, I can crank it up way more If I felt it was necessary but maybe being like you said only 10 months old & almost no bio-load I don't quite need it yet. With the new amount of available water I have (thanks to you) I can change out water so fast that I can do more changes & larger ones. I can actually go a month before really needing to do anything so I don't have to do this every week if I have to go out of town.

 

[Skimmy]

what??? no skimmer???.......jk

imo, it just depends on the bioload you want to keep in there...
sps might not like having no skimmer,
but i would think that with your skills and mentioned methodology you have planned for the tank,
softies, most lps and some fish would be fine, especially if your doing ozone. just more work is all...

my old (almost 8 years ago)skimmerless tank after i came home from vacation in mexico for 2 weeks...
you can see why i like skimming now, and why i dont put caulerpa in the display...

 

[mcvicker]

I ended up building my refugium much like your design. The overflow goes to a refugium with cheato and then overflows to a chamber that contains the skimmer and then to the return pump. Before the refugium my skimmer pulled out lots of muck, after the sump modifications it barely pulls anything out. My coral is doing much better, I never read any nitrates, and get little algae in the display (I have bubble algae that emerald crabs keep in check). I still run my skimmer more for oxygenation than anything. It broke and I went a couple weeks without a skimmer with no problem. I just vacuum out the cheato once a week when doing a water change as there is a lot of detris that gets caught in the mesh. That being said my SPS goes through spurts and some species have coloration issues, which remains a mystery to me but I think are either lighting or water quality issues. It is difficult to say as my set up is a bit odd in that I have 800 watts of metal halide on a 58 gallon tank and a pretty heavy bioload (plus I feed a lot). Hopefully that is helpful....
-chris

 

[Reeferdude]

Skimmer is not necesarry if the water changes are frequent ond often. Check out this video of Andreas 72g tank. It's the fifth one. No skimmer. No fuge with SPS.

http://www.reefvideos.com/

 

[DonW]

Now taken to the extreme. Here is a little change of the idea. No skimmer, no carx just one wild sump that holds alot of chaeto.

 

[mcvicker]

Have you seen the cheato tank at barrier reef? It looks like close to a 90 gallon tank stuffed full of cheato. They also have some pretty cool looking skimmers too though.
-chris

 

[Scooterman]

I've seen these tanks on-line, why not just buy one & plumb it from there, cost cheaper & you should be able to get a funnel type with a drain rather easy, just need to figure out how to support your pumps. I called several tank makers & they will make anything to your drawings & if not too out of their standard tanks it didn't cost much more to get exactly what you want. This sump would be one step better than what I have because basically you funnel the detritus & just open a valve to dump it, & on the other hand have to siphon it out the first two chambers of my sump, takes a little more effort.

 

[DonW]

I've seen these tanks on-line, why not just buy one & plumb it from there, cost cheaper & you should be able to get a funnel type with a drain rather easy, just need to figure out how to support your pumps. I called several tank makers & they will make anything to your drawings & if not too out of their standard tanks it didn't cost much more to get exactly what you want. This sump would be one step better than what I have because basically you funnel the detritus & just open a valve to dump it, & on the other hand have to siphon it out the first two chambers of my sump, takes a little more effort.

Where have you seen this sort of sump on line? Cost for me to build out of 3/8 acrylic is $195+ tax. Are custom sumps really that cheap.

Don

 

[Scooterman]

I priced a 40g custom rectangle from three places, all came in around $80 plus $30 shipped, they were storage containers, simple, not one had a standard size I wanted to use. I did see the funnel type tanks I'll see if I can post you some links, If you can take a basic plastic water container & make it work It might be cheaper but the 195$ your posting is really cheap & made of nice acrylic.

http://www.plastic-mart.com/class.php?cat=19

Yea they are higher, that what you can make it for, maybe someone that isn't set-up like you are.

 

[Scooterman]

http://diverseplastics.com/category.php?cat_id=032

Hello Scott,
As requested please consider the following:
Part No.41254
One - Polyethylene Rectangular PCO. Tank 25" long x 19" wide x 22" high 30 US Gallon Capacity complete with: 5" vented fill
Price: US.$74.40 ea.
Optional tank /wrap packaging
Price: US.$28.00
Shipping charge from our plant in IA. to a residential address Lafayette, LA. 70508 would be US.$30.00.
Delivery is approx. 3 weeks from receipt of order.
Thank you for visiting our web site.
Regards,
John Marion
Diverse Plastics Group Inc.
Phone:1-800-685-3174 x230

 

[DonW]

I priced a 40g custom rectangle from three places, all came in around $80 plus $30 shipped, they were storage containers, simple, not one had a standard size I wanted to use. I did see the funnel type tanks I'll see if I can post you some links, If you can take a basic plastic water container & make it work It might be cheaper but the 195$ your posting is really cheap & made of nice acrylic.

http://www.plastic-mart.com/class.php?cat=19

Yea they are higher, that what you can make it for, maybe someone that isn't set-up like you are.

I'm thiking 3/8 cast acrylic. 46" long. 12" deep 23" tall. The cone is just a overglorified baffel, the sump is the rectangle.

Don

 

[Scooterman]

Being you can make it that cheap you can't beat that, I guess for a homeboy with no acrylic skills I needed something I would trust full of water

 

[acrodesiac]

my old (almost 8 years ago)skimmerless tank after i came home from vacation in mexico for 2 weeks...
you can see why i like skimming now, and why i dont put caulerpa in the display...

That's so funny! :lol:

 

[Elmo18]

I run all my tanks skimmerless. I'd rather do a water change than skim I guess.

Best,
Ilham

 

[morgan]

really elmo and your anenomes dont mind? what filtration do u use if anything other then live rock? also can we see a pic of your main display tank then to add to the skimmerless tank photos

 

[porthios]

you may find this thread interesting..
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic71360-9-1.aspx

borneman is running his main 600g tank with neither skimmer nor water changes..

 

[bighitrider45]

lol i think my tank is messed up. Ive been skimmerless for alittle over a year and i rarely do any water changes (mabey1-2 a month!) and my tank is doing fine but i do have a ton of cheato and i run carbon but idk if thats whats keeping my parameters in check. also i dont have a sump of anything.. but now im slightly worried about adding anything else to my tank because eveyhting thats in there is used to the parameters.