Who runs a tank without a skimmer?

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Brenden

Brenden

See Anemaknee
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
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I have never had a tank without a skimmer. (other than QT) How much more of a pain is it without one. (water changes etc.)
 
there's a few.... very few of the few of the few that are very few that do it :p .

yeah his name is Luke skywalker (ok ok i'm just kidding on the skywalker :p) he runs his tank with no skimmer and he made a cheap calcium reactor as well.
If i was about to do that which i'd never do that, just because i'd end up at a hospital or the coo coo place :D:p.
I'd definetly think about doing 50% water changes every week dood just because of the fishes and food.
 
I originally started with a nano and just handled everything with waterchanges. That worked fine provided I kept my bioload low.

Then I bought a 75g that I ran with the Miracle Mud system with no skimmer. That experiment didn't last long. Then I put an inexpensive skimmer on it and ran both systems together. After a while I tired of this and just broke down and got a good skimmer. (Remora Pro)

I consider a skimmer to be highly desirable on any non-nano tank. You remove substantial quantities of phosphates (i.e. algae food), built up organics, etc. As a result, you can do smaller water changes and you can do them less often.
 
you know one thing i'm wondering is.... if you could run a phosban reactor and just water changes but i don't know if that'd work :p because that way at least you'd be getting rid of the phosphates.
 
It is not a big deal. It is mainly a time issue as in add the skimmer when I did not have 100 things to do. The tank would only have a pair of clowns and zoos (100 gal) so it would be a light load.
 
If you had a Carbon reactor too, you could remove some of the organics that a skimmer removes. However a skimmer will remove substantially more of both organics and phosphates. Actually, I advocate running both Carbon and a skimmer.

Organic compounds are generally defined by chemists as those that contain carbon and hydrogen atoms, but can contain other atoms as well.They often contain nitrogen and phosphorus so skimming and the export of organics tends to have the very useful attribute of exporting these molecules before they can be broken down into nitrate and phosphate. Many organisms, from fish and people to bacteria, for example, take in organic materials as a source of energy and release the excess nitrogen and phosphorus not needed for growth. In many cases in an aquarium these excreted materials end up as nitrate and phosphate, either by direct excretion, as in the case of phosphate and nitrate, or as ammonia, urea, or other nitrogen-containing compounds that through additional bacterial processing can end up as nitrate.

Many metals, such as copper, are tightly bound to organic materials in seawater. If these metallo-organic compounds are skimmed out, it can be beneficial if the metals are present at undesirably high concentration (such as after an accidental exposure to copper), or it can be undesirable (such as when the metals have fallen to growth-limiting concentrations).
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SOURCE: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php

This article is VERY good and I recommend reading it.
 
Brenden said:
It is not a big deal. It is mainly a time issue as in add the skimmer when I did not have 100 things to do. The tank would only have a pair of clowns and zoos (100 gal) so it would be a light load.
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That is such a light bioload that you could go quite a long time without waterchanges.

My recommendations are better for hobbiests that run a normal bioload. I.e. not higher than average and not lower than average.
 
yeah only 2 clowns is nothing unless you're gonna be dumping tons of food the whole day :p :D and zoos are not as needy as sps.
 
i have a :eek: "prizm skimmer ":eek: on my 72g.....so basically, i run that tank without a skimmer!!!!:p ...seriously, that thing doesn't do anything!!!!!
 
Well the second question....What skimmer do you recommend for a 100gal tank?
 
i have a "prizm skimmer " on my 72g.....so basically, i run that tank without a skimmer!!!! ...seriously, that thing doesn't do anything!!!!!
__________________
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LOL !!! you're not alone dood i run one on my 37 and a ASM baby g1.
Right now the prizm is still jelous because i added the ASM.... seriously the thing hasn't given any junk every since i put the ASM :p .... i told it to take it easy but .... skimmers :rolleyes: :D :lol:
 
Buy their upgrade kit which adds the Surface Skimmer so it collecting from the surface of the water vs partially down the tank. It should make a big difference. You also get a basket to run Carbon in.
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do you think it really works??
 
ronj said:
i have a :eek: "prizm skimmer ":eek: on my 72g.....so basically, i run that tank without a skimmer!!!!:p ...seriously, that thing doesn't do anything!!!!!
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It is interesting to see what people think of this skimmer. I personally like it very much and think it pulls a ton of stuff out of my 55. I think it does better than my Remora AquaC and everyone raves about the remoras!?! I had both on and the Prizm just had more in it so I sold my Remora. I used the remora for several months and just happened to pick up this Prizm because I bought some guys whole setup. I thought the same way many people do, Oh a cheapy prizm. But now that I have used it I really like it. If yours isn't getting gunked up so that you need to clean it at least every week then something is probably not right on it. I clean mine more than once a week and it is caked with junk everytime.
 
copepod dood i clean mine every week which is every water change because on top of that, snails love to go into it.
I also have to calibrate it everytime and trust me still nothing comes out of it.... not even 1/2 inch of goo :doubt: :) .
 
spongebob lover said:
copepod dood i clean mine every week which is every water change because on top of that, snails love to go into it.
I also have to calibrate it everytime and trust me still nothing comes out of it.... not even 1/2 inch of goo :doubt: :) .
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Okay, that is strange, maybe you have really clean water or something. :) First, how do snails get in it, my intake strainer is too small for any snail to get in,
And calibrate? :confused: - what do you mean, I just stick mine back on and get the water going again,
 
No skimmer here. I am not bragging and I won't try to make a good argument. It works for me. I do about 10% water changes, couple times a month. I don't do any additives or feedings, no reactor, no carbon. Just good lighting and moderate flow. I have been pretty lucky, a few SPS, a few LPS, and tons of zoos. I feed my fish formula I and II flake food. I have no algae problems, I have lots of scavengers that help with that.

I can't recommend not using a skimmer, but it is possible to keep a successful reef without one. I am not sure when you can claim success. I have been at it for three years now and have grown hundreds of colonies of zoanthids and softies. I can't say, but life might have been easier with a skimmer.

tank_pic_7-1.jpg

2 x 250watt reeflux 12k
closed loop
sump
heater
 
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