With the high costs of aquarium equipment, when I designed my newest system I wanted to come up with a way to save money on equipment so I can get more livestock. One of the ways I avoided spending an extra 300-1100 was to cleverly come up with a way to not need a protein skimmer. Often when people come by, they can't believe I run skimmeless until I tell them my trick...then they are like "why didn't I think of that?" An outline on the system I employ the batheing technique on can be found after the description.
After consulting several reef related literature sources, I was able to discover that the source of the dirty water in our systems was dirty fish. To combat this, every sunday I catch my fish and give them a bath in my sink. I rinse them in a vinegar solution, and use a wet mr clean magic eraser as a wash cloth. The vinegar solution dissolves most organic and inorganic compounds on the fish while the porous suface of the mrclean eraser has been found to trap most unwanted parasites, therefor I typically give new fish a rub down with it before adding them to my system as well. It is still undetermined why they do this, but when employing the weekly fish bathing technique fish actually do not use the restroom in your display but rather hold it until they are in the bath (this has been known to cause bloating in some fish, when bloating is witnessed more frequent bathes are required) The washing technique I use actually was determined to not only clean the fish, but for unknow reasons, increases the growth rate and reproductive response of certain fish...though I can not remember the name of the source at this moment. After the bath is complete, I place the fish in a freshly mixed container of salt water and bring the fish to a local playground, where they can be enjoyed by lots of young children, I strongly believe this is the fishes' favorite part of the whole week. This bathing technique has allowed me to go skimmerless now for a total of two months with great success, and Because I regularly clean the fish I do not need to quarantine my new additions.
Diplay and sump
15 gallon display with 29 gallon biocube sump, maxijet 1200 return
Flow
Back wall mounted mp40, controlled by my wxm, reefcrest at 80% day, NTM at 50% night. (I get like a 4 inch mini tidal wave )
Lighting
DIY 160w LED array, 80%blue 10% white 10% Other, using 3 watt cree leds and 60 degree optics
Ran from 8am to 10pm, full day from 11am to 6pm
Filtration
3 brs media reactors running gfo, carbon, coffee grinds (only ran for first three hours in the mornings to perk up my fish)
Livestock
Yellow Tang bonded pair
Black and White Clownfish Hosting in a purple hornet polyp
Baby chain Moray eel
Banghaii cardinal pair
An octopus that lives in the sump and the display
Coral
A single purple hornet polyp for my clownfish to host in
April fools
After consulting several reef related literature sources, I was able to discover that the source of the dirty water in our systems was dirty fish. To combat this, every sunday I catch my fish and give them a bath in my sink. I rinse them in a vinegar solution, and use a wet mr clean magic eraser as a wash cloth. The vinegar solution dissolves most organic and inorganic compounds on the fish while the porous suface of the mrclean eraser has been found to trap most unwanted parasites, therefor I typically give new fish a rub down with it before adding them to my system as well. It is still undetermined why they do this, but when employing the weekly fish bathing technique fish actually do not use the restroom in your display but rather hold it until they are in the bath (this has been known to cause bloating in some fish, when bloating is witnessed more frequent bathes are required) The washing technique I use actually was determined to not only clean the fish, but for unknow reasons, increases the growth rate and reproductive response of certain fish...though I can not remember the name of the source at this moment. After the bath is complete, I place the fish in a freshly mixed container of salt water and bring the fish to a local playground, where they can be enjoyed by lots of young children, I strongly believe this is the fishes' favorite part of the whole week. This bathing technique has allowed me to go skimmerless now for a total of two months with great success, and Because I regularly clean the fish I do not need to quarantine my new additions.
Diplay and sump
15 gallon display with 29 gallon biocube sump, maxijet 1200 return
Flow
Back wall mounted mp40, controlled by my wxm, reefcrest at 80% day, NTM at 50% night. (I get like a 4 inch mini tidal wave )
Lighting
DIY 160w LED array, 80%blue 10% white 10% Other, using 3 watt cree leds and 60 degree optics
Ran from 8am to 10pm, full day from 11am to 6pm
Filtration
3 brs media reactors running gfo, carbon, coffee grinds (only ran for first three hours in the mornings to perk up my fish)
Livestock
Yellow Tang bonded pair
Black and White Clownfish Hosting in a purple hornet polyp
Baby chain Moray eel
Banghaii cardinal pair
An octopus that lives in the sump and the display
Coral
A single purple hornet polyp for my clownfish to host in
April fools
Last edited:
