Can I go skimmerless?

Johnnyredd · Aug 11, 2014

Carlson the GSP in the 55 (skimmer off) has covered it's rock and is starting up the glass on it's own since I turned the skimmer off. I have a anthelia (sp?) rock that was like one third covered when we got it. 6 months later it's been harvested twice and you can't see much of the rock.

The 180 has three kinds of Xenia and a small GSP colony. I shut the skimmer off on it Friday to give it a two week test. The blue Xenia "looks" like it's taking an interest in my experiment but I really do everything via pictures every couple of weeks. As soon as this is over I am moving some of the Xenia over to the 55 to start hopefully growing it so when the 125 cycles and comes online in November I have xenia and anethelia (again, sp?) for one side and cheato in the other. The xenia side will have a small skimmer in it just in case it's ever needed.

I disagree on a better system, I just experiment more than some would. I do have a skimmer on that tank just in case but just as I noticed with the fuge on the 180... as it matured I got less skimmate, even with a more densly populated tank. I had the anethelia in the 55 and during one of the tantrums the aquamedic skimmer has I noticed it and the GSP had grown. OK. I shut the skimmer off and we're a couple of weeks into a self cleaning tank. I am sure someone will come up with a way something is wrong before it's all over but so far the experiment is working.

760mason · Aug 11, 2014

Unless you have a giant sump and small bio load I would not go skimmer less. The video you posted the guy states the only reason he has no skimmer is space in his little girl sump.

Gardy · Aug 11, 2014

I've been running a BH1000 on a 16 gallon and it's been great but been dabbling in the idea of taking it off, I had a bad bout of cyno that got cleared up with coral snow and a combination of zepbak and cyno clean every other day, dropped to a maintance dose of once a week and since then the skimmer doesn't pull anything out and nitrates are holding at < 1 ppm for 6 weeks now

SantaMonica · Aug 11, 2014

As the periphyton develops on your rocks, it will provide far more filtration (removal of N and P) than a skimmer would (which does not remove any N or P). And the periphyton won't remove food particles.

Only a skimmer + carbon removes large amounts of N and P, however it is a lot of work, hurts some corals, expensive, and it removes your food particles.

Periphyton is your friend. After all, it and benthic macroalgae do most of the filtering (removal of N and P) for all the reefs and lakes less than 30 feet deep (deeper than that and phyto does most of the filtering).

Dr.Reefgood · Aug 13, 2014

I run a BH1000 on only a 29gal. with no fuge. I couldnt be happier. Only 4 fish in the tank along with LPS. I over feed and dont worry to much about it. Every few days i turn it off, the water gets crystal clear. Still dont go longer than 10 days without changing some water. I know most will say just do your water changes routinely and you will be fine. I say do some water changes as well as skim. If you can afford it i say its a must, and purchase a protein skimmer rated higher than your tank if you can. You never know down the road you may want to up your bio-load or switch out to a larger tank.

ChrisQ0904 · Aug 15, 2014

What if you just put a skimmer on a timer? If you end up adding a skimmer to your system and feel like it's pulling out too much from your water why not just run it for 12-20hrs a day? I'm actually thinking about doing this, I dose vinegar to control my phosphates but it also brought my nitrates below 5 and I am thinking about cutting back on my run time of the skimmer to see if it slightly bring up my nitrates to around the 5ppm mark.

Johnnyredd · Aug 16, 2014

All good stuff and food for thought. We have the 180 which will become more of a FOWLR with some coral. The 125 will be more of a reef with a few fish.
I think i am going to chicken out and keep the small skimmer in the sump. At least to start. Its rated for half the system size and will also help me once i get past the cycle and the post cycle algae bloom.

A friend suggested ball valves in the overflows to further slow down one side of the flow into one side. Still debating the substrate(s) and placement. Xenia will start out on a rock so that chamber will have rubble but the macro side may be sand, mud, glass or more rubble. Probably wont be sand because it will have more flow to keep the chaeto moving.

Decisions decisions...