No skimmer for 5 months

[wakeupdrowzy]

my skimmer went out in february and i've been laggin on getting a new one, but nothing noteworthy seem to be effecting my tank.

Anyone else input?

I'm wondering if i should even buy a new skimmer, the sps is doing great, chalice, acan, australlomussa, micromussa, softie zoa, etc everyone looks good

I also knotice there are some nice looking sponges that are starting to grow now. It's everything that i know about reefing backward, what's going on here?

 

[clsanchez77]

I run mine only 6 hours a day. I think as a hobby we way overdo it on the skimming. I do recommend you purchase an acceptable quality skimmer (Reef Octopus for example) adequately sized for you tank. You can choose to run this full time, part time or not at all. What is important is that you have it on hand and ready to use when needed. **** happens and I would rather have one on hand Im not using than to not have one when I need it.

And yes, my tank is also teaming with small micro fauna, small red fan worms, hydroids, sponge, tunicates and several encrust non-photosynthetic corals. The rocks cape is not about a year old.

 

[mtraylor]

Skimming depends on your bioload. If you have allot of big fish and you decide not to skim the water will soon be polluted with urine and feces. If a fish would say get a scratch on it it would get infected...fish pop eye, etc. All kinds of bacteria issues.

If you have a super light bioload, I think you can go a long time without it, with some regular water changes. Me personally, I don't do many water changes. 3 maybe a year. Have heavy bioload, yada yada yada. The sponges are not there because you are not skimming. I have tons of sponges and I run skimmer 24/7

To help with your recommendation. Post a full aquarium pic and some close ups of your sps. That might help on recommendation. Also your tank parms.

 

[clsanchez77]

If you have allot of big fish and you decide not to skim the water will soon be polluted with urine and feces. If a fish would say get a scratch on it it would get infected...fish pop eye, etc. All kinds of bacteria issues.

This is not true and speculative at best. There are many successful tanks run without skimmers. And fish urine and feces does not develop pop eye or bacterial issues - running a skimmer will not address the root cause of either of these diseases. In fact if a fish in QT receiving treatment for either of these diseases (or others) you will run the QT with NO skimmer.

 

[mtraylor]

This is not true and speculative at best. There are many successful tanks run without skimmers. And fish urine and feces does not develop pop eye or bacterial issues - running a skimmer will not address the root cause of either of these diseases. In fact if a fish in QT receiving treatment for either of these diseases (or others) you will run the QT with NO skimmer.

All I can say to that is.....try it out for yourself and then let us know what your findings are. I have been there and done that. This is no speculation but factual information from my reefing experiences.

 

[clsanchez77]

All I can say to that is.....try it out for yourself and then let us know what your findings are. I have been there and done that. This is no speculation but factual information from my reefing experiences.

Many people have done it and continue to do it. Search it here on R2R: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...can-keep-a-reef-tank-without-a-skimmer.63645/

There are serval current methods that do not require it include algae turf scrubbers, miracle mud method, other algae refugium, cryptic zones, etc. There are other methods that absolutely require it such as Berlin and Zeovit. The important thing is you have a method of nutrient export that is matched to your feeding quantities. The skimmer is just one of the tools available, albeit most common. The information your provided may be correct "factual information from my reefing experiences" but that is not the limitation of this hobby.

My tank would probably be just fine without at this point, but I am still ramping up my feeding levels so I wont take it offline until I get the food in - algae out proportions correct. And even then, I may still run the skimmer once a week when I run my nutrient export mode on the vortechs. But since cutting back to 6 hours daily, I have had explosive sponge growth, my cup corals have recovered in color, my solitary corals have grown and my little 1 mm red fan worms are now taking over much of the sheltered rock work. Most of these guys eat very fine particulates, including bacteria, which is exactly what the skimmer is removing. Certainly you can skim heavy and still grow this benthic diversity but you will have to replace the foods the skimmer has removed.

My point is there is no shortage of ways to run a reef tank and not all of them require a skimmer. Heck, reef tanks have been around longer than skimmers. And those old wooden air stone skimmers have nothing on todays skimmers, but the tanks were just fine.

 

[mtraylor]

Many people have done it and continue to do it. Search it here on R2R: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...can-keep-a-reef-tank-without-a-skimmer.63645/

There are serval current methods that do not require it include algae turf scrubbers, miracle mud method, other algae refugium, cryptic zones, etc. There are other methods that absolutely require it such as Berlin and Zeovit. The important thing is you have a method of nutrient export that is matched to your feeding quantities. The skimmer is just one of the tools available, albeit most common. The information your provided may be correct "factual information from my reefing experiences" but that is not the limitation of this hobby.

My tank would probably be just fine without at this point, but I am still ramping up my feeding levels so I wont take it offline until I get the food in - algae out proportions correct. And even then, I may still run the skimmer once a week when I run my nutrient export mode on the vortechs. But since cutting back to 6 hours daily, I have had explosive sponge growth, my cup corals have recovered in color, my solitary corals have grown and my little 1 mm red fan worms are now taking over much of the sheltered rock work. Most of these guys eat very fine particulates, including bacteria, which is exactly what the skimmer is removing. Certainly you can skim heavy and still grow this benthic diversity but you will have to replace the foods the skimmer has removed.

My point is there is no shortage of ways to run a reef tank and not all of them require a skimmer. Heck, reef tanks have been around longer than skimmers. And those old wooden air stone skimmers have nothing on todays skimmers, but the tanks were just fine.

Oh I totally agree. Your preaching to the choir. I think you may think I"m bashing the idea. That is not the case. I put the warning out there for heavy bioloaded tanks so some reefers may not experience what I did by loosing some of there beloved fish due to not skimming. I will state it again. Skimming depends on your bioload.

I have been reefing for a long time. In my small tanks, I have never used a skimmer. Never needed it. Didn't run a sump either. Aquariums were nice and had good growth. Of course I did have very little fish and I performed regular water changes. They had Small bioloada. There is actually some tank out there I read about some time ago (big one) that doesn't do water changes and doesn't have a skimmer, etc. Unfortunately for me, I can not do that.

 

[wakeupdrowzy]

ya i only have 3 fish, one tang that ate all the algae, the coral beauti which for some reason turn into a tang that loves muching on the algae, and a fire fish.

I do knotice there is this purple green slim that started to accumulate on certain area of the tank, but that's about it, all the high end coral are coloful, however growth is not that good.

I just got a octopus skimmer now, and, due time to move to dallas tx from california

 

[wakeupdrowzy]

also i didn't change water for 6 week usually,

I think the result from not having a skimmer. I do knotice a boom in nutrient and resulting in slim build up. However the micro organism quickly reproduce to take it away as i knotice this week, the slim dissappear from the sand and other part of the tank, after i got the octopus skimmer.

I seriously dont think skimming is that big of a deal with establish tank. My theory is that the micro organism adapt to take the nutrient away.



My tank is from october 2016, but then before that it was purchase from someone on cl which had it for about 2 year, rock sand and fish. I must mention that i feed the fish very little, once every 3 days or so, but very little. They adapt by eating the algae i guess.