Reef tank without skimmer

[shoelaceike]

Does anyone with a large tank (high bioload) run a tank without a skimmer? I have a 90 mixed reef with a pretty large bioload. I am thinking of ditching the skimmer and running a refugium instead.

 

[Mr.Hyde]

I have ran large reef tanks without skimmers but, with one or two fish. Not with a large bioloads, you will have a hard time keeping coral color and some algae’s at-bay.

Just my experience.

 

[Crabs McJones]

If you have a large bioload,why not run both? I run skimmer and fuge

 

[shoelaceike]

There are a few reasons. My skimmer is difficult to get dialed in and I dont want to buy a new one, the noise, the heat(about 2 degrees), I dont want an ATO, filter sock change causes it to overflow for a while and the maintenance.

Tank has been up almost a month, has a pretty heavy bioload and I still plan on adding fish.

Hippo tang
Sailfin tang
Fox face
3x chromis
2x clown
Cardinal
Starry blenny
Zebra moray eel

I also have a naso in the qt and I would still like to add another dozen chromis.

I would really like if a refugium can take the place of a skimmer.

 

[shoelaceike]

My corals are mainly soft and BTAs with a bit of LPS and SPS

 

[shoelaceike]

 

[Crabs McJones]

A refugium will help get rid of nitrates and phosphate, but a skimmer removes the dead organics from the water that eventually break down into nitrate and phosphates. So if the fuge is big enough, running skimmerless is possible I would do more frequent water changes though as even the triton method calls for utilizing a skimmer. Just my 2 cents

 

[shoelaceike]

Hmmm...i was hoping to find someone that is successful this way....I dont want to end up with major issues.....I don't like doing a lot of water changes. Maybe once a month or 2 months

 

[larrysy]

I believe Donovan Joanne did not use a skimmer and is quite successful. Check out his Nitrate Destroyer. I'm in the process of building one myself.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hmmm...i was hoping to find someone that is successful this way....I dont want to end up with major issues.....I don't like doing a lot of water changes. Maybe once a month or 2 months

Hopefully someone will chime in I just think with that heavy of a bioload you want to utilize every type of nutrient export you can get your hands on

 

[cloak]

Whatever your doing now seems to be working. No need to clutter things up with a Refugium IMO.

 

[Hulley]

Tagged for comments. I set my RSR 350 as skimmerless but it's only had water for a week and no fish yet, I do have a Kessil H160 as the refugium light and chaeto that seems to be doing well so far but I plan a light bioload and mostly LPS corals.....also, I'm not opposed to adding a skimmer if need be.

 

[shoelaceike]

Thanks but the tank is very young. I have yet to even set up my skimmer properly.

 

[shoelaceike]

I do not plan on doing SPS

 

[shoelaceike]

Whatever your doing now seems to be working. No need to clutter things up with a Refugium IMO.

Right now there is no skimmer. The large box on the left would be the refugium.

 

[CC13]

Does anyone with a large tank (high bioload) run a tank without a skimmer? I have a 90 mixed reef with a pretty large bioload. I am thinking of ditching the skimmer and running a refugium instead.

I have a large tank.

I have almost 20 fish.

My skimmer pump broke about a month ago, and I have been skimmerless while I wait for a replacement. I know you are looking for a long-term answer to sustainability but after a month I can see no differences at all. I don't have any more algae buildup on the inside glass, or anything else that is out of the ordinary. I still do my routine water changes, and I have always had a fuge, but the growth on my chaeto has been the same as well. No more or less really.

My pump is expected to arrive early next week and my skimmer will be back online Monday, but I could not see any noticeable changes from running without one at least in the short term.

 

[pecan2phat]

While my system is not huge, I run a 180g display with a ARID reactor and no skimmer.
Been able to keep nitrates to almost undetectable (.02 ppm, Salifert) but I still need to run GFO for the phosphates. Initially, I did not run GFO hoping that the cheato would remove most but as you know redfield ratio and etc, my phosphate got up to 1.66 ppm and that's when the GFO had to be utilized.
My bio-load is heavy with 21 fish and multiple feedings per day.

 

[Robinson]

Reefer 425xl here and this is the fish stock list:
Purple tank
Khole tank
Clownfish
2x athias
Bicolor angelfish
Purple firefish
Only running refugium with chaeto a bag of Seachem Matrix and a cup of GAC. No GFo, and my phosphate is .06 to .1 and my nitrates always at 3.0.

I do have a skimmer but when I started to running the skimmer the nutrients went to 0 and the the corals were not doing good, so I removed the skimmer and has been running like that for the past three months without any issues and only 5 gallons of water change every week and sometimes every two weeks.

 

[shoelaceike]

I have a large tank.

I have almost 20 fish.

My skimmer pump broke about a month ago, and I have been skimmerless while I wait for a replacement. I know you are looking for a long-term answer to sustainability but after a month I can see no differences at all. I don't have any more algae buildup on the inside glass, or anything else that is out of the ordinary. I still do my routine water changes, and I have always had a fuge, but the growth on my chaeto has been the same as well. No more or less really.

My pump is expected to arrive early next week and my skimmer will be back online Monday, but I could not see any noticeable changes from running without one at least in the short term.

Thanks. How about nutrient levels?

 

[shoelaceike]

While my system is not huge, I run a 180g display with a ARID reactor and no skimmer.
Been able to keep nitrates to almost undetectable (.02 ppm, Salifert) but I still need to run GFO for the phosphates. Initially, I did not run GFO hoping that the cheato would remove most but as you know redfield ratio and etc, my phosphate got up to 1.66 ppm and that's when the GFO had to be utilized.
My bio-load is heavy with 21 fish and multiple feedings per day.

Awesome. Whats sn arid?