Reef tank without skimmer

[shoelaceike]

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.

Great news. Thanks. Im starting to feel more comfortable with this decision.

 

[pecan2phat]

They are macro algae reactors instead of a refugium.
https://www.marinedepot.com/NEW-MD-Pax-Bellum-ARID-Algae-Reactors-ap.html

 

[shoelaceike]

Thanks. One of the ideas is to not spend more money so I would just go with a regular refugium

 

[Troy V]

You can absolutly make it skimmerless. But surface movement will be important for gas exchange. I have a 500+ gallon 2 year system that is skimmerless w/Xenia fuge, and before this I had a 300 gallon system heavily stocked for 10+ years skimmerless w/Xenia fuge. It might take time to ween your tank off of the skimmer so you don't have an algae bloom.

 

[shoelaceike]

You can absolutly make it skimmerless. But surface movement will be important for gas exchange. I have a 500+ gallon 2 year system that is skimmerless w/Xenia fuge, and before this I had a 300 gallon system heavily stocked for 10+ years skimmerless w/Xenia fuge. It might take time to ween your tank off of the skimmer so you don't have an algae bloom.

Thanks. This tank never really had a skimmer. There is some water movement on top but there is also a glass canapy. It is not fully sealed though. I'm actually thinking about adding xenia. Can I have chaeto and xenia?

 

[beaslbob]

I feel more comfortable running chaeto vrs skimmer.

But that just my .02

 

[oceanfreak09]

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.

Maybe ditch the skimmer and run a refugium and a scrubber. ( that’s what I do, and I placed my scrubber right above the fuge. So my scrubber supplies my fuge)

 

[shoelaceike]

I dont think i want a scrubber. It seems either complicated or expensive

 

[Troy V]

Thanks. This tank never really had a skimmer. There is some water movement on top but there is also a glass canapy. It is not fully sealed though. I'm actually thinking about adding xenia. Can I have chaeto and xenia?

Sure you can do both. But I would keep them in a separate chamber or figure out a way separate them. I would also recommend getting rid of the glass tops, and go with a mesh top. Good luck!

 

[shoelaceike]

Sure you can do both. But I would keep them in a separate chamber or figure out a way separate them. I would also recommend getting rid of the glass tops, and go with a mesh top. Good luck!

Thanks!

 

[oceanfreak09]

I dont think i want a scrubber. It seems either complicated or expensive

No problem,but Basically they cost like $15 for plumping to make and you just have to have a supply and let it run down the screen into a tank ,sump or refugium.oh and have a shop light on it.

 

[FoxyFace]

Wasn’t it Bob Fenner that invented the skimmer challenge? His idea was something like, if you think you don’t need a skimmer on a reef tank, I challenge you to drink a weeks worth of skimmate.

The point was, skimmers pull such foul crap out of the water, why would you run a tank without one.

 

[shoelaceike]

I agree with that. Ive had them on my previous tanks and they did pull out a lot of crap. Im just wondering if a refugium can take its place.

 

[Troy V]

I agree with that. Ive had them on my previous tanks and they did pull out a lot of crap. Im just wondering if a refugium can take its place.

A skimmer will pull a far greater volume of matter than macro can pull in a given space. But for me the issue is do we want the skimmer pulling as much as they do? Which is mostly a liquifed coral food. Also skimmers are far more efficient compared to years past, and our systems seem to rely on their performance. So far as our biological filtration takes a back seat while we use the skimmer, and when our skimmer floods, needs cleaning, or pump dies the system suffers. In contrast when you have a natural filtration source it will ebb and flow to fill any nutrient excess or void that is present. Once you have found your systems equilibrium it is incredibly easy to maintain that stability. Which is key to any reef.

You can obviously be successful with a skimmer, but I also think you can be equally as successful without one. Full disclosure I currently have a Vertex 250 in my sump. Turned off of course... But I do recognize its ability to be an insurance policy if I screw something up.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

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.

@Lasse dream build will answer that

 

[MSB123]

I am not running a skimmer, it’s a 200 gallon system, med high to high bioload, they key for me is a homeless algae reactor and fuge

 

[Orm Embar]

I run a skimmerless Red Sea 170 with chaeto under a 36w led grow bulb in the sump. Feeding a half cube or more daily with minimal nitrate/phosphate (away from home so I don’t have my numbers). Only nuisance algae was a Valencia outbreak that resolved with fluconazole. I do have a small Tunze skimmer in case of emergency. Works great. Advanced Aquarist had an article where skimming removed 20-35% of dissolved organics. You just need equivalent nutrient export.

 

[Tyler Sullivan]

I got a 36 mixed reef heavy bioload and no skimmer.

Sent from my SM-N950U using REEF2REEF mobile app

 

[markfmvl]

we have two systems without skimmers. the system with the 90 gal tank had a crash in July due to an undiscovered dead fish( large engineer blenny). It is in recovery mode with only one fish. lots of hair algae, but the nitrates are around zero. it has a fuge and a algae scrubber. we lost almost all the cheato in the fuge. However the other system is around 130 gallons between 3 tanks that are connected to a large 70 gallon tub. It is doing fine. recent it tested around 20 for nitrates. I adjusted the light time on the fuge and cut back a little on the feeding and the duncan that was looking stressed looked better today. there are just 9 fish in that system. I think it is do able. but it still takes monitoring and adjustments for export.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

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 small tank, about 46 gallons 3' x 1.5' x 1.5' but it has a big bioload -
a vlamingi tang, two blue tangs, a yellow tang, a flame angel & a chromis (ok aquarium thought police, spank me).

I feed the fish about 24 square inches of nori 5 days a week & a prawn, oyster mix the other two, reef roids three times a week, phyto a few times a week.
I don't run a skimmer & rarely do water changes.
I just run an algae scrubber, some activated carbon, a little mechanical filtration & the live rock in the display.

PO4 0.03
NO3 between 3 to 7 ppm.