Skimmer and nutrient export alternatives?

ThePriceSeliger · Oct 19, 2015

I've been running my IM 80G AIO tank for about a year and a half now. About 8 months of which, I had the IM Ghost skimmer that was doing a decent job. However, after a constant struggle with microbubbles and zero performance, I've decided to remove the skimmer. This was about 2 months ago. My tank is a lightly stocked, SPS dominate tank. I am running filter bags with ROX carbon and High Capacity GFO, dual filter socks, and I've also implemented an automatic water change schedule changing about 1.2 gallons per day, randomly throughout the day. I feed relatively lightly, and don't have a PO4 or NO3 issue, yet.

So the question is, is this a suitable exchange for not running a skimmer? What other methods could I implement to as another nutrient export method? Should I do anything?

Thanks in advance!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 19, 2015

The GFO won't help keep nitrate down, so that may be an issue, but only time will tell.

This has more on nitrate:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium

Oceansize · Oct 19, 2015

I enjoy very efficient export through the use of a sulphur denitrator by Korallin. Once I got that well cycled, my skimmer now produces very little skimmate and if anything, whatever issues I have appear to be from not having ENOUGH nutrients. To address this, rather than take the denitrator off line (since it can take awhile to get it back online), I just turn off my skimmer for a few days and wait for the telltale appearance of algae on my glass to know that my nutrients are getting up there. The point being, in my case, a sulphur denitrator is what allows me to go without skimming for awhile, but I do feel like I need to turn it back on after awhile. Other than that, I'm pretty low-tech. No sump, just a lot of live rock and a canister filter (I removed the mechanical filtration from the canister filter, it's only running carbon and bioballs).