Yas
Active Member
Hi everyone,
Yesterday, my tank became skimmerless, and I would like to hear from you what you think.
My ammonia was 0.25 yesterday before going into skimmerless. Toady, after removing the skimmer, it was 0. Here’s what happened.
Though my nitrite and nitrate were 0 and phosphate was around 0.07 these days, I was still getting a lot of algae on the glass, and I had to clean it every day, and I thought it was strange because people around this level of nutrient normally don’t clean their glass as frequently as I do. While at the same time, my SPS corals were constantly getting pale and slowly dying. When I recently started feeding heavily and getting a bit of nitrate, SPS colors became deeper.
For me, SPS corals dying while having much algae on glass was weird. Algae grows because there are enough nutrients. SPSs die because of insufficient nutrients. So the symptom was crazy for me.
I tested ammonia then and found it was 0.25. So I struck upon this idea.
I don’t have enough bacteria to consume ammonia. Maybe I should stop the skimmer and put heavy amount of biological filter media in place because my skimmer could have been sucking up too much nutrients needed for feeding bacteria. So skimmer could have been the cause of insufficient bacteria, and that’s why skimmer had to sit in there. So maybe the skimmer itself was the reason to be there.
So I stopped the skimmer. But let me explain my setup. I use a heavy amount of chaeto with 24h lighting. Out of 70G total water volume, 12G equivalent space in the sump is full of chaeto, and it’s heavily densed. Without this chaeto, skimmerless wouldn't have been possible.
When I stopped the skimmer, I was afraid of having nutrient hike. So I added two more led lights to chaeto, one from above, the other in the water, since I had a small water-proof led.
Also, in place of skimmer, the space was filled with diced car wash sponge. I read some interesting articles about using sponge as bio filter media somewhere on the Internet. My intention was to get more bacteria as nutrient-consuming living thing which could also be good food source for SPS.
I don’t run GFO and GAC.
Today, I tested nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate. Everything was 0. This was the first time I got all zeros. I don’t think the sponge filter started working overnight. It was the big chunk of chaeto and reinforced lighting, I guess.
This level of nutrient-reduction speed is almost scary to me. I kept feeding my seven fish as heavily as usual, and I got all zero readings. I fed crams, hatched brine shrimp, dry foods, frozen mysis, today alone.
My skimmer wasn’t noisy at all. And I didn’t intend to save my electricity bill. I just wanted to avoid sucking up beneficial bacteria and their food source. My SPSs aren’t in good condition either because of ammonia or insufficient nutrients, I guess. Removing the skimmer could solve both.
But I don’t know if this really is a viable solution. This is only one day, and I’m not sure if this is sustainable or not. So I want to hear if this is a good idea or not.
Here are some pics of my sump setup.
Thank you!
Yas
Yesterday, my tank became skimmerless, and I would like to hear from you what you think.
My ammonia was 0.25 yesterday before going into skimmerless. Toady, after removing the skimmer, it was 0. Here’s what happened.
Though my nitrite and nitrate were 0 and phosphate was around 0.07 these days, I was still getting a lot of algae on the glass, and I had to clean it every day, and I thought it was strange because people around this level of nutrient normally don’t clean their glass as frequently as I do. While at the same time, my SPS corals were constantly getting pale and slowly dying. When I recently started feeding heavily and getting a bit of nitrate, SPS colors became deeper.
For me, SPS corals dying while having much algae on glass was weird. Algae grows because there are enough nutrients. SPSs die because of insufficient nutrients. So the symptom was crazy for me.
I tested ammonia then and found it was 0.25. So I struck upon this idea.
I don’t have enough bacteria to consume ammonia. Maybe I should stop the skimmer and put heavy amount of biological filter media in place because my skimmer could have been sucking up too much nutrients needed for feeding bacteria. So skimmer could have been the cause of insufficient bacteria, and that’s why skimmer had to sit in there. So maybe the skimmer itself was the reason to be there.
So I stopped the skimmer. But let me explain my setup. I use a heavy amount of chaeto with 24h lighting. Out of 70G total water volume, 12G equivalent space in the sump is full of chaeto, and it’s heavily densed. Without this chaeto, skimmerless wouldn't have been possible.
When I stopped the skimmer, I was afraid of having nutrient hike. So I added two more led lights to chaeto, one from above, the other in the water, since I had a small water-proof led.
Also, in place of skimmer, the space was filled with diced car wash sponge. I read some interesting articles about using sponge as bio filter media somewhere on the Internet. My intention was to get more bacteria as nutrient-consuming living thing which could also be good food source for SPS.
I don’t run GFO and GAC.
Today, I tested nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate. Everything was 0. This was the first time I got all zeros. I don’t think the sponge filter started working overnight. It was the big chunk of chaeto and reinforced lighting, I guess.
This level of nutrient-reduction speed is almost scary to me. I kept feeding my seven fish as heavily as usual, and I got all zero readings. I fed crams, hatched brine shrimp, dry foods, frozen mysis, today alone.
My skimmer wasn’t noisy at all. And I didn’t intend to save my electricity bill. I just wanted to avoid sucking up beneficial bacteria and their food source. My SPSs aren’t in good condition either because of ammonia or insufficient nutrients, I guess. Removing the skimmer could solve both.
But I don’t know if this really is a viable solution. This is only one day, and I’m not sure if this is sustainable or not. So I want to hear if this is a good idea or not.
Here are some pics of my sump setup.
Thank you!
Yas
