To Skim or Not to Skim

[robbyg]

I do not do water changes and have no fuge so I need a skimmer.

As I posted above I did that for two years. I have seen videos talking about 4 years and one that mentions decades. I don't know what makes it work for some people, but for me I had a skimmer and fuge with DSB and everything looked fine for a long time and then it just suddenly went to hell within the span of a few weeks. I suspect some form of coral produced chemical was getting more and more concentrated over time or a virus or bacteria was breeding in the water. Whatever it was it seemed like it had poisened most of the corals and nothing I did including water changes, Ozone and Carbon did anything to reverse the effect. One or two fish also died, including my pair of breeding Mandarins. One year later I put back in about $400 of SPS corals and they just died within a couple of weeks. I ended up leaving the tank as a FOWLR for another year before I had success with softies and LPS again.

 

[Hot2na]

Skimmerless for a yr now..I just run 12x12 HD polyfilter in my eheim 2215. and replace every 3 mos..just as good ,IMO .

 

[schooncw]

I will never quite get the "skimmerless" crowd. Have your macro algae reactors, do your water changes then look and smell at what the skimmer has still pulled. We are trying to recreate the impossible in our living rooms and I believe that the skimmer is an essential part of the equation. Someone above made the observation that "everything was fine until it wasn't".

 

[Jim Fox]

I've always had a skimmer. The main reason I had asked the question because it died on me and was just curious if one was truly needed or not. I do believe one would be of great benefit and it appears that those that do not use one, use a larger refugium and perform larger water changes with success. I have never been able to grow macro algae... no idea why. When I did run a refugium the macro algae would die and it became a HA farm lol. I actually didn't mind the HA as it stayed in the refugium and was a great pod farm. After all the feedback, I plan to go back to using a skimmer but I'll wait until black Friday to get one. I do appreciate all the feedback and advice... you all are great!!!

 

[Marie7]

Thanks for the reply Silent. I can cut back on the feedings some for a little while for sure. I'll probably increase the water changes to 2.5g just for good measure. As far as the fish go, I haven't bought a fish in well over a year but I do appreciate the advice.

In my opinion I would not take that chance no matter the amount of life rock or whatever u may have but u also has a such good amount of fish in there, some times all i need is a small change for ur aquarium crash and become out of control and loose fishes or corals, u also say u do a heavy feeding, remember ur skimmer its going to get out of u tank all the junk in it, good luck

 

[ianryd]

I recently went skimmerless, but it was for the purpose of raising nutrients. I started getting dinos after a frag swap so I stopped skimming. I'm in week 2 and my dinos are starting to die down. Once I have them under control I will probably go back to running my skimmer, but for shorter time periods. I'd say if your tanks been good with the skimmer, don't change anything!

 

[eschaton]

Probably the best way to ditch a skimmer is gradually. Like, set the skimmer on a timer, and every week increase the time the skimmer isn't on by 1-2 hours. This will give the filter feeders and detritus eaters enough time to proliferate and stop an algal bloom.

 

[Jon Fishman]

I will never quite get the "skimmerless" crowd. Have your macro algae reactors, do your water changes then look and smell at what the skimmer has still pulled. We are trying to recreate the impossible in our living rooms and I believe that the skimmer is an essential part of the equation. Someone above made the observation that "everything was fine until it wasn't".

I run an oversized Algae scrubber...... Way too much UV, an Ozone gen/reactor and a skimmer way too big for my tank...... There isn’t a single one of them I’d just “remove”

 

[schooncw]

And along with my skimmer, I run a UV, media reactor and I plan on getting a Macro Algae Reactor in the near future, probably one of the new Tunze units, as I believe in the brand, like the design and can run it externally.

 

[Jim Fox]

I've often thought of using an Algae Reactor but I don't want the maintenance that comes with it. But from what I hear they are very successful in removing nutrients.

 

[schooncw]

I've often thought of using an Algae Reactor but I don't want the maintenance that comes with it. But from what I hear they are very successful in removing nutrients.

Take a look at the Tunze unit. Maintenance should not be an issue. The light is on the OUTSIDE of the reactor!

 

[Timfish]

Only thing I would do is go ahead and remove your old skimmer, wouldn't change anything else. Here's two of my systems:

90 Gallon Mixed Reef, no skimmer, no reactors or ATO, Maintenance done every 2-3 weeks consists of replacing evaporation and roughly a 10% - 15% water change. sporadic dosing.



Mixed Reef started in 1997

 

[Jim Fox]

That's a nice looking reef tank! Love the rock layout and the corals. I wish I had the room to set up a display refugium. I guess I could if I rearrange some things but that might be more work than it's worth.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Skimmers also help with gas exchange. I have a friend with an amazing mature reef. He lets the skimmate run back in to the sump, but he keeps the skimmer running just for the gas exchange.

 

[lavoisier]

There are all sorts of ways to do reefing successfully. The public aquariums and profession setups I've seen use skimmers. I'm all about less risk.

 

[ChelseaBidwell]

If you're going macroalgae route, you may have to dose iron to aid in growth. I dose iron and my chaeto growth as been significant.

Really? We've been dosing Fe for over a week, with ample light from our Kessil and nothing. No growth. We fed more frequently to raise our NO3 hoping that might help, and also made sure we didn't have other algae eating up the nutrients. It's been in the fuge for over a month now and is the same size it was when we put it in.

 

[Earl Karl]

Really? We've been dosing Fe for over a week, with ample light from our Kessil and nothing. No growth. We fed more frequently to raise our NO3 hoping that might help, and also made sure we didn't have other algae eating up the nutrients. It's been in the fuge for over a month now and is the same size it was when we put it in.

A week is too short of a time to see results, especially in newer tanks. Are you testing Fe? It should be at least 0.1 ppm. It's always a good idea to test what you dose. You could be underdosing if still no growth. Might also want to take nutrients in consideration. Need N and P in order for it to grow.

I dose Lugols and Fe and I grow buckets of chaeto each week. My NO3 and PO4 constantly hits 0 so I have to dose KNO3 and KPO4 to get it too 1 ppm NO3 and 0.06 ppm PO4

 

[PlasmaBoy]

I’ve just gone back to running with no skimmer, there’s an important step people forget about going skimmerless and that is oxygen. I run air stones, wood air stones if you will. I believe the shock of reducing air in the water column can lead to sudden changes.

I run an angled algae scrubber, which grows more varieties than just your verticals. I have brown, green and wonderful cyano growing below deck . No filter socks, scrubbers are incredibly powerful, but don’t rip your tank to zero parameters. I’ve run nice sps tanks on scrubbers. I believe skimmers pull good stuff out as well as the bad. Skimmers are great insurance though, they will munch through sudden spikes caused by something dying . I keep my skimmer at the ready

Just my take .

 

[van7271]

I say why change what works. Replace the skimmer then you have no worries.

 

[Neptune1707]

I started a 35g office tank a few years ago. Just running Marineland Emperor 400 filter, 2 MP10 pumps, and 2 radions. Mushrooms, torch corals, zoas, leathers and a broken drag from home tank of purple stylo that’s growing well. I have a Kupang damsel, clown and just added a lemon peel angel and royal gramma. I have never used a slimmer in the tank and never had an algae problem...even used tap water for water changes. I did run a small bag of Phosban to keep tap water in check. Other than that, water params are spot on, sand is as clean as can be, just some green film algae on glass, wipe every few days. However on my home tank..Red Sea Max 500 tank...heavy bioload like u mentioned...I def run skimmer, filter pads, floss and charcoal and NoPoX oh and some chaeto in sump. Parameters are great..but trying to get water more polished...still working on that...if I didn’t have tangs I feel like the tank would sparkle crystal clear.