Triton with no skimmer?

[Reef of Fillory]

How important is the skimmer for the Triton Method?

I've been thinking about doing two sections of refugium in my sump and getting rid of the skimmer.

I have a Biocube 32 drilled with a 20 Gallon sump. I currently use the first section for Chaeto [~6 gallons] and the second chamber [~5 gallons] for the skimmer. Has anyone had success with Triton going skimmerless?

If I used both sections as refugiums, I would be ~ 35% of my DT as a refugium.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

Bump! I have a smaller tank too (127 litre display and 76 litre sump) and I've noticed that my nutrients are running ultra low with the skimmer. I can't get any chaeto to grow. Can I just shut off the skimmer?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I have since started dosing nitrates to keep my chaeto growing. My phosphates are also down at .012 so i'm not sure what i'll do once they drop even further.

I have a 32g/20g sump with a Coral Beauty, Lawnmower Blenny, two full sized Clownfish, a green mandarin and two shrimp. I can't think of another good additional fish to add to this mix to supplement my nutrients for chaeto growth. I feed ~ 1 cube of frozen every day and have an auto feeder feed flakes/pellets once a day. I dose iron/manganese to the refugium once a week and have my 36watt fuge light running 24/7.

I haven't tried shutting the skimmer off though because I don't have much surface agitation from my powerheads, and I use the skimmer for oxygenation as well as pH buffer via a CO2 scrubber attached to the venturi.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

I shut down my skimmer last week and my nutrients have stayed the same. Also I have less noise coming from my tank.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

I have since started dosing nitrates to keep my chaeto growing. My phosphates are also down at .012 so i'm not sure what i'll do once they drop even further.

How much and what type of nitrate are you dosing? I'm still not running my skimmer and my NO3 is barely above 1 PPM. I'm using GFO to keep the PO4 in line. I'm not using Chaeto yet but I figure I will have to dose Nitrate to keep it alive.

I haven't seen any problems with PH without the skimmer.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I'm using the stump remover that's referenced on other threads from a google search

The amount will depend on how strongly you mix it, but i've been dosing about 1 tbsp every 3-4 days [or when I remember]