Water change

[Mad Zoas]

Being new to this hobby and getting ready to setup a 50 gallon reef aquarium I was wondering if I could do without a skimmer with regular water changes of 20-30%

 

[lpsouth1978]

Absolutely! There are many reefers that run skimmerless systems.

 

[Dr. Phil]

Yep. I have done that on one or two systems in my time. Lol

 

[Euphyllia97]

Hi! It is indeed possible. However keep in mind a skimmer is not only there to get waste out of your water but it also introduces oxygen in the water.

So If you are not running a skimmer make sure you use an airstone or make sure you have enough gas exchange at the surface.

Good luck with the tank!

 

[slojim]

one way to look at it - skimmers improve water quality, allowing you to go longer between water changes. Imagine you are going to have this tank for 5 years, and it is lightly stocked, so you could maintain water quality with biweekly 20% water changes, and imagine for a moment that RODI with salt costs you $1/gallon (that's probably high - depending on how you get water). That might mean you spend $1250 on water over 5 years. If a skimmer allows you to go 3 weeks, you save half the water (almost - there are things like skimmer waste to account for). So a $200 skimmer and a $100 over 5 years in electricity to run it saves you $300 in water, plus some time. I view these things as nice to add on as you grow in the hobby, but not part of the price of admission. After all, if a year in you realize you'd rather have your time back, you'll sell that skimmer at a loss. But once you have a stocked tank with valuable livestock, then you become susceptible to some rapid-developing problems and a skimmer also becomes some insurance.

 

[Crustaceon]

You can definitely run without a skimmer and especially if you have enough surface agitation using circulation pumps/wavemakers or by oxygenating the water with an airstone. I’d recommend getting a jebao wavemaker like an ow-25 or similar size and pointing it slightly towards the surface to get it to ripple a little. As for water changes on a zoa tank (assuming that’s what you’re going with), 10% a week is probably enough and it might be detrimental to do more than that. Just watch your nitrate levels and if they creep high than you’d like, just increase the weekly water change amount to compensate.

 

[BeejReef]

No great experience here, but my tank seems to be doing well with no skimmer for about a year now with 10% water changes every week. Every system is different it seems. Some of the people on here need to go to great lengths to control nitrate and phosphate.... the other half goes to great lengths to dose them to keep them detectable. Maybe there are even some that have to do neither.... lol.

Couldn't begin to explain why. So, possible, sure. However you might find that your system is one that needs the extra filtration too.

 

[slojim]

I should add - a skimmer eventually allows you to do something like carbon dosing, perhaps further reducing water change volumes - which may be intersting. I don't do it, I have an ATS instead. And my lightly stocked tank doesn't put enough demand on my skimmer with my ATS running, so I put the skimmer on a timer.

 

[blasterman]

Given a choice of doing that volume of water changes on a 50 gal vs an inexpensive yet efficient skimmer like an HOB bubble magus I will take the later.

Doesnt take long for the magus to quickly pay for itself. No, you dont need a dump and a $300 skimmer.

 

[Fowler freak]

Lightly stocked, big cleanup crew, and weekly water changes plus and air stone then you’d be ok.

 

[PatW]

The more methods you have to promote stability in your tank the better. A skimmer is not necessary. But they are easy to run, dependable and pretty low maintenance. So they make good sense.