InsaneClownFish
New member
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I've read zero Nitrate in my 8 foot reef for nearly 10 months. I was skimmerless for 10 days and read .3ppm. Hooked up the new Cone Skimmer and in 64 Hours the Nitrate was down to .1ppm. You decide.
do we need to run skimmers?
- Thread starter Joel A
- Start date
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I've read zero Nitrate in my 8 foot reef for nearly 10 months. I was skimmerless for 10 days and read .3ppm. Hooked up the new Cone Skimmer and in 64 Hours the Nitrate was down to .1ppm. You decide.
acrylic_300
New member
I use 20 micron pleated paper filters. I bleach them out and rotate once a week. The dirty bleach water is just as nasty looking as skimate.
Eric Bonreman, I'm sure has his own reasons for not using a skimmer. If I remember right, he would not agree with mechanical filters or anything that removes coral food particles out of the water.
I agree that a skimmer is not needed.
However, I run a very modest skimmer.
Eric Bonreman, I'm sure has his own reasons for not using a skimmer. If I remember right, he would not agree with mechanical filters or anything that removes coral food particles out of the water.
I agree that a skimmer is not needed.
However, I run a very modest skimmer.
Reef Bass
colors and textures
Ok, I get that you're just beating the bee hive looking for reactions.
Mine is a calm "My EuroReef skimmer is the #1 reason I can have super colorful sps corals growing in my house".
Howzabout I send you my skimmate just from this week and you add that to YOUR tank and we'll see how well your skimmerless set up handles it?
Mine is a calm "My EuroReef skimmer is the #1 reason I can have super colorful sps corals growing in my house".
Howzabout I send you my skimmate just from this week and you add that to YOUR tank and we'll see how well your skimmerless set up handles it?
You might want to give this a read, if you haven't already. There are some pretty well known people to the hobby with interesting results.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/fm/feature/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/fm/feature/index.php
serpentman
part time superhero
IMO, skimmers are not 100% necessary. However, for someone that loves fish, I couldn't imagine going without one. I believe they take a great deal of the margin of error out of a system by removing waste before its problematic. Furthermore, they assist in gas exchange. However could you serve the same purpose with carbon, gfo, miracle mud and frequent water changes...probably. I think even this has its limits on a large system. By the time things build up, it takes forever to get them back in line.
Personally, I like seeing the stuff come out of the tank to gauge how things are going.
Personally, I like seeing the stuff come out of the tank to gauge how things are going.
oscarsdad608
New member
Ask him if you can hook up your skimmer to his tank for 2 weeks and keep track of the water quality and clarity during that time. I will bet his water improves and yours goes crap.
sowellj
New member
As stated by one of the earlier posters ... no knows what a skimmer really pulls out.
I am a chemist and contacted multiple companies about designing and running experiments to attmept to figure out what a skimmer is pulling out of the water (on my time and on my mass specs). No one was interested. It was really surprising/frustrating. Oh well.
I am a chemist and contacted multiple companies about designing and running experiments to attmept to figure out what a skimmer is pulling out of the water (on my time and on my mass specs). No one was interested. It was really surprising/frustrating. Oh well.
too funny. I've met Mr. Feldman several times at reef events in my area. He's very approachable. You should reach out to him at Penn State or Sanjay Joshi. I'm sure they'd be interested in your findings. Or drop Mr Holmes-Farley a note right here, I'm pretty sure he was consulted on the research
1DeR9_3Hy
New member
Id say skimmerless sps systems are very "doable". Ill use my ten gallon desktop tank as the example. Its growing monti cap, and pocci with power compact lighting, no skimmer, a HOB filter with GFO and one cheap catalina powerhead. I do 50% wc's once a week, and i have one small fish in their. No clean up crew afaik....i think they all starved.
Its easy on a ten gallon, what with doing 50% wc's in 2 minutes and almost no bio load...but on a bigger tank like a 90 i beleive someone would have there work cutout for them.
Its easy on a ten gallon, what with doing 50% wc's in 2 minutes and almost no bio load...but on a bigger tank like a 90 i beleive someone would have there work cutout for them.
Other than starting with a skilter, buying a ASM mini-G is something I am bummed that I did as a noob. (Although, admittedly, I had a very knowledgeable and helpful LFS compared to many, sadly gone now) While it did a good job for about a year as a noob tank for-now solution; it has burned out. I did even replace the pump and now that has crapped out too.
My tank never looked better than when the skimmer was working properly.
Now I am stuck because I won't repair this mini-G again. Ever since I got the new pump (feb 09?) the skimmer has not done well. I got maybe 5-10 cups of skimmate out since then. (10 would be a stretch) I definitely messed with the riser a lot trying to get it to produce. At best I got wet skim tea.
Since it was running so minimally, I figure I have essentially run skimmerless for like 6 months. I did add a HoB fuge as (ironically) I was having nitrate issues. The fuge seems to really have helped that.
Many times I have come to the conclusion that buying a high quality oversized skimmer that will last is an excellent decision. While reactors and auto top offs can overdose a tank, skimmers are not something that can really cause harm to a tank!
I have read Mojo~'s skimmer reviews and have a good idea what I am interested in, but will need to save a bit for it (thinking vertex 180)
My tank looks a bit struggling, but I did move the whole thing mid September.
Like many have said, there are ways to make it work without, but with so many examples of the ease and success and help they can provide (I think particularly to the ToTM comment) why would you steer newbs away? It's just not a bad or dangerous idea, IMO, and I am excited to finally get something decent on my system- to see what it pulls out, and how happy my reef is afterwards.
(sorry for reflection on this one)
My tank never looked better than when the skimmer was working properly.
Now I am stuck because I won't repair this mini-G again. Ever since I got the new pump (feb 09?) the skimmer has not done well. I got maybe 5-10 cups of skimmate out since then. (10 would be a stretch) I definitely messed with the riser a lot trying to get it to produce. At best I got wet skim tea.
Since it was running so minimally, I figure I have essentially run skimmerless for like 6 months. I did add a HoB fuge as (ironically) I was having nitrate issues. The fuge seems to really have helped that.
Many times I have come to the conclusion that buying a high quality oversized skimmer that will last is an excellent decision. While reactors and auto top offs can overdose a tank, skimmers are not something that can really cause harm to a tank!
I have read Mojo~'s skimmer reviews and have a good idea what I am interested in, but will need to save a bit for it (thinking vertex 180)
My tank looks a bit struggling, but I did move the whole thing mid September.
Like many have said, there are ways to make it work without, but with so many examples of the ease and success and help they can provide (I think particularly to the ToTM comment) why would you steer newbs away? It's just not a bad or dangerous idea, IMO, and I am excited to finally get something decent on my system- to see what it pulls out, and how happy my reef is afterwards.
(sorry for reflection on this one)
Lagger
New member
I wouldn't want two collection cups a week of this in my tank!
:lol: classic
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