okay, i see no need for a skimmer at this point i plan on running mostly LPS with a monti or 2 and they are the the hardiest SPS. by what people have said the fish selection has a very low bio-load, and they are all easy to care for fish that will eat algae off the rocks and sand, with a light feeding every night. If your worried about nitrates in my tank, they shouldn't be a problem i run filter socks and change them out every other day but eventually will do without them, also i have a ball of cheato that is about the size of truck tire and growing rapidly i take about 1 sq foot off of it weekly. Yes it is packed full of pods. even tho my tank is only 3 months old the fudge i would say is very mature. everything that im going to be putting into the tank will eat and clean it in everyday possible.
Waterchanges - what is the point as long as you have good oxygen in the water and nothing is in your water that you dont want. why take out perfectly good water just to replace it with the same "fresh" water it is very possible to keep your water "fresh" with out water changes.
my system has not had any flaws thus far and untill it does im going to stick with my original plan. i do have room for a reef octo space saver if i need to add one down the road. iv been planing this tank for about a year now and when i say im impatient i mean im impatient to get feed back but i can wait for results. iv done plenty of research about skimmerless tank and i feel im building a healthy one right now.
just because im 16 and maybe there's alot of grammar and spelling errors in this post doesn't mean my system is going to fail. i appreciate the concern and feed back very much. thank you.
so if anyone else has advice besides get a skimmer it would be appreciated.
Ok Im gonna touch on this.
First one Skimmer and why
A skimmer is being suggesting now cause why wait til you have a problem? Now is the perfect time and if you chose not to that your business. We are offering advice. A skimmer will export nutrients from your tank, whether or not you have a high or low bioload. Once you have fish, they poop. The food they dont eat is more waste. if you dont have anything pulling this waste out, guess where it goes? Nowhere. And as people have mentioned, with PROPER FILTRATION, 12 fish wouldnt be a problem. A skimmer is part of this filtration. So if you dont want to get a skimmer thats up to you. But then your going to be doing water changes....and that leads into the next topic
You dont see a need for water changes. Ok lets explore why. First off it looks like you want a reef tank. Water changes are going to be needed. For one, one of the same reasons to have a skimmer. To remove nutrients from the tank. Once again, if you dont remove the waste, it doesnt go anywhere. Seoncd reason for water changes. Once you have coral in there, they are going to use up magnesium, alkalinity, and calcium. These elements get depleted. Yes you can dose, but the easiest ways to replenish them are water changes. But before you say I can just dose, keep in mind that there are other elements that need replenishing such as iodine, strondium and others.
These are the two main methods used for nutrient export. There is no way I would rely on a fuge to remove nutrients from my tank. Its not enough.
On top of all that your talking about have a tank with monti. An SPS, which if you look at the needs for SPS, water changes and skimmer are going to be more helpful than you can tell now. Even before I had a heavy load on my tank, my skimmer would pull out 1/2 to an inch of green crap into the skimmer cup in 3 days. You cant see all those nutrients, well not until the skimmer pulls it out.
And just because you arent running into any issues now, doesnt mean you wont. And chances are you will run into some challenges. To assume your tank will run flawless, you are already setting yourself up for problems.
And no one is saying your system is going to fail. We are offering you our advice, from experience. Know what you do with it, is up to you.
