Is a skimmer necessary??

[spicytuna]

What do you mean by "more harm then good" do they hold bad bacteria?

More harm then good is when you let the sponges sit in the tank long enough, to where the gunk they have collected can break down into waste. You should change your sponge/sock/filter floss multiple times a week to remove the stuff that has been collected. A skimmer dispossess all it's waste into a cup, a sponge keeps running your tank water through the waste, get it.

A skimmer is t nesscisary, but it sure helps.

 

[rudeanduncouth]

More harm then good is when you let the sponges sit in the tank long enough, to where the gunk they have collected can break down into waste. You should change your sponge/sock/filter floss multiple times a week to remove the stuff that has been collected. A skimmer dispossess all it's waste into a cup, a sponge keeps running your tank water through the waste, get it.

A skimmer is t nesscisary, but it sure helps.

What he said, but to clarify your question a little better I will add some more. Sponge do make good surface area for beneficial bacteria, but so does your live rock and that is the whole point of live rock. They are also a mechanical filter and tend to collect all of the extra food, fish poop, etc in your tank. An experience keeper won't have this problem so much but over feeding is really easy. Now that probably sounds like a good thing but then the extra food just sits in that sponge and breaks down and eventually creates nitrates, as that is what the cycle does. However, unless you replace your sponges, not just clean them, they will continue to produce/leech nitrates back into your system since you can't ever get them completely clean. If you will religiously replace your sponges, go for it. I am not that adamant so I do not use them. Also, in a small tank like that a bit of your good bacteria will be on that sponge or sponges and every time you rinse them unless you rinse them off in SW (as opposed to rinsing it off in your sink, like most of us are prone to do) you will kill off a lot of those bacteria and more than likely cause a mini-cycle to occur in your tank because you just took away a chunk of your biological filtration. Hope that helps.

 

[flipsideleo]

You don't need no stinkin' skimmer for a nano.

More equipment = more failures.

Of course, I'm being a hypocrite.

 

[SilverGTS]

I love my skimmer. I have over 20 corals stuffed into a 20g high and I do 20% changes religiously.

-Chris

 

[Rolock]

I have a 5 week old 28 gallon and realized that my new Tunze skimmer will only fit in the center chamber where the stock media basket sits. What is advisable to do?

 

[suoirotoN]

I'm getting a 20L tomorrow and I have a lot of questions, might even make my own thread to get the right info. I was wondering if It would be beneficial to run a HOB powerhead filter and also a HOB skimmer plus some nano power heads for flow. Would running both of them mean that much better water quality?

 

[6Speed]

When he said sponge I assumed he meant live sponges, as-in filter feeders. Some people do run a low-flow "cryptic zone" full of live sponges in their sump with high success. Aside from that method there are many ways to export excess nutrients.

- skimmer
- sponges
- aiptasia scrubber (i wouldn't recommend this method simply bc I'd be too nervous the little bastages would get in my display, but I've read of others doing it successfully)
- xenia scrubber
- turf algae scrubber (one of my fav's and one of the cheapest/easiest to maintain)
- water changes
- cheato or other macro algaes
- mangroves

Many people have totally ditched their skimmer in favor of an algae scrubber. I don't have a lot of room in my sump or I would run one.