no protein skimmer

[greenvrod06]

so my esshops skimmer just died on me. my tank is a 125 gallon soft coral only and just a few tangs and a zebra eel, i run a dual reactor with gfo and carbon, my ? is how long can i go without a protein skimmer or do i really need a skimmer.

 

[mcgyvr]

Many run without skimmers...but now you just have one less piece of equipment exporting junk from the tank.. You may need to slightly increase water changes to account for the difference

 

[jacksonpt]

Many run without skimmers...but now you just have one less piece of equipment exporting junk from the tank.. You may need to slightly increase water changes to account for the difference

Agreed.

I've run skimmerless most of my reefing career. I make it a point to keep my bioload light, feedings infrequent, and water changes regular.

 

[75mixedreef]

I've been considering going skimmerless on my 75 in order to save a bit of cash and have a bigger fuge, but I'm not sure if it is a great idea. I do like the idea of cutting the noise from the skimmer and I will have an ATS as well as the fuge for nutrient export and keeping the water aerated. The big issue I have, is that I am bad at remembering to do water changes and I'm worried about nutrient spikes that a skimmer could help to mitigate. I usually feed every other day or so, so I wasn't worried about keeping the bioload low, but I'm considering getting anthias so I would get an auto feeder to feed every day. Would running without a skimmer in this situation be a bad idea?

For a little background, I have mainly LPS and SPS in my tank now but my wife likes zoas so I'll probably be getting a few of those in the future to keep her interested in the tank. Only one wrasse right now, I'll be stocking more after the upgrade.