Over 150 gallons and skimmerless?

F

freddy4130

In Memoriam
Anyone? I am looking for info on tanks that are larger than 100 gallons and are skimmerless. Or skimmerless tanks in general. A wide man once told me that a tank full of rock should filter sufficiently. I believed him. Then another wise man told me to overskim all the time. What I am getting at is this. Can you have a tank that is large and not have a sump and all the crazy biz that goes along with the sump and skimmer and fuge and all that crazyness? Can you just have a large tank with some flow and some rocks? Note. VERY MINIMAL BIOLOAD. Like a pair of clowns and a tang of some kind.
 
the solution to pollution is dillution ;) I would think that eventually the increased need for water changes would outweigh the costs of a skimmer. Saltwater tanks were kept b4 skimmers.
 
If you are going to go skimmerless I highly suggest having a fair amount of macro algae growing in the system. There are several really nice skimmerless reefs that size or larger here on RC. Maybe they will chime in. My tank is skimmerless and sumpless but its only a 40.
 
Mike Paletta has a book out called Ultimate Marine Aquariums: Saltwater Dream Systems and How They Are Created. About a third of the systems profiled have no skimmers. So no, a skimmer is not necessary.

A good idea though. As are sumps and refugiums
 
I have a 110 with a 30 sump/fuge and no skimmer. I do a 10% water change about once a month.
185580FTS-11-15-08.jpg
 
My 55 gallon has been running for 4 years now. The tank is 48x12x20 with a 6 inch deep sand bed and about 70 lbs of live rock. The tank ran perfect for 3 years by only doing 5-10% water changes every ten days. My nitrates slowly kept climbing so I added 5 crocea clams and 1 derasa clam and the nitrates actually went from 5 ppm to about 1 ppm. However in the last 2 months I converted the biggest Aqua Clear power filter into a HOB refugium sand, live rock rubble, and cheato, But this was strictly for the purpose of growing pods. Hope that helped out some.
 
Thanks Phil. I am really interested in NOT having a sump, but having a big tank. Don't et me wrong, I would rather have a clean, healthy reef with a sump than have a mediocre one without, but I am interested nonetheless.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14050820#post14050820 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jenglish
the solution to pollution is dillution ;) I would think that eventually the increased need for water changes would outweigh the costs of a skimmer. Saltwater tanks were kept b4 skimmers.
Click to expand...

you are correct, however at that time we were hardly able to keep sps corals
 
^ that's not why

mega-ignorance on what they are all about back then was the reason.

your logic fails at the point where one can say they keep sps in a skimmerless tank, which is documentable, that sps IS maintainable sans skimmer.
 
With the qty of stuff my skimmer removes from my tank, I could not fathom going skimmerless. Every time I clean the cup, I imagine all that stuff back in the water. Sickening.

At the same time, I have seen some stunning skimmerless tanks! Guess if you have a minute bioload, would be no issue.
 
No you don't need a skimmer to be successful. That being said, almost every known authority in this hobby advocates a skimmer. Even Paletta who loves the Ecosystem method (where Sy originally said no skimmer was necessary due to his mudd and fuge style of water management) now advocate a skimmer run on a timer.

I run the Ecosystem method, do 20% water changes weekly, have a 35g fuge on a 65g DT and I run a skimmer. I clean it cup and neck daily and you wouldn't believe the "crap" it collects. Oh yea, I have 6 small fish and my bio load is way low for what my system can handle.

Just do some research and make your own educated decision.
 
I guess if you look at the world over, the vast ammount of water verses the tiny ammount of water we have. We are all vastly overstocked, even with just one fish. If you look at the tiny amount of foam created by the waves on the shore line over the world, skimmers pull way more out. That bieing said I believe that skimmers pull to much. When you really look at it problems arise from unbalanced systems. Almost everyone looks at bio load, and it is actually what our filtration can handle. Looking at long term, it is what was our LR and sand are set up to run. If you buy phosphate loaded LR, then you will have problems right off and everyone will tell you to skim heavier. The actual problem is you have a tapped out filtration source. Now you are running on nothing but a skimmer. If it should ever fail then kiss your tank good bye.:)

Anyway, don't listen to me, it is new years eve, and I am not in the best frame of mind.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERY ONE WHO READS THIS.
 
My 120g has been skimmerless for the last 5 or 6 weeks. I initially turned it off as a test to see what happens (nothing) and I'm keeping with it. It's a much quieter system without it and I see no change in the tank itself. My nitrates are still zero and I do not have a minute bio-load like someone above mentioned. Skimmerless is entirely possible with normal bio-loads no matter what others will tell you. You don't even have to do lots of water changes either. I've only done one in the time I've been skimmerless and nitrates are still undetectable.

I'd never go sumpless in a large tank, though. I love being able to hide heaters in the sump, plus it makes a convenient area to dose and add an auto top off system out of view.
 
water changes are crucial for a skimmerless tank! they are crucial for a tank with skimmers. I have never seen a really GREAT looking tank without a skimmer.
Unfortunately, the USA is so behind on the technology for reef tanks. Other countries like Germany is so far advanced then us its crazy. I dont undrstand why we cant get the same products they can get.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14054359#post14054359 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johnny313
water changes are crucial for a skimmerless tank! they are crucial for a tank with skimmers. I have never seen a really GREAT looking tank without a skimmer.
Unfortunately, the USA is so behind on the technology for reef tanks. Other countries like Germany is so far advanced then us its crazy. I dont undrstand why we cant get the same products they can get.
Click to expand...


Have you seen Aquabuckets tank?

Here is the link.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1506957
 
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