Reef without skimmer?

[Monkeyfish]

Anyone run a reef without a protein skimmer?

I currently have a 75 gallon tank (not RR), tunze 6025, 48" 6 bulb t5ho light, live sand and about 85 lbs of live rock just sitting there (transferred fish to 180). The plan is to add 1 Tunze 6025 for circulation for a total of 2 6025s and use media reactors for phosban and carbon. Obviously a skimmer wold be best, but I can't afford a new RR tank and I dislike HOB skimmers as they clutter up the display and are usually pretty noisy. I was using one previously (CSS 125), but it met an untimely demise and I would not purchase another as it was difficult to dial in and finicky as heck.

Please post you opinions.

 

[A.T.T.R]

i will never run a display tank without a skimmer again
in my NEW tank using RODI mixed saltwater and 3 year old live rock you should see the stuff my skimmer in pulling out after only a few days.

skimmers just make like so much easier esp if you does carbon ( vodka.. suger.. what ever)

 

[notabun]

Check out Aquabucket's 40 breeder. They do not use a skimmer and their tank looks phenomenal. It's sickening actually seeing how good it looks without a skimmer.

 

[saltwater4life1]

I ran my 55gal with out a skimmer and little water changes but used a lot of carbon 24/7 but after 3 years with no skimmer on my tanks i decided to go back to one. Just to clean the water more now that i'm going SPS dominated

 

[chimmike]

Agu's tanks look incredible and he doesn't use a skimmer. Just LR and decent flow with a good fuge.

 

[aquaman67]

Here's a recent thread with Aquabuckets 40 breeder. (scroll down until your mouth drops open.) It makes me want to throw my skimmer out the window....

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1551327

 

[Monkeyfish]

I currently have a 2 year old 29 gallon. The only mechanical/chemical filtration is a couple of HOB filters running with phosban and chemipure. I have everything from mushrooms to SPS (monit digi and caps, porites, hydnophora and brown with blue tips acro) growing under power compacts. I wasn't sure how feasible this would be with a larger tank like a 75. I'd like to go mainly SPS with this tank.