Running skimmerless

Here's my bucket of goo cleanup
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Here it is a day/week later
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qmH99N-jp80" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Not all skimmers are created equal - not for DIY anyway :D
 
I'm not going to use a skimmer as it seems a waste of money compared to how inefficient they are at removing nutrients, and most of that is apparently calcium carbonate...so for me it's an expensive oxygenater, which can also be provided by other means.
 
The calcium carbonate is a function of what was in the water. I've seen those results and they're just a reflection of what is in the water being tested.

If you're not feeding your reef, you probably don't need a skimmer.
If you are really heavy feeding, you do IMO. Unless you do more water changes - could've cheaper?

My skimmer cost ~ $200 + injection pump ~ $400

That's for a 12ft, massive injection skimmer that supports ~2000gph throughput.
 
borderreef said:
Have you considered doing smaller water changes? Also, how often do you change the GFO and gac? Last question. What is your bio load?
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No I'm pretty satisfied with my 10 gallon water changes. I change the gfo every 6-8 weeks and the carbon every other week. I have 2 clowns, a large sleeper goby, mandarin goby, a little blenny and some crabs and snails. well, only one snail. I made the mistake of thinking a whelk snail was a nassarius and it killed almost all of my snails lol
 
IME ,when i had a jam packed mature reef and imean jam packed with sps i went no carbon ,gfo , no skimmer and fed fish3 times a day , i believed the corals were removing the nutrients from the fish and food as fast as it went in, hence nothing broke down into the crap We're trying to keep out. Ammonia ,nitrate phosphate , etc.
 
zsuman101 said:
IME ,when i had a jam packed mature reef and imean jam packed with sps i went no carbon ,gfo , no skimmer and fed fish3 times a day , i believed the corals were removing the nutrients from the fish and food as fast as it went in, hence nothing broke down into the crap We're trying to keep out. Ammonia ,nitrate phosphate , etc.
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How long did you run like that?
 
Over 2 yrs. Idid do water changes and used bionic and kalk to keep up demand . Unfortunately that reef was wiped out when the whole country lost power for 5 days i could nt even buy gas for the generator blah so after it ran out of gas the reef suffocated in just a few hrs . Devastating . So ijust closed the door to the room for 4 yrs. Literally
 
zsuman101 said:
IME ,when i had a jam packed mature reef and imean jam packed with sps i went no carbon ,gfo , no skimmer and fed fish3 times a day , i believed the corals were removing the nutrients from the fish and food as fast as it went in, hence nothing broke down into the crap We're trying to keep out. Ammonia ,nitrate phosphate , etc.
Click to expand...

You nailed right there. I always had a motto, "Stock it deep, skim it cheap".
It works, and works well.

Once the tank is growing well I start to add fish, slowly. The average reefer loads their tank up with fish and then wonders why they are growing algae.

My "nano skimmers"...
 
I knew i was right about something , just dont have the Phd to bck it up. But this was my assumption asthe reef grew it grew exoponentially , the more it grew the faster it grew, all the work went from what do ido to keep this stuff alive, to anybody want some free coral. Just bring me some glue and plugs, aw screw it, heres a :uzi:bag of coral please take it away
 
I've been running a 75 gallon sumpless (I used an old stand I had that has a piece of wood across most of the back of the stand, making installing a sump at best an ordeal) and skimmerless (I have a Reef Octopus 1000 HOB but I didn't think when I set the tank up and the tank is an inch too close to the wall to use it (doh!).

The tank is full of frags and colonies that I gave away to friends and got back after coming back into the hobby last fall. The tank has everything from softies, LPS to Acros and a Maxima clam.

Fish are a 5" green bird wrasse (her favorite fish, so I have to have one to have a tank), a 4" Bi-Color Anthias and a Maroon Clown, and I feed heavily because the bird wrasse is a pig and the Anthias needs to be fed multiple times a day.

I use an old Eheim Wet/Dry Canister for running carbon/GFO. No other filtration. I change 20% of the water every two weeks. I do very basic supplementation. My nitrates run around 5ppm, P04 zero or near zero, calcium 450, mag 1350, 8.1-8.3 dKH.

I'm basically doing everything wrong (or at least in an unorthodox fashion) until my 180 rebuild is finished and everything in my tank is thriving and has been for the past six months (even when I had the LEDs turned up way too bright). Well, I had a battle with dinoflagellates but I won that battle.

I have a lot experience in the hobby, which helps immensely I guess. But my temporary tank is doing great despite what a lot of people might think isn't a well set up tank.
 
I like skimmers, they remove some nasty waste. Export. I don't know how people who have owned a skimmer, and have dumped that soup week after week after week still think its ineffective.
 
greaps said:
I like skimmers, they remove some nasty waste. Export. I don't know how people who have owned a skimmer, and have dumped that soup week after week after week still think its ineffective.
Click to expand...

It's easy. Take some nice nutritious fish food and mix with some of your tank water.

Make sure it is stagnant and keep it around 80 degrees. Now take a big sniff of that soup after a few days of fermenting. Then you'll know.....
 
If you would like to see a huge feeding response out of your Coral, take that nasty cup of skim juice and pour directly into your display tank. You will skim it out again but Watch What Happens
 
i have a big skimmer (Octopus) and it does a great job of skimming on a 180 DT and 50gal sump (about 15 fish, some shrimp, LPS and SPS, live rock). However, a few observations:
1) constant skimming, even at the driest setting, seemed to take too much out of the water. almost no/very little green algae on the glass after a week

2)trouble keeping SPS even with stable parameters

3)DINOs!!

i read the dino posting and came across the suggestion of the "dirty" method to rid a tank of dinos. And i must say i think it works. skimming can make the water "too" clean which allows dinos/bad algae a foothold. once i stopped continually skimming, adding phyto, i noticed the dinos fade and the green algae on the glass come back in just a few days. also, the SPS seem happier/growing more, etc.

someone suggested that their SPS "skims" the water and i think they are correct...add more life to the tank and they work together to make it a better environment.

Finally, i will use the skimmer after water change/vacuum the sand bed/blow off the live rock. i may also use it if the water seems a bit cloudy, but now i only run the skimmer overnight or maybe 24 hours.
 
sure. If you perform water changes at a high level, there's nothing you can't keep without a skimmer, or a sump, or live rock, or ATS, or GAC or GFO, or... anything really. Just feed, and water changes. No additives - not even calcium if you do it frequently enough.

My dad kept a tank back in the 50s and that's all he did. Never had a crash... he lived by the ocean and used filtered sunlight and fresh saltwater...
 
mathman7728 said:
i have a big skimmer (Octopus) and it does a great job of skimming on a 180 DT and 50gal sump (about 15 fish, some shrimp, LPS and SPS, live rock). However, a few observations:
1) constant skimming, even at the driest setting, seemed to take too much out of the water. almost no/very little green algae on the glass after a week

2)trouble keeping SPS even with stable parameters

3)DINOs!!

i read the dino posting and came across the suggestion of the "dirty" method to rid a tank of dinos. And i must say i think it works. skimming can make the water "too" clean which allows dinos/bad algae a foothold. once i stopped continually skimming, adding phyto, i noticed the dinos fade and the green algae on the glass come back in just a few days. also, the SPS seem happier/growing more, etc.

someone suggested that their SPS "skims" the water and i think they are correct...add more life to the tank and they work together to make it a better environment.

Finally, i will use the skimmer after water change/vacuum the sand bed/blow off the live rock. i may also use it if the water seems a bit cloudy, but now i only run the skimmer overnight or maybe 24 hours.
Click to expand...
what is the dirty method . i need to know as i battle dinos occasionally . when i get them i go get another r/o membrane and di resin, would like to try dirty method and save a hundred or so thanx in advance zsu
 
So I saw you said SPS skim them water...but do other corals? So far I have no been able to keep sps in my sumpless/skimmerless 47 gallon so I went with softies, which I prefer over SPS anyway.
 
Most corals will "skim" the nutrients out of the water. I bet an 8" Squamosa clam would out skim a 12' skimmer.
 
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