Skimmerless Acropora systems?

brad65ford said:
Also to the comments about p04 related to skimmers, they aren't directly related. By having a skimmer will not reduce you p04.
Click to expand...

Please explain why you think this is true. Over the last 15 years I can confidently say that a skimmer will remove organics and not allow po4 to climb nearly as high as an unskimmed tank. This is something that I have experienced on my own tanks and friends tanks.
 
jackson6745 said:
Please explain why you think this is true. Over the last 15 years I can confidently say that a skimmer will remove organics and not allow po4 to climb nearly as high as an unskimmed tank. This is something that I have experienced on my own tanks and friends tanks.
Click to expand...

This is a lot of misinformation I see on this. Skimmers essentially remove phosphates before they become phosphates...so yes they will reduce potential phosphates by removing food particles and detrius that will eventually turn into phosphates.

The other side of the argument is that the skimmer removes food for your corals and detrivores. As we have seen from this thread it is possible to do it with or without skimmers.

A lot of people are finding turning off their skimmers for 'x' hours a day has no detrimental effects. Others found the same turning it off altogether.

To each their own. :)
 
I find this thread interesting not because these Acro aquariums are SKIMMERLESS... but rather to see how these folks MANAGE running skimmerless :)

It seems like a lot of people miss the point: skimmers are quite simply a means to an ends...
in other words, there are many ways to keep organics detrimental to Acropora growth at low levels in an aquarium (through water changes etc.).
 
Gary Majchrzak said:
I find this thread interesting not because these Acro aquariums are SKIMMERLESS... but rather to see how these folks MANAGE running skimmerless :)

It seems like a lot of people miss the point: skimmers are quite simply a means to an ends...
in other words, there are many ways to keep organics detrimental to Acropora growth at low levels in an aquarium (through water changes etc.).
Click to expand...

I didn't point out my maintenance (not on purpose), but water changes are key. I change about 3-4 gallons every few days, and on water change day I take a credit card and fan the the rocks and around the sps vigorously. They seem to enjoy that :) This creates a huge detritus storm (algae mixed in), and because of the way my flow is set up. The detritus, algae, fish and snail poop end up in a nice pile behind the sea grass on the right side, in which I proceed to scoop it up.:beer:
This is effectively a skimmer!
Also I would like to point out that the live rock seem to be more "live" with various lifeforms (sponges, tubeworms, tunicates) than with a skimmer, when compared to my friends reef.
 
Nanighan said:
I didn't point out my maintenance (not on purpose), but water changes are key. I change about 3-4 gallons every few days, and on water change day I take a credit card and fan the the rocks and around the sps vigorously. They seem to enjoy that :) This creates a huge detritus storm (algae mixed in), and because of the way my flow is set up. The detritus, algae, fish and snail poop end up in a nice pile behind the sea grass on the right side, in which I proceed to scoop it up.:beer:
This is effectively a skimmer!
Also I would like to point out that the live rock seem to be more "live" with various lifeforms (sponges, tubeworms, tunicates) than with a skimmer, when compared to my friends reef.
Click to expand...

Ooh, seagrass. Have a pic of it in your system?
 
My nano ran skimmerless for the last year. I did not even do a water change. Feeding was maybe twice a week. The tank ran with a skimmer for 3 years with weekly water changes prior to this. Back half of tank is DSB, no dosing, nocarbon, no gfo. I did get a bryopsis outbreak during that year which I harvested monthly to keep it from overgrowing the SPS. This is a current dirty glass shot after about 3 weeks of repaired skimmer and weekly 15% water changes, but the coral growth and color does not seem any different than before. All corals except the hydrophora and cup were grown from small frags. Tang :hammer: was grown from about 3/4 inch and will be moved to my 225 as soon as it is fully cycled. (for the tang police)

The bryopsis battle has also begun...


IMAG0458.jpg
 
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sahin said:
Hey Ron, many thanks for posting the video. Your tank looks awesome! The SPS have great colours too. :thumbsup:

Can you please provide updated info on your overall filtration?
-GAC?
-GFO?
-Refugium?

Many thanks.
Click to expand...
Oddly enough none of the above. I mentioned what I do as filtration earlier in the thread. The only thing that I added was a used aquaclear power filter filled with filter floss, and only used when I do a detritus stir.
I will mention (did a quick video below..hooray for day off!!) is that I have a thick growth of algae on the right side of the tank that I don't scrape off on purpose to feed the tangs. I'm sure that acts like a refugium or ATS. I'm a firm believer of less technology more biology!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcLPNkLKwnQ
 
Nanighan said:
Oddly enough none of the above. I mentioned what I do as filtration earlier in the thread. The only thing that I added was a used aquaclear power filter filled with filter floss, and only used when I do a detritus stir.
I will mention (did a quick video below..hooray for day off!!) is that I have a thick growth of algae on the right side of the tank that I don't scrape off on purpose to feed the tangs. I'm sure that acts like a refugium or ATS. I'm a firm believer of less technology more biology!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcLPNkLKwnQ
Click to expand...

Thank you. I thought maybe by now you had added GFO or maybe some GAC. Its amazing to see the different ways people run their systems.

Thanks again for your input into the thread. :thumbsup:
 
sonnus said:
I would characterize my tank as an average bioload. The tank is 200 gallons and I have 6 med/large zebrasoma tangs, 2 bicolor angels, 3 Potter's angels and 4 spawning perculas. I feed pretty well considering both my clownfish pairs spawn almost every month. I also fed my coral heavily twice a month.
Click to expand...

You have awesome coloration and you're obviously doing a great job keeping your levels stable.

This being an old post, how is your system running now? Also, were you harvesting chaeto/caulerpa every couple weeks since I'm assuming it grew like crazy?
 
Heres my BC14 thats been up for a little over a year. I agree with Nanighan that you will have a little bit of algae but it's entirely manageable. All of the corals have been grown from no more than 2" frags. I do believe that WC are crucial especially in a small system like this. I do 30% weekly and have happy SPS and acros
 
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