Skimmerless Mushroom Tank
- Thread starter deepnblue
- Start date
philosophile
New member
I'm in the process of setting one up right now. Main filtration will be an algae turf scrubber. Right now everything is in my quarantine tank, which has no filtration whatsoever, besides live rock. Sexy shrimp and some mini maxis anemones will round out the inhabitants.
Nano sapiens
New member
Yes, 6-1/2 year old nano with around 70% 'Shrooms. Skimmerless works very well for these and has been used for decades. What info exactly are you looking for?
I technically have an airstone powered protein skimmer in my tank, but its been kind of broken for a few months now (i've been too lazy to get a new airstone). So pretty much since about summer my tank has been skimmer less. Still pretty good growth on most of my corals, I've been having some minor issues with my monti that i'm hoping to figure out, but its gotten good growth still so i don't believe it has anything to do with the lack of a working skimmer. As far as my mushrooms are concerned, I noticed no difference with them without the skimmer. They were doing well before, and they are doing well now. Tank is 29 gallons, sumpless, I keep ricordeas, discomas, an acan, a favia, a monti (branching), and a cyphastrea.
deepnblue
New member
Wow 6-1/2 year old. What size is your nano? How often do you do water changes? Actually would love to see a pic of it.
deepnblue
New member
My tank is 29 gallons too. Do you use any supplements? Also wondering your water change frequency.
As long as the shrooms like dirty waters I'm planning to do no water changes. Do you guys think 2 T5 bulbs would be enough for them with perhaps monthly added trace elements with no water changes?
Ya, for sure check out nano sapiens' tank. I believe his tank won tank of the month on the nano reef forum a while back. For sure go over there and check it out, its gorgeous.
Regarding my tank, I dose a saturated kalkwasser solution, I do water changes weekly with 5 gallons a week, reef crystals salt. This is certainly not necessary for a mushroom dominated tank though. If you are just keeping mushrooms, you wouldn't need to dose anything if you do water changes every now and then, which would take care of the trace elements. As you said, if you did go the no water change route, you would need to manually dose trace elements every now and then. Mushrooms do like nutrient rich water but I would still change out at least 25 percent of the water per month. While the mushrooms will thrive in nutrient rich water, so will algae, so you need to find that balance. Plenty of people do tanks without water changes successfully, so if you want to try it I guess thats fine, but in my opinion I think occasional water changes would be beneficial. T5s should be fine for mushrooms.
Regarding my tank, I dose a saturated kalkwasser solution, I do water changes weekly with 5 gallons a week, reef crystals salt. This is certainly not necessary for a mushroom dominated tank though. If you are just keeping mushrooms, you wouldn't need to dose anything if you do water changes every now and then, which would take care of the trace elements. As you said, if you did go the no water change route, you would need to manually dose trace elements every now and then. Mushrooms do like nutrient rich water but I would still change out at least 25 percent of the water per month. While the mushrooms will thrive in nutrient rich water, so will algae, so you need to find that balance. Plenty of people do tanks without water changes successfully, so if you want to try it I guess thats fine, but in my opinion I think occasional water changes would be beneficial. T5s should be fine for mushrooms.
Nano sapiens
New member
Sorry, lost track of this thread.
12g AIO, 1/2g/2x week water changes, so 1g total/wk. I had a Triton test done recently and this skimmerless/filterless tank has below oceanic reef levels (a rigorous maintenance routine can be very effective in keeping phosphate and nitrate at low levels):
What you are after sounds like a more laid-back system where water changes and such are not regular, dosing is infrequent, etc. I had this type of thing going with my 50g (had a sump, but no skimmer of filter material, Kalkwasser for topoff and (2) NO T12s + 24" PCs) and it plugged away for 9-1/2 years until I sold off the tank with mostly Discosoma, Rhodactis, Zoas, Sinularia, a Monti Cap, Leptastrea and an Octobubble:
This tank grew Mushies like no other and I regularly had to harvest 10+ 'floaters' a week (great way to export nutrients!). I still have two of the original purple Discosoma in my 12g and the Leptastrea, so that makes them 17 and 14 years, respectively, in my care
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deepnblue
New member
Your nano reef looks awesome, I found it on totm section right after grant778 told me. But still water changes (even a gallon) are killing me. Your former 50g is very similar to what I have in my mind! I figured out that I'd better switch to my 50g which is a planted fw tank at the moment since I'll need some place for macroalgae for the sake of no water change plan. Hope I can finish the setup by the end of this year.
Nano sapiens
New member
Thanks. To keep nanos running well for years, they do require more care mostly due to the typically much higher bio load to water volume ratio.
For most of my 50g tank's life it averaged maybe 2 water changes a year (~5g each time).
For most of my 50g tank's life it averaged maybe 2 water changes a year (~5g each time).
