Who doesn't run a skimmer?

[Foogoo]

What's your setup? Do you do anything (i.e. more water changes) instead? What livestock do you keep?

I spent the whole last week getting my 3rd sump and 6" skimmer up and running but with the way my tank is already set up, I don't think it will be possible to have such an add on...

 

[Tachyon]

i ran my 75 gal for a year skimmerless, but I changed 10 gallons a week. I have mainly softies in the tank and zoos. I'd say my tank was fairly loaded at the time. I had a med Blue Tang and Two Clowns and a Mandarin. I have a Remora Pro now and I see more growth with it.

 

[818]

Ran my 110g skimmerless for 7 months. I had SPS and did water changed weekly around 15g. I had good areation and a huge clean up crew.

As I started to add more SPS I noticed they wouldnt color up as good and my sand/tank walls would get a yellow film.

I added my skimmer like 3 weeks ago and my tank looks hella good and I dont mind feeding a little heavier now.

 

[jjirsa78]

I have a 60 that's skimmerless ... with a pretty significant bio load (11 fish, but none of them bigger than 4").

Change about 7 gallons every 2 weeks, but I grow a considerable amount of macro in the display, and I'm only keeping softies and a tiny tiny bit of LPS. I've got a small chaeto forest in a large grouping of Tonga branch rock (it contains it pretty well, almost like a mini refugium), and a basketball sized growth of halimeda separating two islands of live rock...

The macro does a pretty good job of nutrient export, but the slightly nutrient-rich water does wonders for softies - leathers growing a few inches per month, all nice and happy.

 

[NicoleC]

I have run several tanks skimmerless. If you are religious with your water changes and nutrient export through biomass, skimmerless tanks can be very successful.

A skimmerless tank isn't necessarily a high nutrient tank. Even when not, some livestock responds better to it than others.

 

[sinned]

Hello-
I have an established 44g LPS dominated SKIMMERLESS, REACTORLESS and SUMPLESS tanks. The tank details are below.

<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/10088July_2006-2.jpg">



My tank is a 44g by Lee-mar, starphire glass, euro-braced (36 X 15 X18).....skimmerless, reactorless and sumpless. 175MH 20k w/2 T-5 actinic 65w.....
Fed 5-6 times a week with homemade food, consisting of shrimp, Golden Pearls, mysis shrimp, nori, Formula 1 + 2, etc. Dosing weekly with a capful calcium, strontium, iodine, and magnesium. I do about 10% water changes with Catalina salt water
every month or so. It has been established for over 5 years.

Dennis

 

[laverda]

I have three nanos that are skimmer less.

 

[russ49merc]

I run my 120 skimerless. I run 2 refugiums running ecosystem Mud and I only do 10 - 15 gallons a month .......... I also run a phosban reactor full of carbon only when the lights are on so about 8 hours a day. hope that helps

and my tank is mostly leathers and mushrooms all softies my growth is really coming on I have been running this setup for almost 6 - 7 mos but the tank has been setup for 1 1/2 years

 

[Kathy55g]

I am keeping 7-800 juvenile clownfish in 90 gallons of 100micron, Pura pad, bioball and UV filtered water. I skim the surface of my sump when I do water changes once or twice a week, 25%. No protein skimmer and I feed heavily 3 times a day. Last week I measured nitrates, they are detectable at 10, not bad.

 

[SuperNerd]

I use no mechanical filtration. All I use for filtration is LR, macroalgae, and whatever live sponge I can get my hands on, separated in a divided sump. Corals (lps, sps, and softies) all have very good color and grow very nicely plus I have a lot of pretty and unusual sponge growth that I didn't notice before I ran a skimmer.

Phosphates, ammonia, nitrates don't even read on the test kits. I try to replace about 7% of the tank volume per week.