Rookie Question

[yukonblizzard]

I was wondering as I looked through the many threads of Propagation tanks why people have hooked up skimmers? Whats the point if there is no fish to produce waste or do corals produce waste too? I have only kept anenomes and fish so I have no clue about corals:confused:

I would love to some day turn my 180 into a reef, but I dont think I am ready for that just yet.

Also another random question how fast do stony corals grow??

Any replies would be appreciated

Thanks

[LJA]

I was wondering this about skimmers as well.

^following along.

[pwoller]

The skimmer helps remove what ever isn't eaten by the corals. I feed my corals regularly. Skimmers dont just remove fish poop, but all types of waste. I have run a frag tank without one too but will stay with the skimmer now that I am seeing all that is being taken out by it.

[yukonblizzard]

All right thanks,

That does make sense.

But does any one know about how fast a stony coral would grow under optimum conditions.

[badguitarist]

corals produce waste as well, so it will suck out coral waste. as far as your second question that is a very broad term. some grow very fast, some grow very slow. There are hundreds of species of stony coral out there and no way to make a generalization for all of them.

[yukonblizzard]

Yeah I figured it was too general of a question.

Thanks for the help.

Can you give me an example of a certain species approximate growth rate?

Thanks

[TurboRobert]

None of them grow fast enough for me! Birds nest and Monti's seem to grow faster than Acro's. The bigger they are when you purchase them the faster they seem to grow because they grow away from their base.

[yukonblizzard]

Thanks Turbo Robert:D

[raaden]

I have had pretty good luck with scroll corals, and will completely agree with Monti's. Another one that is pretty good is stylophora. I am just getting started with stylos but so far they seem happy.

[skoomamonster]

It took alittle more than a year to go from this,

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x71/skoomamonster/DSC_0687.jpg

To this.
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x71/skoomamonster/DSC_0146.jpg

And a year to go from this,
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x71/skoomamonster/DSC_0017.jpg

To this,
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x71/skoomamonster/DSC_0155.jpg

And on my 75 gallon reef tank i don't currently have my skimmer hooked up and its been like that for a month and my nitrate reading shows up as 0 i only have 6 fish all of them are small(about an inch long the clowns are maybe 2) except the yellow tang so that could be why but with good filtration you don't really need a skimmer.