anyone ever run no skimmer?

[ohioreefer]

just wonder if anyone has had luck running a tank with no skimmer

[percula99]

Depends how big your tank is and how well stocked? You will need something to export nutrients or you will end up with algae problems eventually. Water changes do that. A friend of mine is using an algae turf scrubber instead of a skimmer. Right now I am still running both.

[lin0501]

I ran my 125g fowlr tank for close to a year without a skimmer. I had to do more water changes though.

[ohioreefer]

well was thinking about setting up a small 17 gallon in my office maybe one fish but more of reef thinking i would be ok if i did 5 gallon water change a week

[banjo kazooie]

my 30 gallon has no skimmer, and my 65 has a seaclone (so basically no skimmer). just keep up on water changes and it should be fine.

[ohioreefer]

tank will have 25 lbs live rock 20lbs sand and cheato rock rubble in refuguim its crp large one think i could add a small skimmer in it some how if needed

[KafudaFish]

Yes.

As long as your system is balanced and you are selective in what you are keeping it has been done. There are people who have run large sps tanks as well without using a skimmer.

Are there many? No but it shows that there are more than one way to do things in this hobby.

[ohioreefer]

well thanks for everyone help im going to try it and have a back up plan if not part of learning in life it just trying

[Mr.Tan]

i ran my 29g tank for the first couple months with no skimmer... just recently (2 weeks ago) i installed a HOB eshopps skimmer and it has made the biggest difference. Fish seem happier and swim more and the water is clearer. Also i had some brown crap on my sand bed and since running the skimmer it has all but gone away completely.

....just my input

[thegrun]

I ran a 15 gallon tank fish and soft coral for a couple of years without a skimmer. As mentioned above, you just need to make more water changes.

[dre09]

No skimmer here. Running a 60gallon since February and so far so good. I have plenty of live rock and do weekly 10% WCs. I'll have a skimmer on my next tank though.

[jwoyshnar]

No skimmer on my bio cube for quite a long time now. Fully stocked with coral and two fish

[swflfisher]

I'm been thinkuing of the same thing but I think I should start a new post so I dont hijack your.

[lordofthereef]

FOWLRs can get away with no skimmers far easier than a reef can, assuming you have fish in your reef and are feeding the tank. On the same note, a softie reef will do much better without a skimmer than an sps reef will. I am not sure there are many out there keeping sps long term without a skimmer.

[Agu]

Ran three 10 gallons and a 5.5 gallon for several years without a skimmer. At about 6 years each one hit a wall where I couldn't keep nutrients down and had nuisance algae. I've torn down three tanks, replaced the gross and disgusting sandbed and added about 20% new rock. I figure the tanks are good for another 6 years.

Have one more tank to rebuild...........

Point being that skimmerless works but at some point you have to export the nutrients. With a small tank it's relatively easy to tear down a tank and rebuild it. With a larger tank an efficient skimmer is a better solution.

jmo

[Lynnmw1208]

I had my skimmer off for 5 days to treat with prazipro and when I turned it back on it was working overtime! I don't think I would ever let my tank run without it. The stuff it pulled out for 5 days was just nasty!

[swflfisher]

school me please. why is an alge scrubber not a better idea? seems more natural? btw i have no experience as Im getting ready to set up first tank.

[swflfisher]

I read somewhere that a skimmer also remove alot of "good" stuff that coral like? Is any of this true or just a bad idea?

[mgraf]

I run a 120 with algae scrubber only, I have a large bioload, and the ATS just pumps out the algae. I remove the screen once a week, clean it, reattach it and good to go for a week. I also keep a pretty good water change schedual, but after talking to some people, I am gonna start changing out a gallon or two a day instead of larger biweekly changes. I have mostly lps and a few softies. I have however had a few sps frags, that are now mini colonies, and recently purchased a few more sps frags, so we will see how it goes. I have never had an algae problem in my reef since I installed the scrubber. The ATS is a nitrate and phosphate eating machine! jmo!

[swflfisher]

what is the "ATS" you are refering to?

[allsps40]

Ran my 6g nano cube skimmerless but only because I could not fit one in it. It always had higher no3 and algae issues, even with weekly water changes. Softies and LPS loved it though.

[Jeremy Blaze]

Yes.

[Jfisch9667]

Ran skimmerless just fine but don't slack on the water changes. I have found hang on the back filter and Skimmer combos.I might try one of those next time.

[reefgeezer]

what is the "ATS" you are refering to?

An ATS refers to an "Algae Turf Scrubber". It is simply a piece of screen suspended vertically below a water return. The tank's water is flowed over the screen that is also bathed in a very intense light on both sides. This encourages algae to grow very quickly in the screen. This algae sucks up nutrients like crazy and grows so thick it also traps detritus. The algae is removed on a regular basis to provide export.

IMO, skimmers and ATS systems are both viable options. ATS systems are way cheaper and easy to DIY, but they do require more maintenance particularly in high nutrient systems. There are many good threads on ATS systems on RC.

[ohioreefer]

welll thanks everyone im going to try to run it for a few without want just to learn from it but im going to order a skimmer today and add it when i feel i need it or get bored and wanna add it in im going to try to add it in to the fuge kinda like a solana