Skimmerless Existance

[akabryanhall]

Hey Guys,
Thought I would start a post about skimmerless tanks. If you have a tank without skimmer, feel free to post your tank details here, although I have a feeling this will be a lonely thread.:neutral:
I have a 92G corner with a 30G sump, 112G total water volume. It has been almost a year since I had a working skimmer in my tank. Started the tank with a nice euro reef skimmer, but that started failing on me. I tried a cone skimmer a few months ago, but never got it working, it skimmed so wet my cup was full within 30 seconds, no matter what I tried, so I said f' it. Didn't have one before, don't have one now.
I got lucky with my live rock, it has been 5 years since it has been dry so it's full of goodies. I have a 1" sand bed that has also been submerged for 5 years. I keep chaeto in my sump with a couple of mangroves and a stunner strip on an opposite light cycle.
My temp keeps between 78-80 with the help of a heater in the sump. I do a water change on the last weekend of the month, and have recently got an RO unit and salt to make my own water. Up until a couple months ago, I got all my fresh from the glacier vending machine outside winn dixie and bought my saltwater from the lfs. I dose 1.5 oz's of Aqua Philic 2 part and 2 capfulls of Brightwell Aquatics magnesium every morning. I manually top off fresh every morning and every evening. I think crucial point number 1 is consistency.
I have the usual cleanup crew, mixture of snails and hermits, with 2 serpant stars and a skunk cleaner shrimp. I think crucial point number 2 is to not over stock, I have 6 fish, my McCoskers went carpet surfing recently; Purple Tang, Tomini Tang, Black Oscillaris and False Perc, Bangaii and PJ Cardinals. I feed New Life Spectrum pellets or Rogers reef or pe mysis once a day. I started with 6 T-5's and recently switched to 250W MH with 4 T-5 Actinic. I keep SPS, LPS and various softies, and I just added a Rose bubble tip anemone.
My stats:
calcium 460
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
kh 8.0
alk 2.86
ammonia 0
phos 0

Some Pics (My skills suck)

 

[akabryanhall]

Some more pics

 

[Triggerman77]

my 45cube and 30 cube are skimmerless tanks and they are super healthy tanks the 45 has over 40 chalices :) I feed very heavy and rely one WC every 2weeks like clock work and i have a Acro frag in their and its growin like crazy. Faster than my 240g lol Go figure Cool idea for a post !! BTW hows the MD'z ? Pics?

 

[Triggerman77]

B im very interested in those two Favias when u frag them . Please LMK Thanks Bro

 

[akabryanhall]

B im very interested in those two Favias when u frag them . Please LMK Thanks Bro

I will man! The second one is actually part of the group buy that I do every month, but I may be willing to part with my prism, I will send you a daylight pic, that one is actinic only.

 

[akabryanhall]

my 45cube and 30 cube are skimmerless tanks and they are super healthy tanks the 45 has over 40 chalices :) I feed very heavy and rely one WC every 2weeks like clock work and i have a Acro frag in their and its growin like crazy. Faster than my 240g lol Go figure Cool idea for a post !! BTW hows the MD'z ? Pics?

The MD's are doing great, as are the gold and orange and the purple and greens. I have not been able to get the same color out of the md's as KLR did, but he has them super high up in his tank.

 

[clowns101]

I think a skimmerless system is fine,but a skimmer does make things simplier.I havent used a skimmer but for like 2 1/2 years now,I kept every thing down with water changes,seemed happy,but I think a skimmer will have a more consintraited mixture of waste and junk from the system than a water change would.

 

[akabryanhall]

I think a skimmerless system is fine,but a skimmer does make things simplier.I havent used a skimmer but for like 2 1/2 years now,I kept every thing down with water changes,seemed happy,but I think a skimmer will have a more consintraited mixture of waste and junk from the system than a water change would.

I think you are right, skimmerless isn't a better option, it's just a different option. I think the key is consistency, i only do water changes once a month. There is a good balance in my system. BTW we should keep this thread on topic from now on everyone.

 

[KLR]

The MD's are doing great, as are the gold and orange and the purple and greens. I have not been able to get the same color out of the md's as KLR did, but he has them super high up in his tank.

Mine are high up in the tank

I use to have skimmerless tanks but then after reading and reading about skimmers i decided to get them for all of the tanks.......like said above i think a skimmer makes things easier but it isnt a neccesity

 

[clowns101]

I think you are right, skimmerless isn't a better option, it's just a different option. I think the key is consistency, i only do water changes once a month. There is a good balance in my system. BTW we should keep this thread on topic from now on everyone.

Yes,the key to being skimmer less is consistency.Skimmers are consistent,right?So if they are out of the equation,what is there that is consistent?

So,by doing water changes,weekly,monthly,or even daily,you would be consistent and have a good system.By doing every thing the same,its always better,from what I can see,a skimmer has its advantages,but often times on systems that are not above 55 gallons,I feel a skimmer isnt needed,some people will argue that,but truely,in a 55 gallon tank with rock,sand sidplacement,you have about 35 gallons of water,35 gallons of water can be controled with water changes and no need for a skimmer.Anything aboe a 55 I personly would get one,but your system dosent have a skimmer on it,and its healthy.So as long as you are consistent,I guess you will be alright!

 

[Jprince]

I ran my old 40B with a 20 sump skimmerless for a few years. It was just more consistent and careful monitoring and more frequent water changes. I am setting up a dual 40 breeder setup now. 40 display plumbed to a 40 sump. I plan on keeping a skimmer in the new setup. And I do run one on my 200 now.

 

[VanGogh121]

I have seen some amazing skimmerless tanks, They were always battling some sort of Algea, Diatoms though. Most were built around LPS and Zoanthids, where they didn't mind the Nitates.

 

[akabryanhall]

I ran my old 40B with a 20 sump skimmerless for a few years. It was just more consistent and careful monitoring and more frequent water changes. I am setting up a dual 40 breeder setup now. 40 display plumbed to a 40 sump. I plan on keeping a skimmer in the new setup. And I do run one on my 200 now.

I don't really test too often and only do water changes once a month. I have birds nest corals that I use as my "canary birds", if they start looking sad, I do a water change lol.

 

[akabryanhall]

I have seen some amazing skimmerless tanks, They were always battling some sort of Algea, Diatoms though. Most were built around LPS and Zoanthids, where they didn't mind the Nitates.

I have had the occasional red slime outbreak, but I use red slime medication and it goes away, have som ebubble algae that stays in small quantities. Had a bad aptaisia outbreak, peppermint shrimp took care of that.

 

[maus42]

I'm running a skimmerless tank, softy / lps only (a few montis). Nothing bit, 48x18x12 plus sump. Sump is a DSB, fuge, and I have a turf scrubber. If you don't know what that is, to quickly summarize you pass water over something like needle board from a craft store (lots of surface area) and add light. Your algae / red slime / etc grows there instead of in the display. And the algae that grows on it is the stuff that would have grown up there, its not chaeto or some other refugium plant that does little to help your actual cause if you're trying to clean you're water.

Also, lps / softies generally like their water a bit dirtier, and with regular water changes everything is really happy.

 

[akabryanhall]

Hey maus, turf scrubber sounds awesome, mind posting a pic of your tank and setup?