Do I need a protein skimmer?

[Bad Company]

I have seven fish in a 63 gallon cube: Flam Angel, Coral Beauty, Blue Spot Jawfish, Yellowtail Damsel, Royal Gramma, and two Occelaris Clowns . I use tap water, and I do about a 5% WC once every three months or so. I also have zero algae problems, but do have to clean the glass once every few days. A 9X9" waterfall algae scrubber with about 600 GPH, an two 23W CFLs which keeps nitrates at ZERO. So everything was happy. I did notice that the water had a yellow/green tint to it. The skimmer addition took out the tint, and now my water is crystal clear.

 

[Pete polyp]

I have 7 fish in my 40... 3 firefish, 2 clowns, carpenter wrasse, yellow eye kole tang (alert the tang police). I feed the tank 3x daily with rods. I do have a skimmer, but the skimmate is drained back into the sump. I have about 40lbs live rock, no sand and a ball of cheato in the sump. Nitrate is undetectable. I designed this 40 to have a very large bioload and haven't yet needed the skimmer for added nutrient export.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Ive only got 7 fish.... in a 240g tank........

 

[VicD81]

I do have a skimmer, but the skimmate is drained back into the sump.

Thats en expensive airstone.

 

[Pete polyp]

Thats en expensive airstone.

Lol.... My thoughts exactly!

 

[saltyfish]

It all depends on the tank. One of my tanks has a max of 0.1ppm nitrates and I have considered taking the skimmer offline, or maybe just run it at night. It does help keep oxygen levels up and my pH at 8.3 even with glass lids on the display. My other tank is fish heavy and I can't imagine not running a skimmer. It's not just the amount of fish to consider, but also the type of fish. Some fish increase your bioload much more than others. Also, if your tank is matured, then there are natural ways of the tank keeping itself in check. If it is a new tank, I would definitely use a skimmer. It will make your life so much easier.