Do I need a skimmer?

[Jon0807]

I recently set up a Red Sea Reefer XL300 and I have a Clarisea SK 3000 roller filter hooked up. But I'm noticing that some food is getting past the roller mat and ending up in my sump. Do you think I need a skimmer to remove what the roller mat doesn't catch?

 

[lapin]

No. Just vac the sump once in awhile

 

[malacoda]

No. Just vac the sump once in awhile

+1 IMO, too clean can cause problems on a new tank (dinos and other pests that thrive in severely P or N limited environments).

In the future, when your tank is mature and heavily stocked, if you nutrients start rising to really high levels, it may be worth adding a skimmer ... or chaeto/refugium ... or other means of filtration in addition to the roller mat.

But right now, it's probably overkill ... and money that would probably be better spent elsewhere.

 

[theMeat]

Skimmer is good at reducing bioload and increasing oxygenation. Do you need it is the question

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I always use a skimmer on my setups, even fish-only - because it oxygenates the water and removes a lot of dissolved organic gunk. I highly recommend a skimmer for your setup.

 

[MaxTremors]

I recommend one for anything over 30 gallons. It may not be absolutely necessary, but there’s really no argument against having one and plenty of arguments for.

 

[Jon0807]

Skimmer is good at reducing bioload and increasing oxygenation. Do you need it is the question

Right now I only have 2 fish in it. That's it. So I guess I don't really need it right now

 

[G Santana]

Opinions vary but in my first 4 months of my tank, I have had to clean the cup daily. If every tank produces this much skimate, then yes I would say it is needed, but again just my 2 cents

 

[Timfish]

No, you don't need a skimmer. And what's more, research is showing how critical it is to maintain the right microbial balance. It doesn't matter if it's sutainable farming or sustaining our physical and mental health or sustaining a healthy reef ecosystem the right microbial balance is essential. In contrast to maintaining a diverse microbiome skimmers are selectively and arbitrarily removing just a subset of the microbes in aquaria and reducing bacterail counts to numbers far below what is found in nature. To think that skimmers can maintain our ssytems for the decades or centuries they should be able to live while skewing the microbial processes doesn't seem realistic to me. Here's videos of some of my skimmerless systems:

90 Gallon Mixed Reef


500 gallon


Mixed Reef started in 1997, 10-07-19


220 Rimless 450 view


And here's some videos you might find informative:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"