I’ve been on reef moonshiners for a couple of years. And I love it, I do still run a skimmer though.So we have been on reef moonshiners a few months now, still dialing in but we are getting close now. During that time I also went ahead and pulled the skimmer out in July. So since July our nitrates did get high but after getting all of the elements correct on reef moonshiners like iodine and iron the caulerpa took off. I am now removing several cups of caulerpa each week, it is growing out of control and nitrates have dropped to 5, even with blasting multiple teaspoons of reefroids weekly our phosphates will not seem to rise to readable levels. We have not done a water change in months and no skimmer and nitrates today are less than 5 from testing today and phosphates are 0. We are going to start dosing nitrates this week and keep increasing our reefroid feedings.
I can tell things are still not perfect but I have noticed we are now getting substantial growth of coraline algae that was not growing before. I am now seeing so many copepods, the population of them has tripled in a few months. I love the idea of not having a skimmer and no water changes. Not having to clean and empty a skimmer is great and I absolutely do not miss water changes.