water changes can EASILY manage a biocube 14/16 and is FAR more effective than the nano skimmers that will work on them. The biocube 14 holds 10g of water empty (and the 16 is only 2" taller, give it another 0.5 gallons of you want). If you have sand and rock in them a 5g water change is over 50% and will drain the tank past the hallway mark. Doing this weekly is far more effective, in fact TOO effective as it easily bottomed my nitrates out (also better make sure your salt alkalinity matches your reef if you doing frequent changes this large). The skimmer shouldn't be what's keeping your reef afloat. ANY reef aquarium should be able to pull their skimmer without catastrophy and at worse slight modification in water change/feeding habits. Live sand, real liverock (from the ocean and then years in an established reef) and a media bag with ,250ml of Seachem matrix is my biocube 14 filtration. I have 2 fish (clown and Springers damsel) even though any fish in a 14 reef I consider high bioload.
I am at the point where I believe a modification to anything I have going on will cause problems. (Changed my rockscape recently and had issues.) Your experience with water changes being plenty is just that, your experience. As mine with depending on a skimmer in addition to my weekly 5 gallon change is my experience. Could my skimmer be too much, I don’t know, not willing to find out.
The OP asked for a recommendation for a skimmer. Will this solve an algae problem, don’t know. I just think to tell someone they don’t need something while knowing nothing about their tank is not a good idea.
I don’t even recall the OP saying how often she does water changes, maybe I’m mistaken. Maybe she doesn’t do them often or can’t for whatever reason.
The idea that nano’s don’t need this or that is situational.
Side note: If my previous comments were perceived as rude or being short, I do apologize. Totally not my intention.
Last edited: