reef tank without protein skimmer

[lisa foster]

Has anyone had any luck having a reef tank without a protein skimmer?

 

[Kevin McG]

Has anyone had any luck having a reef tank without a protein skimmer?

If its a nano with bi-weekly water changes you will be fine, unless heavily stocked. I have been running an 8 gallon bio-cube with one clown without a skimmer for quite some time.

So if you are heavily stocked with fish no

 

[lisa foster]

I have a 75 gallon with two clowns scissor tail 2 damsels and a serpent star 2 peepermint shrimp

 

[lisa foster]

oops forgot ane valentino puffer. all of these fish are only about 1 1 1/2 long

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

That's a really small bio-load in a 75, but to consider skimming needs you also need to consider feeding habits. Can be done for sure if you're not feeding much, doing regular (Can't stress this enough) Water changes and rinsing your frozen foods. Habits like these in place, then you have a good chance of getting away without a skimmer.

 

[Tone]

http://www.nano-reef.com/featured/?tank=20

take a look here

 

[NHreefer]

No skimmer on my biocube 29 with 25 refugium. HQI with a lot of sps.

 

[lisa foster]

I usually dissolve the mysis shrimp in water how do you rinse it off. I plan on getting a skimmer I was hoping I could wait about a month

 

[Sean Irwin]

I've never had a skimmer on my tank (up and running for nearly 2.5 years). I do however, have a small refugium and perform weekly water changes. I also selected corals that thrive in higher nutrient conditions and low bioload fish. It's entirely possible to run an aquarium without one but you have to be very diligent.

 

[JohnK]

If your just concerned about no skimmer for a month, I'd say don't worry at all.

A reef can definately be run without a skimmer, but I'd save that for the more advanced hobbiests. Without a skimmer, it will be all the more important to control nutirent input, and will require some form of nutrient export. A lot of hobbiests have trouble balancing these things WITH a skimmer (the most effective way of pulling nutrients out of a system), so doing it without is a delicate balance to say the lest. Most systems I have heard of that do well without skimming have very prolific algae growth in refugims, cryptic zones, and other ways to keep things in balance.

All that said, if it's just about a month or so, I'd suggest an aggressive water change schedule and you should be fine.

*when/if you do get a skimmer, don't skimp, it's one of the most common things that people skimp on at first and then end up replacing later (so they spend more than if they did it right in the first place).

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

I usually dissolve the mysis shrimp in water how do you rinse it off. I plan on getting a skimmer I was hoping I could wait about a month

Simple little mesh screen like you'd use in the kitchen. I bought mine from the dollar store. Here's a pic of one type.

http://www.ckitchen.com/pmidimages/{6B81689E-C845-4261-A761-47DEEB969B30}.jpg

They put a lot of preservatives in the frozen cubes and that type of food. I just rinse it out to save my skimmer the work of pulling it out as soon as I put it in.

 

[bill120mph]

I ran mine for 45 days without a skimmer and it was fine.. I feed small amounts at a time being sure that most would get eaten, poor little guys never got a full belly during that time lol