natural protein skimmer

[adamRS80]

I'm setting up a new tank and I'm trying to bypass having to buy a skimmer. I've set up a wet dry but I'd like to not have a skimmer at all. I remember seeing the Jim Norris tank when he had that giga and he mentioned that he didn't have a skimmer because of the clam. The tank will only be about 40 gallons and only a couple of fish but it should have pertty small bio-load. If I have a large squamosa in the tnak will that be enough along with some mangroves, and some macro to avoid a skimmer?

[prof]

Add routine water changes to that and it would work fine.

I believe Jim ran his tank for a long time with no skimmer. The nutrients must be exported from the tank. Live rock, sand bed, macro algae, clam, etc. will cut down on the nutrients in the water but not as efficiently as a protien skimmer.

The wet/dry can become a breeding ground for bacteria and other nutrients that you do not want.

[Andrew]

I would recomend small fish (that stay small), such as gobies, blennys, basslets, smallclown, probably 4 fish max, the fewer the better, along with minimum 40 lbs LR.

Andrew

I have a 40 reef with one ocellaris, one yellow assessor ("dwarf bass") and a skunk cleaner to go along with corals and 70+ lbs LR. I get very little skimmate, and would like to ditch the hang on skimmer for a clam or two as well.

best of luck :)

[alexwolf]

Oh heck, I have a 135 with 250 lbs of liverock, 2 clams, a 20 gal fuge and still have to empty the skimmer every day......nasty black sludge

[matt]

I got excited when I read the title of this thread; I thought maybe someone had discovered an animal that makes lots of bubbles! Come to think of it, maybe that's not such a great thing. Anyhow, what you're asking is if it's okay to run a reef tank with no skimmer. Lots of people do that. But, you also are talking about a small tank with no functional deep sand bed, (probably your tank is too small to have enough biodiversity in the sand bed to process all your waste products) so be prepared to do a lot of water changes.

[ratboy]

I have multiple tanks that I have had up for several years and none of them use skimmers. I use DSB, reverse daylight refugiums w/ macro and mangroves. I have a clam but i dont really atribute a whole lot of PO4 reduction to him. My 45 only has a pair of clowns and my 90 only has a sailfin tang, pr of clowns, 1 damsel, 1 bicolor blenny, and 1 royal gramma so I suppose my fish loads are low in both. One thing to consider is that I consider my tanks are primarily softies and anenomes w very few SPS which generally require more strict water conditions. Id take out the wet dry though that will create more wastes than they will remove IMHO.

-Erik

[adamRS80]

ok i guess the wet dry is a bad idea. Basically i made an acrylic tank that is 34" long, and I put an overflow in the last 6" of the tank that could serve as some sort of filtritation area. I made a simple wetdry drip system thingy but I can just life it right out. I guess I'll convert it to a refugium or stick a skimmer back there. I'd like to have the clam(s) and some mangroves regardless so I might just purchase an inexpensive skimmer. Thanks for everybodys help. This tank is going to be for sps so the water will have to be in good shape.

[adamRS80]

ok i guess the wet dry is a bad idea. Basically i made an acrylic tank that is 34" long, and I put an overflow in the last 6" of the tank that could serve as some sort of filtritation area. I made a simple wetdry drip system thingy but I can just life it right out. I guess I'll convert it to a refugium or stick a skimmer back there. I'd like to have the clam(s) and some mangroves regardless so I might just purchase an inexpensive skimmer. Thanks for everybodys help. This tank is going to be for sps so the water will have to be in good shape.

[Andrew]

Oh, forgot, I plan on running a deep sand bed/refugium 20 gallon as well.

[captexas]

I think in order to go skimmerless and be successful, you either need to have some luck on your side or have things planned out very well. You will have to go much slower in adding things to the tank as it will take longer to cycle through anything. Also, what most people have as a deep sand bed is not really what the true idea of a DSB is about. Having a 6in layer of sand at the bottom of your tank does you absolutely no good if you do not take the time and build up the infauna (critters) and fauna (algae) that live in it and make it work. You can't just throw a lot of sand in the tank with some rock and clams and expect the tank to do well. The clams you speak so much about working as a filter for the tank can't just be thrown in any tank. Live rock does some filtration but you need to have very good water flow through it.

As you say it is going to be an SPS tank, I would recommend spending the money on the skimmer plus have a refugium. You need good water flow and water parameters for them and having a lot of corals and a couple of fish in that size tank will create a fairly good bioload. Most people that go skimmerless have nano tanks with little to no bio-load (live rock and soft corals with no fish) or have a tank that is well established that was previously supported with a skimmer.

Just my 2cents. Definately plan things out and take your time. On a tank that size, a skimmer really wouldn't cost that much.

[Instar]

My breeding clowns are in a system with a macro algae polisher, fuge or whatever you want to call it. Its been runing about 3 years now with some partial water changes. I hooked a skimmer to it last month and failed to get anything much to skim for the entire month. So, I took the skimmer off. Not needed. It has a shallow sand bed and lots of caulerpa. I take very little caulerpa out of it for "nutrient export". Its got more breeding little things in there than I imagined it would. The glass is covered with limpets!