Skimmerless system?

[KyleV]

My Euroreef is starting to blow more bubbles than ever in the main system. My sump is small so I don't have room to put more baffles in. Is it possible with a light load to turn it off and make a fuge out of the skimmer area and still remove enough nitrates? I only feed 3X per week.

70 gallon main
20 gallon sump

lots of corals

2 Chromis
1 Long nose hawk
1 spotted Goby
1 True Perc.

[TexasTodd]

I believe Tyree runs skimmerless.

I've known others to go skimmerless and do well. I think Sean's is currently.

With a good refugium, light load/feeding, and scheduled water changes it should be fine.

Todd

[RayAllen]

Did you make the meeting? The speaker Randy went through this. In a nut shell if you have good Micro/Macro algae growth absorbing the nitrates and phosphates you can run skimmerless if you fuge is healthy with constant growth. A chamber with lots of Rubble could help to with a population of copepods to eat any larger debri as well.

[blueboy]

with that load, i say give it a shot. i'd just test regularly till you get comfortable with it, and of course, keep up the WC's.

[erikharrison]

with that load, i say give it a shot. i'd just test regularly till you get comfortable with it, and of course, keep up the WC's.


For sure, it sounds like you are a perfect candidate to run skimmerless.
As Bill told me and what Ray touched on, it's all about the exportation. With your successes with tanks you shouldn't have any problems. :)

[Fish4life]

My friend back in the pacific northwest ran skimmerless. He changed about 35% of the water monthly (small amounts each week). His tank was beautiful and his corals had good color and great growth! Good luck!

Cheers,

Kurt

[KyleV]

Thank you for the positive responses because that is really what I'm leaning towards doing. I missed the meeting but guess I shouldn't have.

I'll post udates and water peramiters when I make the change.

[captexas]

Yeah, just turn it off for a week or so and test your nutrient levels to see if there is a big change or not. If you are one of those people that keep up with routine water changes, that will help as well.

Have you tried putting filter floss or a foam block in one of the baffle sections? I would think that might help block some of the air bubbles. To me it seems you might just need some adjustment to the skimmer and/or drain.

[caferacermike]

Kyle is that my old RS80? I never had a problem with that skimmer. I did not run it with the foam that comes with them new, as I never had it, but doing so may help. I had to wrap the output of the RS180 with poly fiber and ziptie it as the noise and bubble drove me nuts.

[emac]

I know my tank is small and all but, I didn't run a skimmer on my tank for a year. It didn't even have a mechanical filter, just a fuge and my nitrates have always been 0. didn't you have a remora on your sump a long time ago?

[KyleV]

Mike I put foam on the output and it worked great for the first 6 months. Recently it just became a waterfall and stoped skimming. I did a deap clean and after that it was micro bubble crazy!!

I added stuff to the baffles but there are not enough to be able to keep a stable water level as they fill with algea.

emac I've used multiple hob's in the past but since I traded for the ER I'll never go back.

[KyleV]

I removed the skimmer added 25 LB of LR, 1 Big bag of Cheato and a 24 watt 12K light on a reverse cycle so we'll see how it goes!

[Henny]

KyleV,
Just curious to see how has this been working out for you? I'm setting up a 55 gallon that I'm considering going skimmerless with.