Three months of no skimmer and I am pleased... If someone spots an oddity, or feels this is "bad practice" please let me know. I think that this idea provides enough biodiversity and fauna to naturally feed and filter my 75g reef tank.


My sump jutts out of the back of my stand. This picture is of the sump through the right door of my stand. It is distinctly divided into two parts, although there are no baffles. The front half is LR, and the overflow just dumps into the rocks. There are filter socks (very passive) with carbon and phosban lying on the tops of the rocks covering the tube. The return is submerged directly in the center of the tank, covered by rocks. Behind that is the macro, which fills the back half. All of that has a 2" sandbed below it. It is lit 24/7 by a Viper 70w MH.



3 months of natural filtration with a good sized bioload, LPS, SPS, 3 Clams, and a Rose BTA. I had a couple of skimmer overflows that led me to just leaving it off. Honestly, my tank runs itself now with the CA Reactor, ATO, and natural filtration. I wanted simplicity in my maintainence, so there is no mechanical filtration. There's less to clean, less often, and I can vacation and still manage to sleep at night.