Skimmerless?

[rocketeer]

Ace,

How do you not run a skimmer? My tank and sump are sized similar to yours. It's well established. I hardly feed at all. I have constant problems with cyano and bryopsis and I have a skimmer and carbon and phoslock every two weeks. (Yes, RO/DI and 12%/week water changes, Kent salt, DSB, calcium reactor w/ ARM).

My QT tank gets no food and it grows cyano, with a skimmer. It gets new water, not main display water. It has two peppermint shrimp and some hermits and snails, maybe not enough.

I was going to put this in Allan's thread but I didn't want to hijack it.

Jack

[hobogato]

how much sand do you have in your display? do you have a dsb in your fuge? if so, how deep?

i had cyano issues in my tank running a single beckett skimmer (very efficient) and 0TDS topoff/water change water as long as i had the 3" sand bed. i tried phosban, lots of macro algae, water changes (siphoning out the cyano). nothing worked. then, i did some reading about sand beds and found out that 3" isnt deep enough to function as nitrate remover and too deep to keep clean. the result is a detritus trap that increases nutrients in the water. once i siphoned all but about an inch of sand out and improved the rockwork to allow for better flow over the entire sand bed, the cyano went away.

my dsb half of the fuge has about 8" of sugar fine sand in it.

i have around 30 fish (mostly small wrasses, 6 med/lg tangs and a 3' eel). i clip in two 5"X10" sheets of nori per day. i feed small amounts of food (brine, mysis, krill, and bloodworms) four times a day - the equivalent of a 2"X2"X1" block of food per day. i also feed a small chunk of cyclopeze once or twice a week - about 1"X.5"X.5". i feed the eel specifically once a week (he eats small amounts every time i feed) as well - 5 shrimp or 8-10 rings of squid. since i took the skimmer offline, my tank has started a nightly plankton swarm that the corals really like. i have to clean the glass every two or three days, but it only has a light film in the most brightly lit spots after that amount of time.

the only mechanical filter i run is a carbon reactor with a small amount of carbon to remove some of the chemical warfare chemicals from the anemones and leather corals.

**disclaimer - my setup is not typical. i am not keeping overly sensitive corals. i am actually moving toward corals that like lots of food (non photosynthetic).

[hobogato]

i also used to have a bryopsis problem that i somewhat kept in check by pulling and siphoning during water changes. luckily, when i switched to solar tube lighting, the bryopsis just went away.

[Mr Cob]

Very cool Ace. Thanks for sharing that info with us. I want to see the nightly plankton swarm...sounds cool.

[hobogato]

forgot to add, i do 5 gallon water changes twice a week (usually) which amounts to 10% a month. i actually havent done a water change in about 3 weeks tho (i know - shame on me)

[ErikH]

I've been skimmerless for 3 months, and have no problems either. I am suprised actually...

[jc]

I've been skimmerless for the majority of the last 3 months. I've been having problems with my skimmer and then I decided to dose for the cyano. So far I think my zoos are actually looking better. I also don't miss the noise from the skimmer. I think I'm going to put it on a timer to come on at night for a few hours. When I did have it on it didn't pull much gunk anyway.

[rocketeer]

Wow that's alot of food. You probably hit it right on the head. Most of my sand bed is 3 to 3.5 inches. I was originally shooting for 3.5 minimum but I think some disolved and I lost a bunch during syphoning. I vacuum about the top 3/4 inch weekly and have had some minor success.

So, it sounds like 4 or 5 sq. ft. of DSB is enough for nitrate removal.

I always thought any sand up to about three inches of sand was no mans land. Do you vacuum your 1 inch of sand? If so, how often?

Where do you think all those nutrients go? Growth?

Jack

[hobogato]

Wow that's alot of food. You probably hit it right on the head. Most of my sand bed is 3 to 3.5 inches. I was originally shooting for 3.5 minimum but I think some disolved and I lost a bunch during syphoning. I vacuum about the top 3/4 inch weekly and have had some minor success.

So, it sounds like 4 or 5 sq. ft. of DSB is enough for nitrate removal.

my dsb is 14" x 18" X 8"+deep. it has about 40 red and black mangroves in it

I always thought any sand up to about three inches of sand was no mans land. Do you vacuum your 1 inch of sand? If so, how often?

i have always heard between 1" and 3" depending on grain size. if the sand is large size grain like the sand in my display (special reef grade) then 6" or more is needed for a functional dsb. up to 1" is easy to stir/siphon to keep clean. i do not vaccum mine, i just stir up random sections every once in a while. i also have lots of sand dwelling wrasses that keep it somewhat stirred up.

Where do you think all those nutrients go? Growth?

not sure, but my filter feeding corals (sponges, gorgonians, etc) have never looked this good. i do have lots of mangroves and macroalgae in the fuge that really grows pretty fast now.

Jack

side note - the aptasia really seem to like it too good thing i have a copperband that is healthy and taking a liking to them now....

[mozartkt]

Did I miss the tank size - my 20gal is running without a skimmer and is doing well with just frequent water changes and snails to keep the sand bed moving.