Who runs a Skimmerless system

[RayAllen]

For those of you running a skimmerless reef/FOWLR/FO tank.

What do you run in its place?

My current biocube 29 runs skimmer less with just rubble and the tank does great going on a year now. My 180g is running a Carbon reactor and macro fuge. Im thinking I need more filtration, but do I have to go the skimmer route or is there another alternative.

[Europhyllia]

I got some good input on a similar thread not too long ago:
http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?...t=skimmer+pros

[ballardjr2000]

On fishgeeks there is a guy running a 215 tank with NO sump, skimmer or anything, just LOTS of live rock and sand. basically ALL BIO filtering and plenty of flow. ODD but i have seen it done. My 12g nano is skimmerless i fun some corse media, fine media, and rubble by on a 12g i do have to do water changes weekly so that helps out a lot.

[RayAllen]

Im not a weekly water changer. Im a every 3 week/ once a month water changer. Ive never had problems this way on my tanks but they have all had skimmers with the exception of the tanks I have now. Im going to read into the link you sent Karin.

[alton]

I go skimmerless on my 29. But I do 5 gallon water changes per week so with liverock/sand/gravel removed probably 20 gallons of water left so thats 25% water changes. I can't do that on a 300. I have had in the past a 75 and a 158 where I only ran a skimmer one week out of the month because the skimmer did not skim otherwise. Both tanks had large amounts of Xenia and GSP which did a great job of filtering out impurities. As a matter of fact if i ran my skimmer too much my Xenia woulld quit pulsing. On my old 200 I had Xenia and GSP and still dumped the skimmer cup twice a week. I think we sometimes have a tendency to maybe run too large of a skimmer, but in most cases we still need to skim if only sometimes, unless we are replacing a lot of water in our tanks.

[txav8r]

There is a guy on here that has a large tank that runs skimmer-less and no sump, Or at least he did the last time I was at his house.

His name is Ace aka Hobogato. ;)

[RayAllen]

I go skimmerless on my 29. But I do 5 gallon water changes per week so with liverock/sand/gravel removed probably 20 gallons of water left so thats 25% water changes. I can't do that on a 300. I have had in the past a 75 and a 158 where I only ran a skimmer one week out of the month because the skimmer did not skim otherwise. Both tanks had large amounts of Xenia and GSP which did a great job of filtering out impurities. As a matter of fact if i ran my skimmer too much my Xenia woulld quit pulsing. On my old 200 I had Xenia and GSP and still dumped the skimmer cup twice a week. I think we sometimes have a tendency to maybe run too large of a skimmer, but in most cases we still need to skim if only sometimes, unless we are replacing a lot of water in our tanks.

I like your thinking Alton. My 180g is a FOWLR but im going to add easy to grow soft corals, the tank is lit with 440watts of VHO. A whole lot of xenia would be great in a FOWLR catch a lot of the uneaten meaty food and other debri.

Im going to go ahead and invest in a skimmer for this tank, already posted in the wanted section. Just wanted to here some opinions and thoughts on the matter.

[RayAllen]

There is a guy on here that has a large tank that runs skimmer-less and no sump, Or at least he did the last time I was at his house.

His name is Ace aka Hobogato. ;)

You know what he does that I do not. A lot of water changes, haha. More than once a week from what I remember in his thread. I honestly believe the majority only do a water change once a month at the most. I know there are those who do it more often but the majority do not.

[Europhyllia]

Maybe people could be more helpful if you explained why you would not want a skimmer (removal of beneficial stuff, cost, space,etc.)

[RayAllen]

Its not rather or not I want one. Im looking at the pros and cons of having or not having one. Financially im trying not to invest a lot of money in this tank and if I really do not need a skimmer why buy it. On another note I do not want to invest in a lot of livestock and not have a skimmer if they will benefit more from me having one. Some fish I think- like tangs are more fragile and will benefit more from having a skimmer. Some corals like xenia, shrooms, kenya benefit from not having a skimmer because they prefer water on the less skimmed side.

I think the best thing for me do is buy a decent skimmer and possibly run it on a timer so that its not constantly running. Maybe on a reverse cycle with my fuge lighting. Something I will look further into once I find one.