Lets see the tanks running with no skimmers.....

[kiknchikn]

That tank puts mine to shame aquabucket Gorgeous!

[agoutihead]

Aquabucket, that tank is ridiculous!

Everyone's tanks look really impressive though.

You are right though, you do need to make sure you select your corals wisely.

mostly lps/softies and even a few sps can be had. coco worms, clams, all will do great.

[owenb01]

nevermind

[Randy1]

I'ver never tried but I bet you can be sucsesful with sps without a skimmer. I belive softs and lps would thrive without a skimmer as they like slightly dirtier water.

[TWallace]

Full tank shot

[agoutihead]

Looks sweet. How long has the tank been up?

Some SPS and cup corals can be kept in "less than pristine" water huh?

I like SPS, but love softes better, but would like a couple sps colonies and a few bright colored monti cups.

Do you guys still notice a good amount of growth on all corals?

[David Grigor]

I don't really like it when people say "Dirty" water. To me all reef tanks should strive for low nitrates, low phosphates, and to keep CA/ALK/MG at or above NSW levels as consistant as possible. If you can achieve that whatever means water changes, refugium, whatever then you will be sucessful. However, if you can't then you need to use whatever tools available to do so, for some that may include a skimmer.

Nano, tanks are usually much more successful skimmerless then larger simply becuase the task of a water change is usually quick and easy. The larger the volumne of water the more difficult to keep the higher % water changes done consistantly as well as the expense of buying buckets at a time.

I ran what I believed to be at the time a successful skimmerless 190g tank 1999-2001 Acro/SPS dominate, until the refugium got infested with the fuzzy red algae that choked out the macro algae then went totally downhill from there. Without a skimmer, I was basically left with my pants down, no loss of life but made for a pretty ugly tank for quite some time. I'm a firm believer to use the tools available to get the job done ( as well as preventative ), and will never be without a skimmer of some form again.

All my tanks no mater how big or small include a good sized refugium as well as a skimmer.

[AMIFL]

Nice tank aquabucket. Especially for no skimmer.

[pledosophy]

Originally posted by agoutihead
Do you guys still notice a good amount of growth on all corals?

This tank has been setup for 6 months. All contents moved from another tank which was also skimmerless. I moved from Cali to Oregon last year and wanted to cook my rock, so kept some stuff in a 20g during the cooking before I setup this system.

Everything in this tank besides the eye of rah zoo's (which I've had for less then a month) was purchased as a small frag or small clam. Everything is more then twice the size of when it was purchased.

I have been running skimmerless tanks for years and years. It's not because I'm cheap, I bought the skimmer and it's in the garagae, it's because I have better results this way.

Having a skimmer is not hte only way to have clean water, there are several ways to run a succsessful tank.

Tank Parameters

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
pH 8.3
Ca 450 ish

I did have done 3 water changes in 6 months, the system does not require them for nutrient export. I add Ca and Mag, as well as Coral Vite for trace elements.

Tank is fed two cubes of mysis, a cube of Emerald Entree, a squirt of Artic pods, and a small squirt of phyto daily. I add Ca and Mg as needed.

The artic pods are a fairly new addition since I brought this guy home.



JME

It urks me when people think we don't run skimmers because we can't afford to, it's just another method of reef keeping, there are many.

HTH

[pledosophy]

Just wanted to add that along with not having a skimmer there is no mechanical filtaration on that 65g at all. I have a 20g sump which is filled with liverock. I do plan on adding a light and some macro to the sump as well as some of the Ecosystems Miracle Mud, but for the time being the tank is all natural.

Turns over about 30x an hour with 1000 gph of it coming through spraybars under the rock being run in a CL. Ya there is about 12' of PVC under that rock work. You can see some of it if you look really close, it's the purple pipes.

Current inhabitants are the Potters wrasse, a bi color blenny, a turbo snail, a pair of peppermints, and 3 astrea snails.

Planned additions are a pair of pipe fish (species undecided but probably the dragon faced), a Kole Tang, 5 chromis, and a manderin. Would also like to add a few more zoo frags, and a lobo maybe even a cynaria, as well as another SPS or two. Might add a couple more snails and a starfish as the feeding will increase with the additional fish.

Have cannisters, UV's, and yes even a skimmer if it should be needed, but so far so good. I'd like to avoid a skimmer if at all possible.

JME.

[agoutihead]

that potters wrasse is ridiculous! how much was it?

[HookedOnReefing]

I firmly believe that you can successfully run a Softy. LPS or even SPS tank skimmerless.

A previous SPS setup that I ran before moving, used 1 very large Gigas, 5 10"+ Derasa clams, 1 12" Squamosas, 1 8" colored teardrop Maxima, 1 12" colored teardrop Maxima and several smaller Crocea clams as well as a plethora of cultured and wild sponge colonies, Co-co/Featherduster worms and Xenia.

All clams, except the colored TD Maxima's and the large Squamosa were housed seperately from the main system and kept in a 72"LX30"W12"H tank lit using 3x 400W MH's. The sponges were kept in a 100 Gal rubbermaid stock tank, unlit.

Total water volume approx 400 gallons. Vigorous water flow, a monster Ca reactor, large amounts of Kalkwasser, intense MH lighting. No chiller, no skimmers, no UV/ozone. No carbon. No additives except for Ca and Kalkwasser.

Both of these tanks and sump were kept in the basement and plumbed to the main display upstairs. The tank showed some amazing results.

Dr Mac (large clam filtration) and Steven Tyree (sponges filter) have kept similar setups.

Mu current setup uses a skimmer. Much less total water volume. Just a main display and sump.

[agoutihead]

What made you switch to using a skimmer after running such a large and successful tank with out one?

Just to try something different and make maintence a bit less?

[The Cardinal]

My sumpless 100g tank has been skimmerless for about a year. Every single time I turn on the skimmer I get sudden growth of problem algae. My tank really does better without a skimmer and my corals appreciate the extra food in the water with greater polyp expansion. I change around 10%/month with no detectable nutrients.

And do I dare say that I haven´t changed my 6 T5 tubes for over two years? I must be the laziest reefkeeper ever according to some people here ...




http://www.saltvattensguiden.se/foru...1&d=1177410039

[adddo]

Hah, clownen, i was just about to post a link to your tank!!

[yellowwatchmen]

Aquabucket I have seen this pic a bunch of times but never noticed the yellow tang.

[HookedOnReefing]

agoutihead,

Two reasons realy. I moved and so had to take the then current seup down, sold livestock off as well as equipment and only kept 2 displaytanks. I also wanted to use a setup that would consume MUCH less power. Having to light the main display plus a large giant clam "filtration tank" is not cheap

I do miss it though.

[HookedOnReefing]

Beautiful tank aquabucket!

[The Cardinal]

Originally posted by adddo
Hah, clownen, i was just about to post a link to your tank!!

Hello Adddo!

Here is another good example of a totm tank that has been without a skimmer for over a year in the pics:

http://haaga.aqua-web.org/082006/index.htm

[CapitalO]

Also, if it hasnt been pointed out already, skimmers remove a lot of the desirable things as well as the bad. Most notably, a great deal of planktonic critters that are highly beneficial to the tank, as well as many of the chemical elements that help keep our tanks healthy get lost to skimming.

[RichConley]

Originally posted by agoutihead
Well referring to softies/lps, it is well known they generally like "dirtier" water.

Its well known, and absolutely incorrect.

[agoutihead]

Your the only person that has ever argued against that statement.

Can you point references that state otherwise?

When I and most say dirtier, we are just calling it that as a "hobby joke" it seems.

In fact you would still have very good water because you are and should be doing adequate water changes, but since there is no skimmer removing beneficial bacteria and plankton, various animals have an easier time to survive. (depending on the animal obviously. linkia starfish, coco worms, cucumbers, I think all of these would benefit more from a system that doesn't skim.

[RichConley]

They like more food. They don't like dirty water. Theyre two totally different things. Water in the ocean is cleaner than most keep SPS tanks, theres just a TON more food.

I completely disagree though, the nice thing about running a big skimmer is you can feed more. You can keep more fish, etc.


I run two tanks. One is skimmed, one isn't. The things that need a lot of food go in the skimmed tank, because I can feed heavily, and not worry about it.

[reefing102]

awesome tanks you guys

Its well known, and absolutely incorrect.

Originally posted by RichConley

They like more food. They don't like dirty water. Theyre two totally different things. Water in the ocean is cleaner than most keep SPS tanks, theres just a TON more food.

I completely disagree though, the nice thing about running a big skimmer is you can feed more. You can keep more fish, etc.


I run two tanks. One is skimmed, one isn't. The things that need a lot of food go in the skimmed tank, because I can feed heavily, and not worry about it.

I disagree with this. Just because you have a big skimmer doesn't mean you can feed more. The "Big" Skimmer could also not be running efficiently.

Dirty water in the reefing community has a meaning of more nutrient rich. Not there is actual dirt in the water or more food. Softies and LPS tend to live in more nutrient rich water (aka "dirty water") this is usually caused by less flow

[smokez01]

Here is a photo from a few months ago from my thread

It is a 90g all SPS with quite a bit of zoos and a clam. Skimmerless, BB T5

Here is the thread is you want to see:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1154606