Anyone Running Larger Skimmerless Tanks?

[Serioussnaps]

I would and might do it on my next tank.

Though the fuge will be at least 2/3 the size of the display(the display is going to be large...very large), have a remote DSB, very few fish considering the size of the tank, BB in tank with lots of WC's and carbon dosing, GFO fun 24/7 365 etc etc.

So yeah going skimmerless is nothing, but you have to have other husbandry tactics and methodologies for doing so successfully. This goes with any method you chose to employ in our wonderful hobby.

Happy holidays

[maxalmon]

I'm setting up a new 215g that will be a low tech, skimmerless tank.
I turned the skimmer off on my 125 about 9 months ago as a mini "experiment" I was surprised to see that all my corals responded in a positive manner, the tank has actually thrived and the tank has never looked better, hence my desire to design this new tank without a skimmer, getting back to old school ways...

[reefnewbie54321]

I have a 125 skimmerless tank running for 13 months now

specs:
Custom 30 Gallon Ecosystem Sump w/ Cualurpa and Miracle Mud
18" x 30" Adey Inspired Algae Turf Scrubber
Tyree Trizonal Cryptic Filter
6" Deep Sand Bed
75 Pounds Live Rock

The tank was inspired by many people,
I wanted to utilize an Algae Turf Scrubber filtered tank like Adey was doing but I also didnt believe it would habdle the entire volume of the tank so I went with an Ecosystem Sump by Dr. Leng for a refuguim with the added benifit of live food. Went with a DSB and built it to exact specs of Ron Shimek and finnaly after I read Tyrees book I re did the entire aquascape to utilize a trizonal reef. I used all uncured rocks and cured them with Phytoplankton and ammonia lock to save all the creatures on it for better LR filtaration and to save sponges for the criptic zone. On top of that I bought the deluxe cryptic package from Tyree to seed everything and get the zonal filtration in to effect.

The tank can handle any amount of food I toss in it. I feed 11 Purple Anthias 5x a day w/ Mysis, Live Brine, Arctic Pods and Cyclopeeze and on top of that I have a 24/7 phytofeast/rotifeast drip and I'm feeding 3 colonies of nonphotosytetic dendroneptheas and 2 colonys of scleroneptheas with a custom coral mucus blend from Marin Fuana that is ridiculasly high in nitrates.

I do 20% changes monthly and dose Calc and Alk with Randys 2 Part

Couldnt be happier with that tank, its all softie and is just what I wanted. The goal was to keep filter feeders thriving and thats just what it does.

I have flame scallops, linkia stars, thorny oysters, dendroeptheas, scleroneptheas, dendros, african blue xenia, and purple anthias all happy and these corals and inverts are all known to die off very quick in the average reef but with all the life and food avialable in my tank they trive.

Any more questions let me know, I'll get some pictures up soon....

[maxalmon]

Sounds like the system I'm setting up, I've done the SPS dominated tank but find that I'm drawn to the LPS - Softie tank. I like lots of movement and have several HUGE Umbrellas and kenyas (20" to almost 30") that I want in the new 215. Do you have pics of your tank?

[fali]

I have 140 gallon skimmerless tank. I use tap water. I do water changes every 1 - 2 monthes. But i have slime algae issues.

[Serioussnaps]

Now you must post pictures

Originally posted by reefnewbie54321
I have a 125 skimmerless tank running for 13 months now

specs:
Custom 30 Gallon Ecosystem Sump w/ Cualurpa and Miracle Mud
18" x 30" Adey Inspired Algae Turf Scrubber
Tyree Trizonal Cryptic Filter
6" Deep Sand Bed
75 Pounds Live Rock

The tank was inspired by many people,
I wanted to utilize an Algae Turf Scrubber filtered tank like Adey was doing but I also didnt believe it would habdle the entire volume of the tank so I went with an Ecosystem Sump by Dr. Leng for a refuguim with the added benifit of live food. Went with a DSB and built it to exact specs of Ron Shimek and finnaly after I read Tyrees book I re did the entire aquascape to utilize a trizonal reef. I used all uncured rocks and cured them with Phytoplankton and ammonia lock to save all the creatures on it for better LR filtaration and to save sponges for the criptic zone. On top of that I bought the deluxe cryptic package from Tyree to seed everything and get the zonal filtration in to effect.

The tank can handle any amount of food I toss in it. I feed 11 Purple Anthias 5x a day w/ Mysis, Live Brine, Arctic Pods and Cyclopeeze and on top of that I have a 24/7 phytofeast/rotifeast drip and I'm feeding 3 colonies of nonphotosytetic dendroneptheas and 2 colonys of scleroneptheas with a custom coral mucus blend from Marin Fuana that is ridiculasly high in nitrates.

I do 20% changes monthly and dose Calc and Alk with Randys 2 Part

Couldnt be happier with that tank, its all softie and is just what I wanted. The goal was to keep filter feeders thriving and thats just what it does.

I have flame scallops, linkia stars, thorny oysters, dendroeptheas, scleroneptheas, dendros, african blue xenia, and purple anthias all happy and these corals and inverts are all known to die off very quick in the average reef but with all the life and food avialable in my tank they trive.

Any more questions let me know, I'll get some pictures up soon....

[geoxman]

I have pictures of mine in the zoanthid forum
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1274521

[Carnavor180]

no skimmer here, algae turf scrubber instead

[sean48183]

If you want to keep alot of fish I wouldn't run one without a skimmer. I like the big fuge and the skimmer combo but I like to keep alot of fish and feed them at least twice a day. My 50g had 8 fish in it for 3 years and I tribute that to the fuge and the skimmer.

[marinelife]

375 skimmerless with SPS corals and clam. I was setup in Feb 2007 but all the rock came from my old system what was running for 7 years skimmerless

[ipodhommie]

marinelife how big is your fuge and how much live rock do you have?

[Swanwillow]

reefnewbie54321, I was wondering if you ever got around to taking pictures of your setup? I'd like to start running my tanks in this type of manner, and pictures would help immensely.

[pledosophy]

Been running for 7 years now with no skimmer. Many different tanks, many different setups, no regrets.

I utalize refugiums not only for nutrient export, but more importantly in my mind for food production.

I was first turned on to the use by Leng Sy (although from all I know of him he's not a Dr., great guy was sad when he closed his store down). Have been using them since.

I would like to warn readers that IMO alot of this thread is bogus. Some of the things posted that seem just to good to be true, are. The choice to go skimmerless is not a cure all to systems. Just not the way the world works. The same basic rules of reefing still apply your just using an alternate tool to perform the same function. JME

[Gdevine]

I have a 65g DT and 35g fuge Ecosystem - which originally never needed a skimmer. I added a big skimmer about 6 months ago and I just cleaned my skimmer (tonight) and you don't even want to know what the crap looked like that came out of the cup or overflow...man it's bad stuff...really bad.

Even Ling is selling Skimmer's as part of the Ecosystem method.

I simply can't imagine running a live reef without a skimmer...even with all these posts "stating" they are thriving.