How long with no skimmer (1 fish, 55g)

[Logzor]

My CSS 125 pump blew up and screwed up my tank pretty bad. Now I am not running a skimmer.

I only have one fish now and everything coral wise has recovered 100% besides the xenias (60%) and the mushrooms which are still doing bad (30%).

Everyone is rebounding and I hope that it will be back to normal within two weeks.

I was wondering how long it would be ok to run no skimmer.

We usually feed the goby once every two days on a rotation of various food. On the off days I usually dump in a pencil erase size chunk of frozen cyclop in front of a powerhead for the frogspawn, hammer, and whatever else will filter feed.

The top of the water is not as clean as it used to be, are there any ill effects of not running a skimmer and feeding this often?

Tank params have ran steady before and after the tank crash from that oil from the CSS pump getting in the water.

nitrate 0
nitrite 0
alk kinda low, i forget the exact number
PH 8

The tank has bee running since September 1st

[ScubaDiver93]

I went skimmerless for 2-3 weeks with 12 fish. Nothing bad happened there. Just a lot of fish poo.

[TWallace]

If your nitrates and phosphates are still 0, what's there to worry about? If you can't keep those at or near 0 with normal water changes, then I'd worry about the skimmer.

[Logzor]

My only issue is this algae. It is not hair algae but it is some kind of macro that likes to branch out and grow pretty thick. The tips of it look kind of like a ginkgo leaf.

It is pretty easy to pick off once it gets long, it kinda looks neat but it is sort of a pain when it covered up my yumas.

no clue how to get rid of it.

[ryan_paskadi]

you could go skimmerless forever. They are nice but not needed. Do you have a DSB?

[uscharalph]

With only 1 fish in the tank, it's not as bad as if my skimmer went down. If your plan is to add more fish, I would get that skimmer fixed or get a better one.

[Frick-n-Frags]

plus, larger/more waterchanges can cover up for whole bunches of evil.

[Universal]

Originally posted by ryan_paskadi
you could go skimmerless forever. They are nice but not needed. Do you have a DSB?

Thats spot on , I went skimmerless for about 3 years , just did weekly water changes. (Unfortunately I had a power cut when I was away for the weekend and lost everything but starting up again)

[swjim]

Originally posted by Logzor
My only issue is this algae. It is not hair algae but it is some kind of macro that likes to branch out and grow pretty thick. The tips of it look kind of like a ginkgo leaf.

It is pretty easy to pick off once it gets long, it kinda looks neat but it is sort of a pain when it covered up my yumas.

no clue how to get rid of it.

With the skimmer offline there are more nutrients in your system. The algae will grow more in response to the added nutrients. If you trim/remove the algae periodically it will be serving in the same manner as a refugium for nutrient export.

I agree with what others have said, keep up with your water changes and don't overfeed or add too many more fish and you should be fine.

[thrillreefer]

Agreed. I ran my 55 for almost 2 years without a sump or skimmer the whole time. I had a good sized maroon clown, hepatus tang and a couple of gobies. I did weekly/biweekly changes of around 10-15 gallons and had good coral growth and few algae problems until the end when I got busy/lazy and lost my water change schedule.

[IceWish]

i would go skimmerless, i went skimmerless for about 6 months and i never had any problems, . I also run my skimmer at intervals..Im not such a big fan of skimming since it gets rid of everything, the good and the bad..

[Logzor]

Today I am noticing that some of my coraline algae on the glass is bleaching.

What could have caused this? Could it have been the trauma from the skimmer pump leaking that oil into my tank?

I figure that with the massive water changes that I did there should be plenty of calcium in the water.

My LPS look happy for the most part. My hammer is still recovering, it was close to where the pump malfunctioned.

Also, all of my amphipods are dead, I used to have thousands. Will they start to come back or did it wipe them all out for good?

I e-mailed coralife and they are sending me a new pump for free!

I am apprehensive about hooking that type up pump back up though.

[LockeOak]

It's unlikely that ALL of the amphipods/copepods are dead if you had very large numbers. There are probably a few hiding out, if you don't see any within a month I would consider trying to acquire new ones.

[Logzor]

Yeah I hope some are still alive, before on the back glass there were like 15 per square inch.

As for the purple coraline, any idea why it is bleaching?

[sk8rreefgeek]

I've had a 55ga for over a year with no skimmer. Have a blue tang, some clowns, gobies, etc. no problems, water tests are perfect.