Can my fish survive with no SKIMMER?

[kasper2234]

Hi guys...i have a 20 gal tank, 15 lbs og live fijian rock, crushed coral, a clownfish, sea urchin and a sear hourse... ive found that skimmers are a bit expensive for me to get this month.. you think they will be okay for a while with just a normal filter?

[srucker]

I had a 25 gallon lps tank for about 2 years that had one of the small Lees Skimmer on it. The Lees skimmer runs off of an air pump and is under $40, but if you are going to go this route you should do water changes every two weeks. If you are going to go with no skimmer I would do 1 or 2 water changes per week, which should be fine since you have a pretty low bio-load.

[Entropy]

Skimmers are really really really nice to have on sw tanks IMO, but they are nothing water changes cannot replace IMO. As long as you do water changes as mentioned above I think you will be fine.

[chadfarmer]

dont put anything else in the tank and you should be fine

[kasper2234]

thanks guys.. i have one more question.. my urchin is loosing its spines i think its do to KH.. my KH is 7.0 how do i reaise it to 8.0?

[mhltcob]

whats your other levels PH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity. How long have you had the urchin, and what kind is it?

[mhltcob]

whats your source water?

[Ballard]

I have never owned askimmer, so I might not know what I am missing out on, but my 10 did fine until I upgraded it to a 29 after 1 year. likewise, the 29 did fine sans skimmer until I moved and upgraded to a 60+ sump a year later, which has been running with no skimmer... I am now considering a skimmer because the summer temperatures in my new apartment have caused an algea problem that I have not encountered before. btw, I rarely do water changes, but "don't try that at home" anyway, a hundred ways to skin a cat, a million ways to have the perfect aquarium.