If I were to try doing your skimmerless & filterless met

[swishyfishies]

If I were to try doing your skimmerless & filterless method. How would I go about it? Would I need the filter at 1st & then take it off when my LR gets going? And of course I'd keep them both (fltr & skmr) standing by just incase I needed them back on. I'm sure I'd have to go really slow adding livestock keeping a close eye on my water conditions & feeding sparingly.

You mentioned you use your skimmer every once in a while, what for?

Enlighten me.... 8O

 

[marinelife]

my 120 only has a sump with live rock and algae. The tank is fine, I have button poylps in it, been this way since day one. On my 180 I just added a skimmer but it was set-up the same way with a sump with Live Rock, sand and algae in it. I added the skimmer because I noticed my water was getting green and my normal method of clearing the water was not working. In both tank I have a deep sand bed and Live Rock. Most people recommend the skimmer be on from the start, so far I am not sure which is better. My water in both takes test out great and both tanks have run over 2 years with no skimmers or anything on it.

 

[swishyfishies]

marinelife, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

[Guest]

I am with FF, I am running a skimmer but now wondering why. I have gotten my feeding habits down to a minimum and there just isn't anything being produced from the skimmer...it is operating just as it was when I bought it... I am now seeing that if your inhabitants are utilizing most all of the food and nutrients, there isn't anything left for the skimmer to grab... So, off goes the skimmer and I will hook it up in a month and see if I get anything out of it then, if not, then off with its head...

 

[fishfreek]

Just setup the tank and just dont buy a skimmer. Its not all that complex I dont think. SKimmers are good for those who tend to feed to much or tend to overcrowd their tanks. But if your tank is balanced and you dont overfeed and you do regular waterchanges then you really dont need one.

As a general rule I like to have a 3-4" DSB with 1 1/2lbs of LR and PLENTY of water current.

 

[swishyfishies]

I'm understanding it all better now.

Thanks, Tim & fishfreek.

 

[fishfreek]

No problem.

P.S. Im gonna change the title of this thread to make it a bit more descriptive of the question asked. This way members who might be curious about this can find it via a search.

 

[swishyfishies]

ok go for it, it's fine with me.

 

[BrianH]

I would suggest that if you plan on trying to go skimmerless that you use a refugum with a DSB, live rock & macro algae. Try to go as large as you can with the refugum as it will help you with the excees nutrient export.

Brian

 

[swishyfishies]

I don't know much on refugeums, haven't looked into those yet. Why a refugeum if I'll already have tons of LR & a DSB?

 

[BrianH]

IMHo when you start up your first tank you are going to make some mistakes. If you plan on not using a protein skimmer, you need some other method of buffering your system. A refugum will add extra water volume to your tank, and with the addition of macro algaes, will also consume excess nutrients in your system. I always advise that newbies use a protein skimmer to handle minor fluctuations in water quality, but since it seems that your trying to go without a skimmer a refugum is probably the next best thing.

Brian

 

[swishyfishies]

I'd have to say I did pretty good on water quality with my 1st tank. My tests always came out good. If I were to do a refugeum how would I go about it> teach me.