Is a protien skimmer needed???

[rdefino]

I have seen a lot stuff on these, but are they needed. I have a 75gal with 75lbs of LR and 80lbs of LS. For filter I have 2 aquaclear 500's, one with foam and charcoal and the other with foam and bio cubes. It's been running for a month now. Should I get a protein skimmer or not? Should I wait a while? If so how long?

Thanks for any help
Ron

 

[steve-s]

Are they needed, no but they are definately recommended. Especially if your just starting out. Skimmers remove a fair amount of DOC which is where the nitrogen cycle starts. The less DOC in the water column the less NH3, NO2 and NO3 the biological system has to deal with.

If employing alternate methods of export such as weekly water changes, planted refugium for harvesting macro alges or a regularly changed resin/carbon routine; a skimmer becomes less necessary. They do however greatly reduce your overall maintenace leaving more time to actually enjoy the tank

Cheers
Steve

 

[rdefino]

Thanks for info. If it will help out the tank and the overall maintenance, I will get one. Now, which one? I would like to get a canister model, I already have 2 hang ons, so there's not much room. Which is a good canister model?

Thanks again

 

[rdefino]

Oh ya, one more thing. Could it hurt the tank in any way?

 

[captivereefs]

They are a very good device to have. They do remove organics from the tank and generally make reef keeping easier and less algae prone. They are not a requirment but if you saw what they can pull out of your water you would not want to go without one!

 

[stresco]

Oh ya, one more thing. Could it hurt the tank in any way?

That depends on the size of skimmer compaired to the size of the tank and the regularity of your water changes. If you get a Skimmer that is TOOO efficient then you will need to do larger water changes more often because you will essentially be stripping the nutrients out of the water, so you will need to replace it.

I have a skimmer rated for a 180gal tank on my 55gal, but this is because i have a huge bioload. I do 10-20 gal water changes every week to keep the nutrient levels up.

HTH

 

[Atari]

BTW, there's no such thing as a canister skimmer.. you'll have to get a HOB model unless you have a sump. I don't like the idea of running a skimmer inside the tank, but that's just me.

 

[loganj]

With the amount of LR that you have, I think you could do without one, if not both, of the HOB filters unless you have a huge bioload in this tank. For a 75 gal tank, I would recommend an Aqua C Remora Pro with a Mag 3 pump.

 

[electrikat]

The extra filter with the bio cubes can also cause excessive nitrates.