Skimmerless Tank

[alarmguy66]

My 180 is now reaching a year old. It was started using the contents of my former 55 gal tank, now commonly refered to as "the sump" . The 55 had a remora skimmer as its primary source of filtration. I made a tall diy skimmer and used it for awhile on the 180, but discontinued all skimming about 3 months ago. Ive seen no adverse effects. My water leaving the tank goes through a diy mechanical filter contisting of floss and GAC. The sump has macroalgae growing in it, a ton of pods and shrimp, and is lit 24-7. I havent tested any levels in awhile, but all the life in the tank is happy.

I dont really see the need to change anything right now, but could there be long term consequences of not skimming? Between the sump and the tank I probably have in excess of 250 lbs of live rock ans a couple hundred lbs of sand.

[RMPD109]

If you keep up with water changes all should be good. The skimmer is just used to remove organics. The water change will do the same.

[loganj]

The system you have described is very similiar to the Ecosystem developed by Leng Sy. The macro removes a lot of the organics that the skimmer would normally catch. He recommends a skimmer only with lots of SPS corals...otherwise, these systems run skimmerless just fine. IMO, your tank will be fine as long as you keep up regular maintenance. Adding a skimmer would probably reduce the organics that are present in the tank, but might actually have a detrimental affect on the the macro. What kind of corals do you currently have? Check out this site: www.ecosystemaquarium.com

[alarmguy66]

Mushrooms, xenia, gsp (also pink) frogspawn, hammer, button polyps, leathers and 3 hard corals. All seem to be doing just fine. I do 20 gallon water changes every 2 weeks. Kalk drip for 5 days every other week. Maintenance on my tank is less than 5 minutes a days, and a couple hours one day every other weekend. Return water is filtered on the side of the sump that the macro and rock are not on, the side being used as a refugium is unfiltered.

Looks like im on the right track, just trying to avert problems before they happen, not clean up a mess. Good article by the way.

[flanque]

How does the skimmer have an effect on bacteria and trace elements? I didn't think it had any effect.