can i run my aquarium without a protein skimmer?

[Jarrett]

i have a 45 gallon tank with probally 50 pounds of live rock and an eheim cannister 2217 that says its mean for an 100 gallon tank. i did have a remora protein skimmer on it but the past couple of weeks its been a real pain cant get it to work properly and has been dumping its gunk back into the tank clogging up my filters so i decided to just get rid of it all together do you think my tank still has enough filtration on it to be fine? my levels have never been more then perfect (honestly ive been blessed so far compared to the storys i read on these forums lol) do you think i can get away with out the protein skimmer?

 

[Fishbone13]

I have a 75 gallon tank and it's been run'n without a skimmer for almost three years. I have a canester filter and if you ask me if you stay on top of youre PWC's and watch test you're water regularly you should be fine. I'm sure there are people that say you deffinately need one but like I said it's been almost 3 years for me and no probs.

 

[joy13]

Keep up with the water changes. I have a 45 without a skimmer and it seems to do fine.

 

[carey]

Hi there. Personally i couldn't live without my skimmer i don't think. When I clean it out every other day it is full of really nasty gunk so I'm glad that's not in my tank. lol

I think if you really keep on the tank and pwcs, like stated above you could probably do without.

I also have the remora and its worked out great for me, have you tried cleaning it out completely? Or maybe the pump is bad? Just a thought, hate to see it go to waste considering how much they cost.

 

[Dary421]

Hi there. Personally i couldn't live without my skimmer i don't think. When I clean it out every other day it is full of really nasty gunk so I'm glad that's not in my tank. lol

I think if you really keep on the tank and pwcs, like stated above you could probably do without.

I also have the remora and its worked out great for me, have you tried cleaning it out completely? Or maybe the pump is bad? Just a thought, hate to see it go to waste considering how much they cost.

I'm with carey on this one.., I'm sure by doing lots of pwc 's etc you could get by just fine,..but,...When you do find that protein skimmer that works for you and you see what it extracts from your water,..I'm sure you'll never wanna be without one

 

[Jarrett]

well i do water changes every week and im very much on top of my tank the water is crystal clear always and if its not believe me i make sure i get it to be and i loved the protein skimmer as well it worked awesome in the begginning but i just cant get this thing working properly ive messed with the flow so many times and i just dont know what else to do with it i see the return water dumping in so many dirt particles back in the tank that in a day it clogged my little filter that attaches to my power head when usually it takes 2 weeks to clog and thats just no good for me i think because on the box this isnt the remora pro its the regular remora because it has a nano boxed checked on it so i think this protein skimmer just isnt the correct one for me any reccomendations for a new skimmer that will work on my 45 gallon tank?, i would love to sell it i live in NY long island if anyones interested lol

 

[tjm80]

My $.02 is getting a better protein skimmer will pay for itself by saving on salt. You'll go through a lot more salt by doing a lot more PWCs, and that's a cost that won't go away. You pay for your protein skimmer once.

 

[Dary421]

My $.02 is getting a better protein skimmer will pay for itself by saving on salt. You'll go through a lot more salt by doing a lot more PWCs, and that's a cost that won't go away. You pay for your protein skimmer once.