Nanoreefer
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have an 18-gallon tall reef tank with a clown fish, a bicolor, a green long tentacle anemone, a brain coral, Xenias everywhere, green star polyps, white star polyps, red blue and green mushrooms, and a hammer coral. I currently have only a compact lighting 60 watts total and aqua clear backpack filter. I change 30% of water every week and fill with ocean water. The tank is has been set up for 5 years.
About 3 months ago my protein skimmer broke; I began to neglect my tank I allowed algae to grow and the water level to drop about 3 gallons the salinity went up to about 30 and did not change water for 3 months. I cleaned the tank last week and to my surprise all my coral was still alive and the polyps had actually spread.
My question is, if the tank had gone that long with out a protein skimmer do I really need one. The aqua clear filter and power head seem to be doing the job ok. Are there long-term effects to not having a protein skimmer on an 18-gallon reef tank?
About 3 months ago my protein skimmer broke; I began to neglect my tank I allowed algae to grow and the water level to drop about 3 gallons the salinity went up to about 30 and did not change water for 3 months. I cleaned the tank last week and to my surprise all my coral was still alive and the polyps had actually spread.
My question is, if the tank had gone that long with out a protein skimmer do I really need one. The aqua clear filter and power head seem to be doing the job ok. Are there long-term effects to not having a protein skimmer on an 18-gallon reef tank?