Hey folks. The gf and I have a 28 gallon reef tank that we've had up and going for almost 2 months now. I'm sorry in advance if the questions I'm about to ask have been asked over and over again, but we're getting conflicting advice from a lot of people,and we thought we'd come to the experts.
Right now, we have about 25lbs of live rock and are using live sand with about 2" of bottom coverage. We have 2 skunk shrimp, 7 or 8 snails, 7 or 8 small hermit crabs, a Midas Goby and a small Sailfin tang. Additionally, we have a few Branching Frog Spawn Coral clusters. For lighting, we're using a 96 watt ballast with 12,000k and Actinic HO T6 bulbs with the moon LEDs that stay on all the time.
Our tank is in almost perfect condition. We do our water changes religiously, and feed everyone according to a schedule. The lights are on a timer as well. The only thing that has come up during some recent water changes were elevated alkalinity and calcium levels.
The question is this- we are using a Bio Wheel for filtration with an air stone inserted into the top, and aside form the live rock, that's it. We've been told this is enough, but we've also been told that we're crazy for not running some form of skimmer. We've been told by our LFS to get a Skilter. Other friends of ours, along with a seeming majority of the internet have said that Skilters are garbage and to get a Bak Pak2. Others have said to run a sump.
Our tank is running fine, everyone is alive and eating and seemingly happy, and that leaves my gf and I clueless. Why do we need new filtration if everything seems to be working just fine? Yes we're new to this, but we just want to have everything perfect on our tank because we get a lot of pleasure out of this hobby (as do our cats). We're willing to spend whatever it takes within reason to get whatever we need, if we even need anything in addition to what we already have.
And lastly, I'd like to apologize in advance if we're taking a couple more swings at your dead horse, but we're really looking for some sound advice.
Thanks folks!
Right now, we have about 25lbs of live rock and are using live sand with about 2" of bottom coverage. We have 2 skunk shrimp, 7 or 8 snails, 7 or 8 small hermit crabs, a Midas Goby and a small Sailfin tang. Additionally, we have a few Branching Frog Spawn Coral clusters. For lighting, we're using a 96 watt ballast with 12,000k and Actinic HO T6 bulbs with the moon LEDs that stay on all the time.
Our tank is in almost perfect condition. We do our water changes religiously, and feed everyone according to a schedule. The lights are on a timer as well. The only thing that has come up during some recent water changes were elevated alkalinity and calcium levels.
The question is this- we are using a Bio Wheel for filtration with an air stone inserted into the top, and aside form the live rock, that's it. We've been told this is enough, but we've also been told that we're crazy for not running some form of skimmer. We've been told by our LFS to get a Skilter. Other friends of ours, along with a seeming majority of the internet have said that Skilters are garbage and to get a Bak Pak2. Others have said to run a sump.
Our tank is running fine, everyone is alive and eating and seemingly happy, and that leaves my gf and I clueless. Why do we need new filtration if everything seems to be working just fine? Yes we're new to this, but we just want to have everything perfect on our tank because we get a lot of pleasure out of this hobby (as do our cats). We're willing to spend whatever it takes within reason to get whatever we need, if we even need anything in addition to what we already have.
And lastly, I'd like to apologize in advance if we're taking a couple more swings at your dead horse, but we're really looking for some sound advice.
Thanks folks!