I have sps in my skimmerless BB 120g and they are growing well.

I run my 30 skimmerless 75% of the time. ( Not because I want to, my CSS throws a ton of microbubble into the tank) and have had zero problems so far (knocks on wood)

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Is it a good idea though? To me it's not because I don't have enough time to do weekly water changes.:redface:

From personal experience, and a little reading between the lines, and seeing the myriad of people who have beautiful tanks with little to no technology, i would surmise that the majority of the technology we use in our tanks, while no doubt helps, is not required. Simple maintenace and I hate to say it some luck i think goes a long way to the quality of our tanks. I know i guy who has an incredible tank, over populated with fish, sps, clams etc, softies, etc.. no skimmer, no dosing other than a alk/calc combo (kent i believe) no sump, no sulphur denitrator, no ozone, 4 powerheads, 2 xp4's (now, they were eheims i believe) he has expensive lighting etc, and does water changes every 2 months...proof you don't need a room full of equipment. I think technology is more for convienence then anything. that being said i do have a skimmer on mine 2 in fact, they were bought for me and I believe should i desire for whatever reason to do less .frequent water changes they would enable me to do so without as much concern. I to though enjoy gadgets and like most other feel "I" "NEED" to be doing something in order for the tank to be healthy, rather than let it do its thing (to some degree at least, this is changing the more i learn, water changes are the one thing that will never change, wether they are biweekly, monthly etc... I think they do help for sure)

Here is thread by Eric Borneman about some of the research he's doing on skimmers and what they remove.

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic52254-9-1.aspx

Interesting thread. Thanks for posting it.

having run my tank both skimmerless and with a skimmer I would have to say use a skimmer.

Some one said "soft corals like a skimmerless system" thats a pretty bold statment and full of bunk. I had the best growth and color with a skimmer running from all my corals, even my softies. as a bonus it was cheaper in the long run to have the skimmer as instead of changing 20 to 50% of the water ever week, I did a 15% change once a month. without the skimmer I had algae breakouts (especialy hair) with it ... not even worth mentioning.

I think the trick is "Ballance" some people like working on there tank every week, I personaly like looking at it and maybe cleaning the glass once and a while, with one day a month where I spend a couple hours cleaning and such. a lot of firstimers who rush to get a tank going and can't aford a skimmer fail because they either can't or won't devote the time that a skimmerless tank takes. Then you see cheep stuff for sale.

I recomend if nothing else, buy a skimmer. It is by far the most important piece of "tech" equipment on your tank, well aside from lighting. :mrgreen:

Steve