Tank without Skimmer

[rtsen]

I'm thinking about running my tank without a skimmer. How will this affect my water conditions? Anyone else on the board do the same?

75 gal
100 lbs LR
2 clowns
2 mandarins
cleaner shrimp

[marcingo]

I am currently running a 55 gal without a skimmer and all my levels seem ok. What I do is top off the water when it evaporates. The only problem I am currently having by running skimmerless is lots of hair algae on the glass but it seems the turbo snails are getting rid of it. I also ran a 10 gal skimmerless and did the same. I had the hair algae issue too but after a few weeks it dissapeared on its own and the tank ran no problem after that. I find that the corals I keep seem to grow better in the conditions mentioned above since they are mostly filter feeders (gsp, xenia, zoos, palys) not sure how other stuff would do in my water. Levels running this way are all zero except for minimal nitrates.

[Pan]

I've noticed some people on reefcentral have 120+ up to a 220 or so without a skimmer and they claim their tanks have flourished for years, so yiu should be alright as long as you are near religious in the maintenace...

[Kabong]

I've even run nano tanks with out a skimmer.
As long as you keep up on the water changes you will be fine.

I think your bigger issue would be keeping a large enough pod population in a 75Gal to keep to mandarins fed.
Unless of course there accepting processed.

[Farrmanchu]

Soft Corals like a Skimmerless system.

[Squiddy]

Have a look at Andreas' 72G skimmerless reef on http://www.reefvideos.com/. He has no skimmer and his tank is very healthy.

[rtsen]

sounds good. I'll start running my tank skimmerless and see what happens. I do weekly water changes so that shouldnt be a problem.

Originally Posted by Kabong

I think your bigger issue would be keeping a large enough pod population in a 75Gal to keep to mandarins fed.
Unless of course there accepting processed.

not to worry, they eat frozen mysis shrimp