How can you run a reef tank without using carbon ?

[ScubaSteve]

I rarely run carbon but when I do, I find it rarely cuts down on the smell. The skimmer on the other hand... If Hell had a smell, it would smell like my skimmer. VSV + MB7 = super-funk.

[Casey8]

Anthony, why didn't you let Skimmer King suffer a little bit more before he can get the answer ?
I was sniffing like a dog around my tank for the whole morning. I checked my sump, my overflow box and emptied my skimmer cup (after having fed the fish). Everything around the tank were OK and cleaned. The skimmer can not skim anything in 2 hours after I fed the fish as usual and the smell in my bedroom was fine at that time. But then, slowly and slowly after another 2 hours, I started to smell the "low tide, fishy smell" came out from my bedroom. I looked at the skimmer cup, it was very little skimmate in there, but when I opened the lid up. Holy smoke ! I knew right away what was in there, the nasty juice smell from the rotten mysis shrimp. Because I always feed the fish with mysis shrimp and soak them with Selcon, I think the skimmer sucked out that juice from the water. After I cleaned the cup right away, the smell is gone till now.