I have a 90 gal with a 30 gal plumbed together i stopped using my skimmer before i set up the algae scrubber was reading a lot on them for a while and watching other tanks that have them my skimmer never worked right for more than 20 mins anyway i have NO SKIMMER on my tank only do a 2-5 gallon water change every week and dose a lil calcium strontium iodide in the 90 i have 22 fish all on the small side the tangs are the biggest in the 30 gal i have 12 fish i feed heavy 3 times a day also all kinds of coral and a lt nem and my tanks are great all in check temp is 80 1.024 2 250 mh lights 0 nitrates 0nitrites so if skimmers are a MUST HAVE why does my set up work without one??? ???oh and another MYTH i feel is ro di i use STRAIGHT TAP WATER but thats for another post
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? for people who say a skimmer is a must
- Thread starter SWITCH420
- Start date
SWITCH420 said:
What is your TDS read for your straight tap water?
I think when people give advice like, a skimmer or ro/di is a must have, they are saying this because they are playing the percentages.
There are few true "must haves" in this hobby, since there are so many variables involved.
However, I also feel that suggesting the need for skimmers or RO/DI units is a myth, would be misleading.
There are few true "must haves" in this hobby, since there are so many variables involved.
However, I also feel that suggesting the need for skimmers or RO/DI units is a myth, would be misleading.
This reminds me of a smoker who says, "my father smoked all of his life and lived to 95". There is a recommended way of doing things because over time we have found they seem to work best for most people. There are exceptions to every rule. But if I were giving advice to some one new, I would recommend RO/DI and Skimming. It certainly won't hurt anything to do it the way most people have found to be successful.
SWITCH420 said:
I see it now. I think the problem is that you used "?" instead of "Question for those..."
I am curious where your Nitrates are going. Do you have a lot of macro algae?
Every town, every area has different water quality. I read somewhere that there are areas where you can use your tap water for aquariums without any filtration. I know this is not the case in my town. I tried to make my own water with a very simple filter:
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/pro...HlWeyxUI5I~qOW676EJMOxc7t6PFJfMlGP/0emXbb37c_
and it did not work. :'( Hair algae ... soft corals wouldn't last for more than 3-4 months. :-\
I am getting my RO water from a store and looking into buying good RO unit.
As far as skimmer goes, mine never works, all I can get is a quarter cup every two weeks...and corals are doing well, so as BTA. I think it's because I use natural sea water. It works very well for me.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/pro...HlWeyxUI5I~qOW676EJMOxc7t6PFJfMlGP/0emXbb37c_
and it did not work. :'( Hair algae ... soft corals wouldn't last for more than 3-4 months. :-\
I am getting my RO water from a store and looking into buying good RO unit.
As far as skimmer goes, mine never works, all I can get is a quarter cup every two weeks...and corals are doing well, so as BTA. I think it's because I use natural sea water. It works very well for me.
Ive also tried using regular tap water in my system and found it not to be the greatest idea.. I found it extremely difficult to try to maintain balanced levels of alk and cal. the hardness of my tap water would throw everything off... I have been using and RO/DI unit for about two years now and eliminated that problem.. I would also love to see your tank.. Also what are you phos and nitrate levels at..
What live stock are you currently keeping in your tanks, other than fish..
What live stock are you currently keeping in your tanks, other than fish..
I am a reefer originally from new york city I was able to reef with the tap from there. No problem.
Then I moved to NJ and tried the same thing. No way! All I do is grow green water with it. I tried every additive and was able to get the green water to go away. Until I add more water either from evaporation or a water change and boom green or brown bloom again.
I have to use R/O water.
As for skimming I am sure you can do without it, I used to use those skilter filters, canister filters and regular old power filter of different brands. So they did nothing, I ran without skimmer for a very long time.
But if something goes wrong a good skimmer can correct and warn you of it, especially if you dont even know its happening. An example would be you look under your tank and suddenly the skimmer is overloaded with junk overnight. The other way you would be seeing things dieing, not looking so right or the water starts to stink. Might be to late by then. God knows how many times that has happend to me on small scale and my skimmer just took care of the problem for me.
Then I moved to NJ and tried the same thing. No way! All I do is grow green water with it. I tried every additive and was able to get the green water to go away. Until I add more water either from evaporation or a water change and boom green or brown bloom again.
I have to use R/O water.
As for skimming I am sure you can do without it, I used to use those skilter filters, canister filters and regular old power filter of different brands. So they did nothing, I ran without skimmer for a very long time.
But if something goes wrong a good skimmer can correct and warn you of it, especially if you dont even know its happening. An example would be you look under your tank and suddenly the skimmer is overloaded with junk overnight. The other way you would be seeing things dieing, not looking so right or the water starts to stink. Might be to late by then. God knows how many times that has happend to me on small scale and my skimmer just took care of the problem for me.
whitebear1020 said:
If you saw no skimmate then you probably need to play with your skimmer to adjust the wet/dryness of it.
I admit that I have still never learned this technique. I run a skimmer on both of my tanks (Tunze Nano and some Proclear BS in DT) and I empty them maybe once every two weeks and i'm lucky to have 1/4" - 1/2" line of muck on the bottom. Admittingly the muck is thick and the neck is caked with sludge after 3 days. The tunze either spills over water or refuses to boil over.
My understanding of a skimmer is like the ocean waves and wonderful yellow bubbles we swam in as kids that eventually gets washed onshore. Then it gets absorbed into the sand and eaten/broken down by some sea creator in the food chain.
Henrye718 said:
Good point, good point. I think the bottom line is .... If you run a tank with no skimmer and coral and inverts, etc in it look ok, they would prob look even better with a skimmer. A skimmer cant do anything bad to your tank. Maybe if you had that giant skimmer from macna hooked up to a nano then yeah you might over skim LOL.