skimmer or no

[jenajet]

I do weekly water changes, never used a skimmer on my nano's.

[audge27]

Wow! so many different opinions! All working well i suppose...

I'm learning that there's no "right" easy answer to the filtering/skimming questions for sw tanks. hard to take for the beginner trying figuring it all out

Would it be overkill then to have a protein skimmer and do weekly or bi-weekly water changes? too much of a good thing?

I have a 28 gal nano tank...still in the works....

[DarthOcellaris]

Originally Posted by audge27

Wow! so many different opinions! All working well i suppose...

I'm learning that there's no "right" easy answer to the filtering/skimming questions for sw tanks. hard to take for the beginner trying figuring it all out

Would it be overkill then to have a protein skimmer and do weekly or bi-weekly water changes? too much of a good thing?

I have a 28 gal nano tank...still in the works....

you still want to do water changes regardless of a skimmer or not. That replenishes trace elements, calcium, alk, etc for your corals and live rock.

You're right about there not have one single answer. It all breaks down to practice and patience to find out what works best for you and your tank. Each tank in the world is different

[tredford8]

I don't run a skimmer on my 20 gal and Im able to grow sps decently. Growth would probably be better with one but its doable without one.I dont know if that helped any. Sorry!

[rookie reefer]

none for my 10gallon

[reginanmc]

Both my 8g and my husband's 10g are skimmerless. We do have a skimmer on our 40g though.

[mitchmac]

i do not have a skimmer on my 10g nano...jus do 25% WC every 5 days including gravel vaccume...everything seems to be doing alright for me ... but skimmers do take a lot of things out of the water that are needed and unneeded....

[Dragonkeeper]

I have no skimmer on my 30gal tank but will on my 55gal when I set it up.
All comes down to the inhabitants fowlr or a full reef set up.
And there is no real right or wrong way to do things.

[pipermacwills]

I have a skimmer on my 29 and get really good coral growth. I also do 10% weekly water changes with aged IO mix. Refill with RO water. I didn't think that the nano skimmers did much until I played with my Prizm a bit. After I figured out how to make it work, I pull 1 - 2 cups worth of stuff out a day. The water is so much clearer and the corals are going crazy. Good luck with the decision.

[OneDummHikk]

I wanna tag along. So, my 12G has no skimmer on it at the moment. It won't have another live creature in it until it does have one though. The one I have for it is an in-sump style that is advertised at a 75G tank, but it doesn't do real well on my 90. So, going to try it on my 12G. With the sump, the whole system should be about 20 gallons total.

[airman_verde04]

10g nano, no skinner. oh, I mean skimmer

[Wiskey]

Woh! Old thread My 10G softie tank doesn't have a skimmer, I do 1G or so water changes every week, and feed it rarley. I would prefer it had a skimmer but due to it's placement that is not possible.

Whiskey

[reefermike1]

lol this is a pretty old thread!! now i have a nano skimmer on my 125 while waiting for one to come in that will be overkil...hopefullyl lol. not running the nano anymore, but dreaming of setting up a 30gallon as a prop tank... if/when i do it will have a skimmer!

[Richard938]

12g nano here,
no skimmer yet but I am thinking about getting a sapphire when they start selling them again.

[Alittlefishy]

I have an Octopus HOB on my AP24, and would not want to dump that crap back into the tank. BTW, I keep polyps, LPS and SPS with 2 urchins, a shrimp, 6-line, and a bicolor blenny. I still change 8 gallons a week.