Skimmerless

[Laurie]

Mike - Visit the "Skimmerless" board at Aqualink. Lots of good advice there. I am in the process of cycling a 200 gal. which will be skimmerless. We're moving our 75 gal. currently skimmed tank into it. Most of these people have been very successful with skimmerless tanks and are happy to share their knowledge and experience with the novice.

Laurie

 

[Ssaah]

Diane,

I had your setup when I was going Fish Only. It's a terrible setup because in about 1 year's time your nitrates will be through the roof.

Why??? 2 reasons: #1 the under gravel filter (like any mechanical filtration) is too efficient and #2 the biowheels are basically biological filters on steroids - they too are too efficient.

You are much better off with about 75 - 100 pounds of live rock and a deep sand bed - no ug filter and no biowheels. leave the Powerheads in for circulation and your tank will have literally no external filters on your tank. The liverock and dsb will do it for ya!

Now you can do some reading on this board and others about undergravel filters and mechanical filtration in general. You'll be surprised at the wealth of information available from people who used to have a setup like yours.

Email me if you have questions.

Steve

 

[Mike02]

i wanted to use live sand, live rock, 64 watts PC lights and changing water once a week or two. no fish, just corals and maybe 2 snails. is this reasonable?

 

[Mike02]

forgot to add, that i am going to use a powerhead for current.

 

[garbled]

Speaking as someone who has set up multiple skimmerless tanks, with sizes from 1 gallon up to 125 gallons, I can offer a bit of advice:

1) Deep sand bed. Not an option. Fine grained sand. Add lots of live sand too, you can afford to put in more (percentage wise) because it's a smaller tank.

2) All live rock. No dead stuff. It's hard to populate dead rock in a nano.

3) Surface agitation. I can't possibly say this loud enough. If a film develops on the surface, you are done for. What I use on tiny tanks rather than a PH, is a hang on the back filter for freshwater tanks, with the filter media ripped out. Modify the intake with a U tube to skim from the surface, and you will have plenty of laminar flow, and good gas exchange.

4) On mini-tanks, be dreadfully careful dosing anything. An extra drop is a serious margin of error on a tank that small.

5) Add sand critters, and let the population build up before adding any predators. (corals count as predators)

6) Don't sweat the water changes. Watch the animals, and the tests. Thats what matters. if the animals look unhappy one day, test, and change water if necc. A large water change can shock your animals.

 

[DEADFISH1]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by garbled:
<STRONG>Speaking as someone who has set up multiple skimmerless tanks, with sizes from 1 gallon up to 125 gallons, I can offer a bit of advice:

1) Deep sand bed. Not an option. Fine grained sand. Add lots of live sand too, you can afford to put in more (percentage wise) because it's a smaller tank.

2) All live rock. No dead stuff. It's hard to populate dead rock in a nano.

3) Surface agitation. I can't possibly say this loud enough. If a film develops on the surface, you are done for. What I use on tiny tanks rather than a PH, is a hang on the back filter for freshwater tanks, with the filter media ripped out. Modify the intake with a U tube to skim from the surface, and you will have plenty of laminar flow, and good gas exchange.

4) On mini-tanks, be dreadfully careful dosing anything. An extra drop is a serious margin of error on a tank that small.

5) Add sand critters, and let the population build up before adding any predators. (corals count as predators)

6) Don't sweat the water changes. Watch the animals, and the tests. Thats what matters. if the animals look unhappy one day, test, and change water if necc. A large water change can shock your animals.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Garbled, could you tell me what a U tube is, "doe", I'm thinking that it's just the U shaped water intake piece that goes into your hang on the back filter unit, if not could you explain in more detail?
right know I’m in the process of setting up my first mini reef, it's cycling right know, I've been using my 58 gal. reef for the live sand and such, your idea may work perfect for me.

 

[gobi 1]

ditto the skimerless board at aqualink.


gobi

 

[Mike02]

Im going to start up a 5 gallon skimmerless tank. I know people have skimmerless tanks, but is there anything special i need to know besides replacing 1 gallon of water per week? thanks

 

[Diane]

Hi! I have a 55 gallon skimmerless tank. All we have/do is aprox 3 inches of crushed coral onto of a ug filter...powered by 2 large powerheads. And a 330 penguin bio-wheel. We do a good 1/3 to 1/4 water change close to every two weeks. We also keep an eye on the sg, ph, nitrates, nitrites and all of that happy stuff. The one main thing that I have heard about the smaller tanks is to watch all you levels very closely. With that little water you don't have much room for error.
Diane
"You start with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick
is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck."