Gone skimmerless !

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by DMChris

@jestronix - Very awesome tank!

I too have gone skimmerless. First off, I am new to this forum; although I am always reading and researching through this wonderful site. I have a 100gal display with a 150gal display refugium and a 50 gal sump. I have kept my skimmer in my sump, but I removed the cup. It is like a volcano that flows out of the skimmer neck. I did this to increase air into the tank. I have an air pump that is providing oxygen, but I believe with my water volume that I needed more air. I am running a small amount of Dr Tims pearls in my GFO reactor. My display refugium has chaeto, grape caulerpa, and some other macro algaes that I was able to get from a friend. I have a few fish in my tanks too. I am also scraping my glass daily due to the build up, but my my level are quite low to non registering with the Hanna test kits. I do believe a skimmer does a system great, but it does not distinguish the good particle and bad particles.

Your setup sounds similar, I just run two woodstones for air, certainly the skimmer would produce more oxygen to ur system. So even the Hannah kits are showing nothing, seems we have a good setup. I have thought about either getting more fish or a small amount of NPK.

[jestronix]

Another update , tank is humming along, did a prune of the sump today pulled a small truck load of caulerpa out

Ghetto duster ATS is happy.





And a quick shot of the lights, popped another eBay shitter down one end, trying to get as many different angles on the led as possible in an attempt to reduce shadowing. My watercooled LEDs are still kicking along nicely





As u can see this tank is deep, 32" deep, so my first bit of coral is about 18" from the lights. I've turned down the lights as I noticed a tiny hint of burning on one of my corals. I'd say I'm around 200w of led. I also run a 150w halide in the day for 6 hours, I don't thinks it's really doing much apart from maybe adding some missing spectrum.

Would I buy a skimmer again ? Not at this stage, I think I'm able to feed the corals better with this system, for me anyway it's working. I seriously think skimming pulls out too many goodies, about the only reason I'd add a skimmer again would be as a safety measure for a spike caused by something dying. so many ways to skin a cat I guess.

The only thing I'm temped to do now is add a big 400w halide 10k ushio for an insane growth spurt being winter here it would serv as a heater for the lounge room

[Webmanny]

Fantastic pictures once again. Thank you for keeping us updated. Keep up the good work. I'm not sure about the MH light, I have never used them myself. However, maybe adding some T5 bulbs may also help with shadow.

[jestronix]

Ah it's time for another update

From this 4 weeks ago



To this



Growth and colour still happy.

[Webmanny]

wow. That Goni in the corner looks to be loving this tank. great work!

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by Webmanny

wow. That Goni in the corner looks to be loving this tank. great work!

Thanks manny, red or green, red grows constantly , green is on a slow recession over years, I won't ever buy another green one, unless I can muster the discipline to feed it each day or two, this in turn puts too much waste food into the system.

[ReefWreak]

How are you feeding them? I bought a small frag of a red one, and it's doing no bueno.

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

How are you feeding them? I bought a small frag of a red one, and it's doing no bueno.

Gonipower using Julian's thing. They love gonipower

[Webmanny]

+1 on gonipower. I have green, pink and red and they are doing great. The red one took a dip a while back, but it is making a comeback.

[ReefWreak]

If they're not showing tentacles, is it already too late? I've always avoided doing any of those powdered foods. Right now I'm trying to restore coloration and my alveopora by reducing skimming.

I couldn't get back on the refugium train after my vortech broke and my corals went brown. I'm working on drastic nutrient reduction right now through skimming and (light) vodka dosing.

[Webmanny]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

If they're not showing tentacles, is it already too late? I've always avoided doing any of those powdered foods. Right now I'm trying to restore coloration and my alveopora by reducing skimming.

I couldn't get back on the refugium train after my vortech broke and my corals went brown. I'm working on drastic nutrient reduction right now through skimming and (light) vodka dosing.

Do you still see some color on the base? If so, there is still hope. My red goni retracted its tentacles into the base, but you could still see its color fine. This one is the one making a comeback.

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by Webmanny

Do you still see some color on the base? If so, there is still hope. My red goni retracted its tentacles into the base, but you could still see its color fine. This one is the one making a comeback.

Yea, the color has been great, and it still even fluoresces.I don't have a technical reason for this, but I think that you lose fluorescence when the coral is on it's last leg, and then you have only a little time to save it before death. Similar to color in acropora, you'll lose color and they'll turn to brown for a while before they die. Sorta-kinda, depends.

Do you feed directly to it even if it's closed then? It doesn't have any of it's petals out. There should be some stuff floating around during the day for it to eat as I don't skim during the day. For the recover period now I've placed it towards the bottom of the tank (very bright LEDs) and in mostly lower flow (was right below the vortech before, seemed happy for 2 weeks).

[Webmanny]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

Yea, the color has been great, and it still even fluoresces.I don't have a technical reason for this, but I think that you lose fluorescence when the coral is on it's last leg, and then you have only a little time to save it before death. Similar to color in acropora, you'll lose color and they'll turn to brown for a while before they die. Sorta-kinda, depends.

Do you feed directly to it even if it's closed then? It doesn't have any of it's petals out. There should be some stuff floating around during the day for it to eat as I don't skim during the day. For the recover period now I've placed it towards the bottom of the tank (very bright LEDs) and in mostly lower flow (was right below the vortech before, seemed happy for 2 weeks).

That is a good sign. I did feed mine even when the polyps were closed and every few days blasted it with a turkey baster to clean off any detritus from infecting it.

I'm glad to see that you moved it and hopefully it will continue to improve. Please note that many people have had issues with this type of coral and they are classified by many as hard to keep. I guess what I'm trying to say is... You are not alone.

[ReefWreak]

Its still hanging in there. I'll also feed more frozen food instead of pellets so that it has more opportunity to catch particulate food (it will enjoy it as well the rest of my corals)

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

Its still hanging in there. I'll also feed more frozen food instead of pellets so that it has more opportunity to catch particulate food (it will enjoy it as well the rest of my corals)

Its not getting too much flow in the corner ? Mine hate too much flow and too much light. Clowns can stop them from expanding too.

Sometimes for no reason at all every few months, they will open about half way, then all good the next day, all i can think is something in the water maybe ?

[ReefWreak]

Hah, it was sitting about 3" from the intake of my vortech MP10 before. This is a nice quiet spot by comparison. I think it'll also get lower light down there too. I just want to turn it around so that it's facing inwards instead of into the glass.

I looked this morning with the lights out, and there were more petals showing, and it was a bit puffy on the polyp openings, so maybe it's working up the courage to come out.

The clowns shouldn't bother it too much. They usually just follow around whatever is in front of the tank, whether it be a person, a hand, or a camera, so that's why they're down there. If they were going to nuzzle in something, it's usually my newish torch coral that they prefer. Definitely good ideas though, thanks!

[Webmanny]

Oh yeah. This looks like mine did before it came back.

[Settings]

Excellent documentary of how skimmerless is working for you. I'm following along.

[spamreefnew]

I love the dustpan but I love the pie pan even more! Lol. Great work! I was skimmerless for years but then put it back online about six months ago,this inspired me,and I just unplugged the noisy thing a half hour ago! I already have an ATS up and running. How do you encourage the cyano to grow? I would love to get some snot to grow in the skimmers old spot.

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by spamreefnew

I love the dustpan but I love the pie pan even more! Lol. Great work! I was skimmerless for years but then put it back online about six months ago,this inspired me,and I just unplugged the noisy thing a half hour ago! I already have an ATS up and running. How do you encourage the cyano to grow? I would love to get some snot to grow in the skimmers old spot.

Thanks yeh I retired the old pie tin, it kept falling and leaning on the pump making a racket. Popped a work light in with a reflector.

The cyano is tricky to keep constant, it seems to power up then go slow then power up, could be just me. It's almost like they clean up too quick then have nothing more to eat, I harvest it when there's **** loads or it looks like it's running out of food. I find gutter guard is the best, lots of light and I have a small nano pump keeping flow going, I've gotta add a weight to the gguard as it flips over once the cyano grows and then airs itself out and dies. The caulerpa growth is nuts. I find the tank is healthier when the sump is almost full of growth, I really should harvest regular rather than once a month.

I have slackened off on the carbon, may up this a little again as there's lot of coral fights happening.

I ha d noticed a little cyano in the main tank after I popped a 6500k cfl over my frag rack in the tank, so might pull that, just want to see growth rate Chang under 6500

[jestronix]

My plans are to increase the size of the ATS to maybe a 24x24 area split on both sides of the tank, and adding heaps of gutter guard and maybe some side lights for the caulerpa. I think slow turnover in the main tank helps everyone get food, then over 24 hours 24x turnover, this cleans up the water and feeds the fuge. Heating and cooling is done for both DT and FT , so no worries about failed returns nor x turnover.

I want to get it up to a level where I can unload heaps of food and then have lots of fat fish pooing away feeding the corals.

[Remmers]

Originally Posted by jestronix

My plans are to increase the size of the ATS to maybe a 24x24 area split on both sides of the tank, and adding heaps of gutter guard and maybe some side lights for the caulerpa. I think slow turnover in the main tank helps everyone get food, then over 24 hours 24x turnover, this cleans up the water and feeds the fuge. Heating and cooling is done for both DT and FT , so no worries about failed returns nor x turnover.

I want to get it up to a level where I can unload heaps of food and then have lots of fat fish pooing away feeding the corals.

So when you say turn over, are you referring to the return pump turning over the water in your tank and not the flow from the powerheads?

I'm curious as I'm always looking to change things for the better and setting up a 50 gallon fuge over a 50 gallon sump on a 125 dt tank

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by Remmers

So when you say turn over, are you referring to the return pump turning over the water in your tank and not the flow from the powerheads?

I'm curious as I'm always looking to change things for the better and setting up a 50 gallon fuge over a 50 gallon sump on a 125 dt tank

Yep turnover thru return pump. Two mp40 in the display and two sicce mid size during the day. More flow the better in the DT. Flow through the sumo is nice and slow, a bonus is super quiet tank and no need for tricky siphoned overflows.

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by cvxgh

Sounds great. I think this is the second thread I've read on this. The only thing the other person did on top of what you have done so far was add an Algae Scrubber. He seemed very happy and showed progress and healthy tank over the course of a year.

You'll see me little dustpan is my little ATS I'll be going a bigger one soon.

[nerose]

Love this idea. Off I go to do more research... The pictures of your tank are fantastic. Thank you for showing us how you are doing it.