How many people with SPS don't have a skimmer???

[Hypertek99]

Anyone have SPS corals with no skimmer??? I'm trying to get into sps but don't have a skimmer yet. I do water changes every sunday. Oh and why do people run carbon 24/7 when they have sps with lps corals??

[jg_reefnut]

i have a 29 bc w/ a coralife 150 mh and no skimmer i do a 5 gal water change once a week. and i run carbon and cemi pure. if you have lps you should run carbon because lps release chemicals that could stunt the growth of sps.

[Hypertek99]

May i ask what is Chem Pure??? I have a 29Gal with a CPR HOB Refugium, 2 power heads, and a regular filter running carbon in it. So i don't really have anyplace to put the skimmer. How often do i change out the carbon???

[LockeOak]

No skimmer here, 10G, 130W PC 50/50 10k/20k. I have a AC110 HOB fuge filled with chaeto, I do a 20% water change weekly. I have M. digitata, M. capricornis (orange and yellow), Anacropora and Acropora yongei (green slimer), plus frogspawn and softies (no leathers). No losses and at least some growth with all of them. Colors on the green slimer aren't the best but it hasn't browned out either, the others look fine. It can be done, but you really should do weekly water changes, plus a fuge helps a lot. My DIY skimmer will be up and running this weekend if all goes well.

[redbug1]

SPS cannot be done without a skimmer it is going to be a constant battle and you will never see the true potential of your sps

[gcarroll]

Originally posted by redbug1
SPS cannot be done without a skimmer it is going to be a constant battle and you will never see the true potential of your sps

Not true! It can be done. A skimmer is not a necessity but a luxury. I will be doing this on my new frag tank.

[RichConley]

Originally posted by jg_reefnut
i have a 29 bc w/ a coralife 150 mh and no skimmer i do a 5 gal water change once a week. and i run carbon and cemi pure. if you have lps you should run carbon because lps release chemicals that could stunt the growth of sps.

Softies release aleopathic chemicals, not LPS. LPS are biologically no different than SPS. SPS/LPS are strictly hobbiest divisions. Theyre all scleretarians.

[jwre]

Originally posted by redbug1
SPS cannot be done without a skimmer it is going to be a constant battle and you will never see the true potential of your sps

Look at this tank

http://haaga.aqua-web.org/

[Shawnts106]

Interesting, but I would like to know his feeding schedule, what kind of water he uses, what kind of salt he uses, how much he does water changes and to what extent, what his bioload is , what his biological filtraion consists of, what his photoperiod is, how often he plan on changing bulbs, why he uses Tunze products but doesnt want a skimmer, if his corals are all aquacultured or not because aquacultured sps are far hardier than wild, and any other information deamed useable to research his success.



This topic has been debated enough, SKimmers are a luxury Item, yes, and help, yes... and its better to invest in one to save you trouble down the road....

[jg_reefnut]

yes sps can be done without a skimmer as long as you do regular water changes. my tank has been up and running for almost a year without a skimmer and i get great growth and color!!! and i ment softies release chemicals not lps sorry little tired this morning brain wasnt awake yet. chemi pure is a media that removes DOM kinda like carbon but it last longer.

[Shawnts106]

Chemi Pure sounds interesting to say the least...

What about Purigen by Seachem?

[sps_addict]

Yup, SPS can be done without a skimmer.

There are several popular named people that do not use a skimmer. Two methods I have seen are reverse daylight refugia with tons of macro algae + mangroves and the other is a algae turf scrubber filtration.

[Mark]

One thing to keep in mind is that Marco removed a skimmer from an established tank. He also does weekly 30gallon water changes, and feeds only every other day. All those questions are answered on his site if you scroll down the first page.

I've seen lots of people with established tanks go skimmerless. I'm sort of there myself, not intentionally(skimmer needs to be fixed). But I wouldn't start a tank without a skimmer.

[JackKerouac]

If I don't wrong also Steve Tyree keep corals with a cryptic filtration system without the skimmer,I think It could be done,but if you do something wrong in your tank you pay it hard

[GreyHawk1968]

Skimmerless sure. It's possible, but what happens when something accidently gets into the water and you are not home.
It's like insurance and with as much money and especially time we put into these tanks why not have a skimmer.
You ever notice some days your skimmer will pull just a very little then others it pulls a full cup in a 8 hour period.
I work therefore I am not home a lot of the time on the weekend . I have done whatever I can to help the tank make it through the weekend , timers on most everything . auto top off , oversized skimmer, auto drip system. I also run carbon through a phos ban reactor and have a second reactor with phos ban media in it.
My suggestion, Stick with the hardier SPS, like Caps and Digi's. Once you get a skimmer then move into the harder to keep SPS.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by RichConley
Softies release aleopathic chemicals, not LPS. LPS are biologically no different than SPS. SPS/LPS are strictly hobbiest divisions. Theyre all scleretarians.

Many corals (including scleractinian "stony" corals) produce allelopathic metabolites. Goniopora (an "LPS" coral) produce some extremely toxic metabolites.

[marinelife]

My tank is skimmerless, Corals are growing and have great color, I just moved everything from my 180 to a 375. The 180 was skimmerless for 6 years with no problems. I do a water change on the first and 15th of the month with Reef Crystels. I also use a filter sock, but have been thinking of removing it. I do run a small Refugium with Macro algae and Xenia corals in it

[MiddletonMark]

Quite a few people run skimmerless [search back a few years] ... but not that many people would volunteer to have their tank aggressively critiqued [I've got a skimmer but prefer to avoid that] ... so often not a lot of talk.

But I've run my current tank skimmerless for a few months and a few years back grew SPS [mainly montis, poci] under PC's in a unskimmed tank.

[Unarce]

Here's my previous SPS tank (40g) that I ran skimmerless for a couple of years. Export was with monthly 10% WC and chaeto on a reverse photoperiod. All my prior systems over the years were skimmerless, too, but switched over in '06 so that I could keep more fish

[DaddyJax]

Another thing to keep in mind is ORP.

[the_anti_honda]

Double post

[the_anti_honda]

I would say it has a lot to do with import/export. If you are not putting in a whole lot to the system you don't have to take out as much. But the balance becomes hard to find that way. With an extremely low bio load and religious water changes you could very well achieve the same results as people with multi thousand dollar skimmers are getting.

Check out this aquarium and you will see what I'm talking about.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/2/aquarium

also research Leng Sy and see what his methods are. I don't think anyone will argue with you about his success.

John

[Amphiprion]

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
Many corals (including scleractinian "stony" corals) produce allelopathic metabolites. Goniopora (an "LPS" coral) produce some extremely toxic metabolites.

Aargh! You caught that before I did .

[Hypertek99]

Well I added my first sps 3 days ago. A 1 inch Green Slimer. Looks awesome. Poylps are out looks happy. I'll keep everyone updated and see if i have success with sps with no skimmer.

[Amphiprion]

I meant to post this on my previous one, but when my skimmer quit working quite so well (because I neglected to clean it for a long time), I simply unplugged it. In all, it went skimmerless for about 4 months. I must admit that the coloration on corals has changed a lot (not necessarily bad, either). I did get a lot of extra algae growth, but nothing that would harm the corals.