HELP! No skimmer on MAX 250

Matt27

New Member
My tank has been running for a little under 2 months with no skimmer due to it pooping out and literally everything is perfectly fine. My NPS gorgonian is out and full and all the fish are happy healthy and eating well. I only plan on adding two blood shrimp, a yellow tang, and a sand sifting goby (I'm thinking gold head sleeper goby) and MAYBE another urchin. My idea is since my bio load really isn't and wouldn't be very excessive and I do 15% water changes and vacuum the rocks and substrate once a week and all my water parameters are good, If I remove the broken skimmer and fill that whole chamber with chaeto and put a few other macro algae plants in the DT would I be okay? I think I'd be alright as I've seen a quite a few full reef tanks not run a skimmer and I'm nowhere near that. I have a MAX250 btw. What's your thoughts? Anybody run without a skimmer in here?

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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
I think one advantage of a skimmer which is often overlooked is that it enables oxygen to get into the water. Obviously surface water movement does this as well, but if there is a lack of surface movement then the skimmer will provide this function.
 

Uncle99

Well-Known Member
A skimmer is not an absolute for a reef, it can reduce maintenance though.

Water changes would be necessary.

I would do nothing else
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
While a skimmer is not a requirement, it does fall into the category of highly desirable in SW systems once you get a system much larger than about 30 gal or so. The other thing not pointed out by the others is that a skimmer removed waste products before the biological filtration needs to deal with it.

You also mention wanting a yellow tang. There are big dirty fish, and even if you don't need a skimmer at the moment, you'll likely get one once you add that. The other thing that should be pointed out is that the minimum tank size for a yellow tank is about 100 gal. A RSM 250 is only about 66 gal. I'd really recommend choosing another bright yellow fish that doesn't have the tank size requirements.

Some thoughts on water parameters. First of all, don't chase numbers trying to get then "just right". Every tank is a bit different. Also, test kits sometimes don't give perfect readings. If your parameters are at all close, don't mess with them. It is also a good idea to test any newly mixed water, especially for nitrates and phosphates. Consider how the tank, fish and other livestock are doing over the water parameter readings. If you have problems with algae control or corals not doing well, you usually have a water quality issue, even if all your testing doesn't indicate an obvious issue.
 

Matt27

New Member
While a skimmer is not a requirement, it does fall into the category of highly desirable in SW systems once you get a system much larger than about 30 gal or so. The other thing not pointed out by the others is that a skimmer removed waste products before the biological filtration needs to deal with it.

You also mention wanting a yellow tang. There are big dirty fish, and even if you don't need a skimmer at the moment, you'll likely get one once you add that. The other thing that should be pointed out is that the minimum tank size for a yellow tank is about 100 gal. A RSM 250 is only about 66 gal. I'd really recommend choosing another bright yellow fish that doesn't have the tank size requirements.

Some thoughts on water parameters. First of all, don't chase numbers trying to get then "just right". Every tank is a bit different. Also, test kits sometimes don't give perfect readings. If your parameters are at all close, don't mess with them. It is also a good idea to test any newly mixed water, especially for nitrates and phosphates. Consider how the tank, fish and other livestock are doing over the water parameter readings. If you have problems with algae control or corals not doing well, you usually have a water quality issue, even if all your testing doesn't indicate an obvious issue.

My water quality is great for not having a skimmer at all, I have multiple test kits to cross reference all my parameters and they've all been pretty damn steady and everything seems happy and there is a little bit of algae that I keep around for the coral beauty. As for surface agitation, that's not an issue in my tank theres plenty of that. I know tangs are recommended for larger tanks but I have seen them live long and happy lives in tanks of this size quite a few times. As for their waste, I'm very thorough in the cleaning of the tank and water changes every week and the skimmer chamber is pretty decent size so I'm sure the amount of chaeto I can fit in there would definitely help out.

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