30 Gallons - Skimmer Needed?

[pimp4cheddar]

I've been reading but I figured I'll see if anyone has any advice...

I have a 30 gallon tank (FOWLR) and I have live sand, live rock and a hang on filter.

I left the hangon filter to just pickup some of the crap that maybe floating around and help with the water flow. I don't have a powerhead.

Instead of getting a skimmer, I figured with the water changes and hang on filter, that should be enough to keep a healthy tank.


Any thoughts? I honestly don't want to have a skimmer hanging off my tank.

Is there anything I can add to help my tank run great without skimming?



Thanks,

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I would add more water flow because there wont be enough for LR filtration at the moment.

Other than that you can run without a skimmer as long as you do regular water changes.

Edit: though running with a skimmer would be better of course but plenty of people (including me) run without one.

 

[Oat]

I would add more water flow because there wont be enough for LR filtration at the moment.

Other than that you can run without a skimmer as long as you do regular water changes.

Edit: though running with a skimmer would be better of course but plenty of people (including me) run without one.

That's a neat looking set up at the bottom of the post. I'm intrigued by you not having a skimmer, how do you manage this etc etc and whats your maintenance regime? Why did you decide not to have a skimmer? I am setting up a 130L tank which doesn't really lend itself to a skimmer so thats why i ask. Do you have any other kind of filtration or is it all live rock and powerheads?

Don't want the above to sound like i'm questioning your set up, it looks dam impressive and as a marine novice i just want to learn.....
Thanks

 

[xxBarneyxx]

No problem at all, thats what this forum is here for

I had an orca nano running for a year (about 14g cube tank) with no skimmer on. It just had plenty of liverock, plenty of flow and weekly water changes (of about 10%). I didnt have a skimmer in this tank initially because of the space and then by the time I added a fuge to the system it had been running ok anyway so I just didnt bother.

The tank in my signature was just running with LR and good flow again for a few months and was doing ok (though I have been having a cyno problem on one patch of sand which is most likely due to a deadspot there). I do a 15-20% water change on this every two weeks and just top up with RO water daily.

I have actually just got a skimmer for this tank (a V2 120 nano skimmer). I have a relatively large bio-load on this tank though (not so bad at the moment but Im thinking ahead to when the fish are full grown) which is why I decided to go for a skimmer one this one. I'm adding a 10g fuge to the system and another 10g frag tank as well so I can hide the skimmer away (the one I have doesnt work well in a display tank due to the microbubbles and taking up so much space). If I wasn't adding an extra tank to put it in I would have gone for a hang on the back style skimmer to keep it out of the tank.

Having used a skimmer for a few days it has been pulling a lot of stuff out of the water. I'm sure I would have been fine running without one but having seen what its pulling out I feel better for having it on there.

In terms of other filtration I currently have nothing else on this tank. I do have an external canister filter which I will be adding next weekend which will be empty except for some chemical filtration (nitrate/phosphate removers).

So yeah, basically I still say you can run without one but if you can get one it will no doubt improve the water quality. I got mine second hand for £30 with P&P and have seen some really good skimmers going really cheap so it doesn't have to cost the earth either (including a V2 400 skimmer for £30 about an hour after I paid for mine!!!)

 

[Oat]

Super!
I do have a new V2 400 skimmer but it just won't fit my tank so i'm gonna keep it by as no doubt my marine hobby will expand at a similar rate as my trop freshwater has!

When you sau 'fuge' do you mean sump? If so can you plumb a sump in on any tank or wo you have to drill the tank or have a weir system? Also what do you keep in the sump except a skimmer, if you keep live rock in their does it need lighting on the sump aswell? I guess the extra water capacity helps anyway.

 

[SkiFletch]

If you have room behind the tank, there are many hang on fuges out there...