Is A Skimmer Needed?

[Splatter]

Hey all!

Well I've been slowly planning my sump/refugium over the last two weeks and after lots of planning I've started to wonder if I'm going to need a protien skimmer or not.

I realise that they help greatly by taking all of the organic compounds and stuff out of the water, but in my reugium I'm almost definately going to get some algae (can't remember the name sorry ) and I might try to set up a small refugium for sponges, would this coupled with a deep sand bed do the job of the skimmer?

I also expect you'll all want tank specs so:

55 gal tank,
probably going for a 40/50 gal sump/refugium (It'll be my first marine tank, so I want as many gallons and as much room for error as possible! )
It'll almost definately be a reef,
Unsure of the fish as of yet,
and I'll probably be getting brain coral, polyps and the like when I start.

Thanks in advance!
Splatter

 

[dilbert]

I would say the less fish you have the lesser the need of a skimmer.

Generally, many tanks of the size of yours have a skimmer but not all.

A skimmer removes dead organic matter that's floating in the water.

Best thing would be to be flexible and wait and see if you would need one.

If you see bubbles appearing on the surface where is some agitation from powerheads that is the stuff a skimmer would get rid of. I get always a few of them accumulating on the glass but I don't have a skimmer but I got a much smaller tank, too.

Water changes can compensate the use of a skimmer. As many people regard water changes in a larger tank as too cumbersome or too costly they often go for a skimmer just because of this reason.

 

[My94TA]

Are you talking about a protein skimmer, right?

 

[Colin_T]

A protein skimmer's main job is to remove protein waste from the water. They also remove many of the chemicals that corals release when fighting. The downside to protein skimmers is they can remove certain trace elements and plankton from the water and can cause deficiencies that may affect the corals.
If you want a protein skimmer then have it at the beginning of the sump so the tank water gets skimmed before it goes into the planted section of the refugium.
Caulerpa and other marine macro algae will remove a lot of the ammonia and other wastes produced by fish and corals. Sponges don't do much and don't often survive in closed systems. If you can get sponges that have been growing in other people's tanks then they should be ok. But straight out of the ocean and they are hard to keep alive for any length of time.

 

[SkiFletch]

What kind of corals will you keep in this reef? Hard, soft, mix?

 

[Splatter]

Thanks for all the help guys! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply - I've been having computer problems.

My94TA, I was talking about a protien skimmer, yes Sorry for any confusion.

SkiFletch, well I hadn't really considered corals yet, however I do expect I'll try to get a mix of both hard and soft corals.

Once again, thanks for all the help!