Protein Skimmer - Is One Needed Or Not?

[marineruss]

I have a tank set up which has been running for 3 months now. I didnt get a protein skimmer initially, as the external ones were to bulky and would mean having the tank a long distance from the wall - Not what I wanted.

I instead waited and got the new Aqua Medic i400 Internal skimmer which I had to get from Germany as I couldnt get hold of it over here!

I have installed it today and its just way to big inside the tank, really utilises a lot of space.................Now I am pondering on not having one as there is a lot of people who i have spoken to and read about who have said it is not definately needed

Thoughts please - i know there isnt a definitive answer, but would my fish survive? What would the signs be of too much protein? Is there a test that can be done for protein levels??

My tank readings are all constant and really good. I change 30Litres at least every two weeks

MY TANK
180 Litres Tank

2x Sand Shifting Stars
1x Fire Shirmp
1x Boxing Shrimp
1x Tang
1x Baby Emperor
1x Blue Damsel
1x Angelfish
Live Rock

TetraTec EX700 Filter

Your thoughts would be much appreciated!!!

 

[Adrinal]

Water Change is king. Skimmers help slow down how often you need to water change... but you still have to water change. Water changing a little more often than some one without a skimmer is going to help.



Did I mention water changes?

 

[chrissaysyes]

Water Change is king. Skimmers help slow down how often you need to water change... but you still have to water change. Water changing a little more often than some one without a skimmer is going to help.



Did I mention water changes?

One thing he forgot to mention though, is that it's also pretty important to do Water Changes as well.

 

[Adrinal]

Thanks for catching that Chris! Its almost like I forgot that the only thing we really need are well done water changes and everything else is extra.

 

[jeasko]

Have to say not running a skimmer (unless you have a sump/refugeeum) would be a risk to far for me, downside to not having one is likely a build up of protien and unwanted waste in the water which will no doubt lead to a layer of protien on the surface (surface agitation is just as important) this layer will stop gas exchange if allowed to build up and reduce lighting levels, this may not be the case if there is plenty of surface agitation but then all your doing is putting the protien into the water which will aid the growth of algae and ultimately lead to a deteriation in your water quality, while weekly water changes will help keep this at bay it will make life a lot harder, one thing i would suggest so that you can see what the skimmer does is run it for a period and see the crap that it pulls out of the water (the skimmer cup will no doubt hold brown liquid when the skimmer works properly) and i personally would not want to have that in my tank.

also marineruss you dont say what sort of aquarium your running ie FOWLR, FO or a reef tank, the reason I ask is that while LR does help to filter the water it will not be anywhere near as effective as a skimmer, and if your water quality drops to low the LR will become dead rock and corals will undoubtably suffer..

Have you loked into a sump system where the skimmer is housed in a different tank?

If your intent on not running a skimmer I would just keep a close eye on the tank and live stock and if you notice a change reconsider putting skimmer back in the tank.

 

[chrissaysyes]

I personally feel like surface agitation and good water changes are about equal to having a decent (not great) skimmer. Ideally, like jeasko mentioned, you'd want to have the skimmer in another tank. A sump is a nice thing to have anyways. You should definitely look into the installation of such hardware but your tank isnt going to crash if you decide to go skimmerless.

 

[SkiFletch]

Fish Only tanks do not require skimmers. IMO the only thing a skimmer does on a FO tank is keep nutrients lower and lowers the possibility and severity of algae outbreaks. If you're keeping a tank full of hard corals, I'd say it's almost required as you need to keep phosphates at an absolute minimum... JMO

 

[Lynden]

I would actually say that fish only tanks need skimmers just as much as SPS reefs (because of the increased bioload, usually, in a FO tank), but that tanks with softies and LPS don't need them as much. It all comes down to bioload and how much the resident animals can take, and secondly how much algae and cloudy water the onlooker can take. Lastly, skimmers make it difficult to take care of filter-feeders and can strip helpful minerals from the water column.

 

[marineruss]

Thanks for all those responses.

I have a Fish only tank with just some live rock.

My thoughts are that algae and water quality seems to be good at the moment, although i appreciate that things can build up

When you guys say 'agitation' Do you mean surface breaking water - so for example, the water that comes from the filter, raise the pipe slightly so you get the bubbles and also it breaks the surface??

 

[Lynden]

I may have misstated my earlier post, as long as you don't overstock you shouldn't need a skimmer. Try carbon and GFO if you don't want a skimmer.

By "agitation" we mean a moving surface. Just make sure that the surface is moving and not stagnant, or covered with oil.

 

[marineruss]

Cheers Lynden,

Sorry to be a pain but what do you mean by try carbon or GFO???

Thanks

 

[Lynden]

To place them in the filter. GFO stands for granular ferric oxide and is the principle component in most phosphate reducers.

 

[marineruss]

Ok. I have activated carbon in the filter.

I will see if my LFS has some granular ferric oxide.

Hopefully that will keep the tank ticking over and see what happens.

God forbid, but if levels got to high, would all the fish suddenly be dead or what would happen first if you know?? Do you use a skimmer yourself?

I have the filter in place with activated carbon, a very very powerful blower which really circulates water and makes current for the fish and also have the external filter pipe blowing water above the surface to break the surface and ripples???

Hopefully this will be enough!!!!

 

[SkiFletch]

GFO also goes by the brand names "Phosban" and "Rowaphos". All GFO is brown, rust colored. Cheaper white ceramic media are not ideal as they can leech phosphates back into the water column while GFO cannot.

For surface agitation, we meen the water surface should be rippling from powerhead or powerfilter outlets...

 

[Musho3210]

if your in the us, you can buy a nice bulk order of GFO, saving you i think like a hundred dollars or something, www.twopartsolution.com