My skimmerless goal

I ordered my first of 2 planned Santa-Monica 100 brand Acrylic algae scrubbers. www.santa-monica.cc

I am currently running a pretty traditional berlin style system. I only run Mechanical filtration (sponges, socks, floss, etc) after I purposely stir detritus up or get a sand storm.

The next thing I'd like to pull is GFO/GAC I don't like the idea of running chemicals if I can avoid it. I will keep the abililty to turn them on, but don't want to run them 24/7

After that my goal is to cut off my skimmer and run a scrubber off each overflow, a refugium with a DSB and macros (more to feed my tangs than to export nutrients) and my UV as my only filtration. After studying hard exactly how Foam Fractionator's work I am convinced that all they do is remove food from the water column (granted this food is exactly what breads down into nitrate and phosphate)

If we can remove this after it's been used it would seem you could create an environment that would happily support both LPS and SPS in proper conditions.

 

Well a skimmer pulls out more then just food/waste but that is it's main purpose.

There is no reason you can't do a skimmerless system with lps and sps, provided you stock your tank accordingly.

 

This will likely be a controversial thread, LOL! I built an ATS on my 125 reef over a year ago and ultimately removed the skimmer. I also don't run skimmers on my grow-out/holding tanks any more. I probably do more WC's than many folks though. It costs more $$$ in salt, but the results for me are worth it. Skimmers certainly do what they are supposed to but I tend to agree...they are not discriminate in what they remove and many corals benefit from the added "food" on skimmerless systems. If systems are not heavily overstocked I think it's very possible to run systems without a skimmer.

 

I can't find anything that actually shows that skimmers pull any waste out. Just the foods that will become waste if not consumed.. ie; proteins, amino acids, and organics, all food for various lifestages of the inhabitants of our tanks.

Is there something I'm missing on the side of the skimmer? I'm still learning the exact process that foam fractionators use.


I feel the fact that we aggresively remove this food so fast is why LPS don't do as well in sps tanks. LPS don't like "dirty" water (water filled with nitrates) but rather water with large amounts of food available. The problem with leaving the food in there is it turns to nitrate quickly. Skimmers don't remove nitrates or phosphates.

 

I love the idea. I have never ran a skimmer on my fowlrs, and just bought a cheapy to experiment with hacking it up and modding it. But after reading up on the ATS route I'm ready to toss the skimmer before I ever put it online. I hate skimmers. I hate the way too many choices, the constant debates about which one is better, and the stupid contests to see who can get the darkest skimmate. Why not let algae work for you and do it naturally.

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The algae scrubber is extremely sound science. I would look for it to replace my skimmer much faster than water changes as many people claim though. How have your corals responded to a higher food environment?

No matter what I do, I will keep the skimmer in place and be able to cut it back on easily. And I'm going to work in steps and monitor it with each step to see how it goes.

 

Fish and other animals do pass those things, so I count them as waste.

It also removes some trace elements, metals, as well as activated carbon fines I believe.

 

I love this idea! I love everything about ATS, and I really wish I had $1300 to get 2 of them.

 

I'm guess you couldn't run a skimmer like you can GAC for one day a week or something. Unless you cleaned it after that day maybe? Maybe feed the corals sunday and then run the unit all day monday to polish up the excess?

 

What's the end goal of filtration? The removal of Nitrate and Phosphate? (I don't have any softies in this tank)

Or is there some other reason for us to use a skimmer, GFO, and carbon dosing/pellets?