Skim a 4 gallon?!

So ive had skimmers on my 55 gallon, 20 gallon and even my 12g nano cube and i felt the quality was the same with out the skimmer to be honest. So a few years ago i met a man that owned a LFS and he claims that the only thing you should have is a skimmer , he said you dont even need a filter if you have a skimmer. For a while i pondered it but never decided to try it. Last week i went to pick up some snails and i got the chance to talk to him. I explained my set up and he was stunned that i wasnt running a skimmer on my 4 gallon. Not a big surprise. i have my old skimmer from my nanocube but is it really worth to skim the tank? Its so small I feel like this man was so persuasive and now im second guessing my set up.

BTW my set up : HOB Aquaclear150 with live sand and stuffing
Zoomeds canister filter w/carbon,ceramics and foam.
I do have the skimmer attachment for the aquaclear but i dont really use it.

 

To be quite honest, with a tank that small you should be fine with no skimmer and frequent water changes.

 

A skimmer rarely ever hinders, a necessity on a pico or a nano no. My last tank had LR as my only form of filtration and I pulled it off.

 

I figured that but maybe its a personal thing. That guy basically said i was wrong and that i need a skimmer. that last time i started a skimmer on my 12g nanocube the coral didnt like it very much if i remember correctly a few frags shriveled up. i think it was a ricordea

 

I'll bet he has the perfect skimmer for you, too. :

With the proper balance between bioload and maintenance, a skimmer is not an absolute necessity on any system.

JM2C

 

lol Remember hes in business to sell you stuff.You don't need a skimmer or a filter to run a sw tank.

 

One of the LFS locally here has a fairly large cube tank with LR and fuge only. It's about 5'x5' Cube tank. Everything looks fine in there and it's been up and running for years that I remember and I asked if he ever had a skimmer. He said no, as long as you have good flow you don't really need one with a fuge and LR.

 

Your right.Hes is a business man. I was waiting for the," and here we have the skimmer 37k that will skim the hell out of the atlantic ocean. It can be yours for a small fee of $800,000."LOL
But i havent had a problem with my current set up so il just keep it as is.

 

I just met an LFS owner who said my tank was going to fail because I didn't use the quality live rock he sales. I'm not sure if they are flat out lying or they really believe what they are saying.

 

common LFS owners.