Do I need a protien skimmer

[cheryl]

How do you know if/when you need a protien skimmer? (and what kind would you get?
We have a 40 gallon, with 35lbs LR, 2 o. clowns, pygmy angel, 6 line wrasse, long nose hawkfish, some mushroom polyps, feather duster, linkia starfish, cleaner shrimp (yes.. the hawkfish ignores it!) atlanic anemone and an assortment of snails and crabs. Tank has been up and running for 9 months. We do freqent water changes and everything has been fine (no deaths) since we started!
Thanks for your help!

 

[jlem]

A protein skimmer is just good for the tank. Sounds like your tank does'nt need one to function. A skimmer definately won't hurt your tank and will improve water quality even if you have great water quality right now. I like the seaclone. Lots of people like the Back Pack skimmer. If you don't run a sump then you are pretty limitd on the skimmers you have to choose from. A friend of mine runs a air stone skimmer that sits in the corner of his 55 gallon and it works like a champ.

 

[onefatfish]

i agree with the above
always had skimmers for my reef and it always looks great.take skimmer away for a few weeks dos'nt look so great.set up a 75g f/o about 2 year ago and waited about a year before skimmer 2 days with skimmer and water super clear and not somany water changes.slows algea groth way down too.

 

[new]

i have run mine twice, thought i could just run it on the weekends. thought a couple hitching polyps had died until i started running it this weekend, they did not die and darned if there arent about a dozen smaller ones there as well. gonna let them tell me when to skim until i get something more sensitive