protein skimmer

[thomas]

This maybe a dumb question, but is it absolutely necessary to have a protein skimmer on your fish tank? My friend has a 10 gallon fish only tank and he does not have one. And I am goin to setup a 40 gallon fish only tank with Live rock,Live sand. Does he need one and do I need one? Thanks

 

[kris]

very helpful but no not essential.
Good Luck with your new tank

 

[wamp]

POP!!! there goes the top on them worms...
I think it will better serve you to have one..
Why risk your whole investment over a 79$ part?
Just food for thought.. I do not think your tank will crash without one, but over time it might?
Good Luck...

 

[thomas]

thanks for the replies. I will most likely get one. But now my friend really wants to know if he needs it for his 10 gallon. It has been running fine for about a month now. Does a 10 gallon need one?

 

[fshhub]

they are great tools that never realy hurt anybody, but can pose a problem in hte future if ou do not have one, now that is a fish only in a reef i would definitely have one(tank size does not matter, i would still have one)

 

[kdlbem]

The local petkill(*****) has a Berlin airlift on their reeftank?! <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" /> BAHAHAHAHA <img src="graemlins//uhuh.gif" border="0" alt="[U-Huh]" /> Okay, it's not really a reeftank, but they like to call it that.
Anyway, the airlift seems to work pretty well for a 35 dollar skimmer. Only two drawbacks that I can see, you have to buy an air pump to run it, and you have to replace airstones. But other than that, it seems like a pretty good deal for 35 bucks.
HTH,
B

 

[thomas]

Ok thanks for the repilies. Does anyone know any other good,cheap skimmer for a 10 gallon tank? How is the Skilter 250?

 

[krusk]

Skilter 240 is noise but will work in 10 Gallon

 

[cycle1]

Speaking of the Skilter 250, I am using it with a 55 gal and it's doing a great job. Any suggestions if I should upgrade? BTW only paid $70.00 for it.

 

[uncle fester]

Amiracle PS 2 air-driven worked great on my old 10 gallon reef (under Ecosystems, John Nicholas's tank) on <a href="http://paul.auger.com" target="_blank">http://paul.auger.com</a> . The Skilters I've had worked better after removing air intake line and just running an airstone w/ air pump in bottom of "reaction chamber" of skimmer.

 

[thomas]

Uncle fester,
That is a nice 10 gallon tank, my friend said he wants his tank to look just like that. All he has in there right now is:
-blue damsel
-peppermint shrimp
-few blue legged hermit crabs
-2 turbo snails
-1 goby
-live sand
-10 pounds of live rock
-Penguin Bio-wheel mini
-think he is adding a Skilter 250
Any suggestions? On what types of coral or Anenome,etc he should get?Anything he might need to add? thanks