Thoughts on not using a filter or a skimmer

[jeff903]

I have had a reef tank for about a year or so and was curious of what others thought of my setup on filtration. Nothing. No filter, just live rock and live sand....basically the berlin method but without a skimmer also. I tried a skimmer and it didn't seem to pull out anything but white foam. Seemed unnecessary. Water parameters didn't change at all with a skimmer or without. I just feel this is the most natural way of keeping the tank under control. I have several red and blue leg hermits for mechanical filtration and change the water every 4 - 5 weeks. About 10% or so. I am not overstocked with fish or inverts. Does anyone else do anything like this? Jeff

 

[xxvietxjustinxx]

I say that ur tank must be very good if u can run it without a filter of any sort, besides the natural type. But u do have powerheads and stuff right?

 

[jeff903]

yeah, just a lot of water movement from 3 powerheads

 

[xxvietxjustinxx]

heh that works i guess. How big is ur tank?u have alot of lr and a huge dsb or wat?

 

[jeff903]

I have a 55 gal and a deep sand bed and only about 30lbs live rock

 

[reefersx2]

I've heard of nanos running skimmerless with just LR & LS. so I guess that could work. Joey

 

[flamingkingofhe]

i looks like it is working i recomend the othr way though

 

[a_fender69]

I have heard and seen no filtration on tanks but it is pretty rare. The best setup I saw was about a 50 gallon with water changes of 2% every day.
And the white foam from the proteing skimmer is the protein(fish, coral and invert waste free floating in the water) Hardy a waste since it was doing its job.
But it seems that you are satisfied with your tank and it is doing well. Best of Luck

 

[arkman]

Jeff - Pictures would be cool! What do you have in it? What's the lighitng? I;ve been thinking about trying this as well...

 

[jeff903]

arkman,
I have a yellow tang, 2 clarkii clowns, a tomato clown, anemones, 3 cleaner shrimps, assorted snails and crabs, mushrooms, and for lighting I have 2 VHO 110w each As you can see, I am battling a bad hair algae outbreak and still have some slime algae left over from when I was using a filter which is going away on its own

 

[jeff903]

mercedes,
was wondering.....does the prizm noise bother you at all? I have one but don't use it.

 

[arkman]

it that 2 yellow tangs, or one is one the background?
What kind of anenomes? How are your nitrates?
Y said that youve had this for about a year? How long with no additional filtration?
I recall seeing a "filterless" tank in a marine bio lab -- but they required a wavemaker --- a real one, not times on a powerstrip...
that was state-of-the-art 15 (ouch) years ago

 

[nacl-h2o]

I don't use a skimmer or filter. LR, DSB and a refugium full of caulerpa provide all of my filtration.

 

[striker]

I'm sorry but I'm a little skeptical. If you had a refugium with caulerpa like nacl-h20 and more lr I'd say it was ok to go without a filter and a skimmer. Cyno and hair algae are sure signs of a system with problems. Especially with a heavy bio-load and so little lr. I'd add the skimmer back on the tank. Be careful your tank doesn't crash or your tang comes down with ick. Those fish are pretty darn sensitive.

 

[dburr]

I am skimmerless
See my sig. I could not grow macro in my refug for a year until i figured it was not enough light.
I had hair, not as much as you, but I did. Removing it w/ water changes is removing crap out of your water to some degree.
Have you thought of puting on a refuge? My hair battle is just about won. The macro outcompetes the hair for food.
I will have pics if I can only get this da*# webpage up and runnin'
HTH good luck.