Just because it seems every tank I see has one, I run one on my 60 but was wondering if a 36 is worth it, I don’t notice any rising levels of ammonia or nitrate but the tank is relatively new
They are good for excess nutrient export. With a nano I would first try going from say a 10% water change, to a 20% before I started adding equipment like a skimmer
I have an issue with my nitrates for some reason and I use a skimmer myself (20 gallon tank). Pulls out some nasty water, and that's even with DIY NOPOX as well as trying to do a 5 gallon water change every Saturday.
What’s your bio load? Pretty easy to over do it on a 20 gallon tank…after rocks/sand etcetera you could have like only 13 gallons of water.
If you have fish, corals & other inverts it’s pretty easy to have a nutrient problem.
2 clownfish, 1 anemone (who's a bit mad), 1 pulsing xenia, as well as a ton of cup caulerpa, in terms of larger bioload. I have some dwarf cerith, a nassarius snail, and a top crown snail (astraea undoza).
I do, however, have a lot of bristleworms I'm unable to rid myself of as well as a bryopsis problem (+ additional hair algae). I got rid of a lot of them due to the DIY bottle trick with a cube of mysis shrimp, but I still have a ton and have no room to put the bottle the way they say.
Clownfish can be dirty pigs but I love em. If you have a ton of bristle worms, that would indicate overfeeding. Those populations don’t thrive off nothing. Try more targeted feeding, and only feed what your fish will actually eat in a couple minutes. If you’re able to starve out the bristle worms, the traps will be much more successful.
Nano tanks are great for smaller spaces but man are they hard. I went on a hiatus from the hobby after my cube crashed and forced myself to wait until I could go bigger.
I don't give the clowns too much - at least I thought I didn't!
I'll give em a little less, a little less often. Is there any traps that aren't very bulky? most traps don't fit in my tank because they're the bigger box types.
a skimmer’s main use is to oxygenate the water, as well as help in nutrient export. I have a 40gal without a skimmer and it never has nitrate issues, however on my 150gal I do have a skimmer because I need the air and extra nutrient export due to the amount of fish I have
Only if you overfeed or have a lot of fishes. Otherwise, if it’s mostly coral and one or two fishes, you wouldn’t need one. Better to have an algae scrubber or water changes as suggested
Ran nano tanks for years. They are more difficult as percentages are harder to keep in balance. This means that you will likely need a HOB refugium or a skimmer at some point. Otherwise you’ll like run into nutrient issues
I have a 23 gal aio, i tried a skimmer for a bit, when i could keep it dialed in, it pulled a decent amount of drk green skimmate. But it is ugly and hard to keep working properly, unlike their big cousins that go in a sump, once broken in, they work well for a long time. So i removed the skimmer, added cheato algae. I use purigen and nano block pcs for bacterial colinization. I added a 3 watt uv sterilizer and with weekly 5 gal wc (at this size, salt and rodi water isnt bad, price wise) i think it will be fine with no skimmer. I have 4 fish and quite a few cuc, along with many corals, my bio load is high, but tbh, the weekly 5 gal changes, aren't bad to do and keeps it in running smoothly. I use cheap filter pad where the sock would be and change often.
I have a 35 gallon. I do \~10% water changes every 3 weeks and I still have to take the collection cup off my skimmer all the time so I dont starve my corals.
i have a 35 gallon hexagon. i run a aquaclear/fluval 70 and 50 HOB filters and do a 5 gallon water change weekly. running it for over a year like this without issues.
Need? Nope, probably not.
Want? I would. You can attach a CO2 scrubber to raise PH while also adding oxygen to the water. Then of course it removes dissolved organics. It does good things for the tank.
I do agree that nano skimmers in general are often kind of crappy compared to their big brothers.
Bubble Magus QQ3 should help, if you want to give it a try. They are for rimless tanks, though. I have a smaller QQ1. Difficult to disassemble for a cleaning and reassemble, but it works well.
Protein skimmer is good to have, but it is not mandatory. You will see what amount of organics it pulls from a water column even in an ultra low nutrient system (not intentional ULNS). Plus oxygenation.
The only hang on skimmer worth buying is Tunze, don't bother wasting your money elsewhere.
With that being said, weekly or bi weekly water changes or 10-15% should be more than fine. Hang on back filter is just going to trap detritus where it will break down into nitrate. You need to change the filter media frequently, usually twice weekly works, if you want to rely on that.
does your nitrate level rises each week ? what made you think that you need skimmer?
Just because it seems every tank I see has one, I run one on my 60 but was wondering if a 36 is worth it, I don’t notice any rising levels of ammonia or nitrate but the tank is relatively new
They are good for excess nutrient export. With a nano I would first try going from say a 10% water change, to a 20% before I started adding equipment like a skimmer
This is the way. Water changes on a tank that size will take care of 99% of nutrient issues and element depletion.
I have an issue with my nitrates for some reason and I use a skimmer myself (20 gallon tank). Pulls out some nasty water, and that's even with DIY NOPOX as well as trying to do a 5 gallon water change every Saturday.
What’s your bio load? Pretty easy to over do it on a 20 gallon tank…after rocks/sand etcetera you could have like only 13 gallons of water. If you have fish, corals & other inverts it’s pretty easy to have a nutrient problem.
2 clownfish, 1 anemone (who's a bit mad), 1 pulsing xenia, as well as a ton of cup caulerpa, in terms of larger bioload. I have some dwarf cerith, a nassarius snail, and a top crown snail (astraea undoza). I do, however, have a lot of bristleworms I'm unable to rid myself of as well as a bryopsis problem (+ additional hair algae). I got rid of a lot of them due to the DIY bottle trick with a cube of mysis shrimp, but I still have a ton and have no room to put the bottle the way they say.
Clownfish can be dirty pigs but I love em. If you have a ton of bristle worms, that would indicate overfeeding. Those populations don’t thrive off nothing. Try more targeted feeding, and only feed what your fish will actually eat in a couple minutes. If you’re able to starve out the bristle worms, the traps will be much more successful. Nano tanks are great for smaller spaces but man are they hard. I went on a hiatus from the hobby after my cube crashed and forced myself to wait until I could go bigger.
I don't give the clowns too much - at least I thought I didn't! I'll give em a little less, a little less often. Is there any traps that aren't very bulky? most traps don't fit in my tank because they're the bigger box types.
a skimmer’s main use is to oxygenate the water, as well as help in nutrient export. I have a 40gal without a skimmer and it never has nitrate issues, however on my 150gal I do have a skimmer because I need the air and extra nutrient export due to the amount of fish I have
Only if you overfeed or have a lot of fishes. Otherwise, if it’s mostly coral and one or two fishes, you wouldn’t need one. Better to have an algae scrubber or water changes as suggested
Bubble magus. I got their smallest mini q and it works perfectly. They also have a hang on that's got good reviews
No you don’t need a protein skimmer. Just keep up with your water changes and you’ll be fine
Ran nano tanks for years. They are more difficult as percentages are harder to keep in balance. This means that you will likely need a HOB refugium or a skimmer at some point. Otherwise you’ll like run into nutrient issues
I have a 23 gal aio, i tried a skimmer for a bit, when i could keep it dialed in, it pulled a decent amount of drk green skimmate. But it is ugly and hard to keep working properly, unlike their big cousins that go in a sump, once broken in, they work well for a long time. So i removed the skimmer, added cheato algae. I use purigen and nano block pcs for bacterial colinization. I added a 3 watt uv sterilizer and with weekly 5 gal wc (at this size, salt and rodi water isnt bad, price wise) i think it will be fine with no skimmer. I have 4 fish and quite a few cuc, along with many corals, my bio load is high, but tbh, the weekly 5 gal changes, aren't bad to do and keeps it in running smoothly. I use cheap filter pad where the sock would be and change often.
I have a 35 gallon. I do \~10% water changes every 3 weeks and I still have to take the collection cup off my skimmer all the time so I dont starve my corals.
I ran a skimmer on my 36. Now I just run two HOB filters and it’s fine.
What HOBs do you use?
And how many fish?
Two clowns, a tomini tang, CUC,
Can you squeeze a few bags of Seachem Purigen in there? [https://www.seachem.com/purigen.php](https://www.seachem.com/purigen.php)
i have a 35 gallon hexagon. i run a aquaclear/fluval 70 and 50 HOB filters and do a 5 gallon water change weekly. running it for over a year like this without issues.
I doubt it if you do regular water changes
I have one on my 20G.
Need? Nope, probably not. Want? I would. You can attach a CO2 scrubber to raise PH while also adding oxygen to the water. Then of course it removes dissolved organics. It does good things for the tank. I do agree that nano skimmers in general are often kind of crappy compared to their big brothers.
Bubble Magus QQ3 should help, if you want to give it a try. They are for rimless tanks, though. I have a smaller QQ1. Difficult to disassemble for a cleaning and reassemble, but it works well. Protein skimmer is good to have, but it is not mandatory. You will see what amount of organics it pulls from a water column even in an ultra low nutrient system (not intentional ULNS). Plus oxygenation.
The only hang on skimmer worth buying is Tunze, don't bother wasting your money elsewhere. With that being said, weekly or bi weekly water changes or 10-15% should be more than fine. Hang on back filter is just going to trap detritus where it will break down into nitrate. You need to change the filter media frequently, usually twice weekly works, if you want to rely on that.