Starting my rimless shallow reef

[Colorado Reefer]

I cleared out all the rocks touching the back and sides also and love the look and surprised how much more current it added. Like you said more swimming room, and less debris build up. Looks good! Keep us posted

 

[Prosperent]

I finally have some life in this thing! Went to Elite Reef over the weekend, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had several fish from my list.

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[Shaunv]

Great looking tank! This is very close to the dimensions I've been dreaming up for my next tank

 

[Prosperent]

Question for everyone about filtration. I'm mostly keeping SPS coral, and have a medium fish load. My goal here is low maintenance. Right now I have around 100lbs of rock in the tank, and another 50 or so in the sump. I run sheets of filter media in the center of the sump which get washed out every couple weeks. Beyond that, I have a refugium with two types of macro algae, and another separate chamber of the sump with pulsing xenia. I'm also running a bag of carbon. ANything anyone would suggest that I add/change? I have looked at bio-balls, phos-ban, different brands of carbon.... The list goes on and on as you all know. I like to keep things simple, and as natural as possible (i'm well aware that our aquariums are far from being a slice of the ocean).

I'm currently dosing 2 part with calcium and alk, but have considered a calcium reactor to simplify things.

Beyond that, I do a weekly 7 gallon water change.

 

[Shaunv]

I would say a BRS GFO and Carbon reactor would be helpful, and a filter sock. Dosing pumps to keep up with Alk, Mag, and Calcium if you don't do the calcium reactor.

 

[CRW Reef]

Calcium reactor all the way!!!!! All the great sps tank around town that I have seen use a reactor as a staple of the tank. If you wanted to add some more bio media look into the Cermedia Biopure - http://www.cermedia.com/marinepure.php. Easy way to add surface area with out taking up a huge amount of space with live rock in sump

 

[CRW Reef]

Ps your tank is killer!!!' Love the large volume rimless for sure

 

[Newreefer]

I love the rimless. Where did you say you got it? Is it made to your specs?

 

[Newreefer]

Just talked to Dave, did they do your sump also? Man that thing is killer just a little too big.

 

[Prosperent]

Thanks! Dave did the sump and the aquarium/stand. I am SUPER happy with how it all came out.

 

[Prosperent]

Here is a blog post I just threw together with my opinions on going skimmerless. I have spent quite a bit of time researching this recently (and an equal amount of time going back and forth on the decision). I would love to hear some comments (negative or positive). http://shallowreefaquarium.com/2015/03/02/reefkeeping-without-a-skimmer/

 

[Miah2bzy]

Here is a blog post I just threw together with my opinions on going skimmerless. I have spent quite a bit of time researching this recently (and an equal amount of time going back and forth on the decision). I would love to hear some comments (negative or positive). http://shallowreefaquarium.com/2015/03/02/reefkeeping-without-a-skimmer/

Nice article!

 

[zombie]

Here is a blog post I just threw together with my opinions on going skimmerless. I have spent quite a bit of time researching this recently (and an equal amount of time going back and forth on the decision). I would love to hear some comments (negative or positive). http://shallowreefaquarium.com/2015/03/02/reefkeeping-without-a-skimmer/

Good points, although it would have been nice to see skimmer alternatives and their benefits discussed. (Ie cryptic zones, algae scrubbers, etc.)

 

[SynDen]

Ya agree, a more comprehensive evaluation of the various alternatives as well as more detail about personal experiences backed up with specific references would help give it more credibility and likely drive the conversation more.
As I am considering option for my new build coming up, I am personally shooting for a skimmerless system, although I will be plumbing in a skimmer just in case, but I plan to make every every effort to balance the system(s) well enough to not need it. So I would be very interested to hear more details and experiences on just about every aspect of a successful reef tank (or two) that runs skimmer less.

I Believe Levi on scmas did an experiment recently, that you might want to check out. He took 3-4 identical tanks, and set them up each exactly the same except that 1 tank had no skimmer, the 2nd had a skimmer but only ran it 6 hours a day, and the last tank setup with a skimmer running full blast 24/7. His findings were actually pretty interesting, but believe he found that, at least with this setup, the 6hour skimmer tank did the best in overall health and growth of the corals and the tank its self.

 

[zombie]

I wonder if a very dry skim would reproduce his 6 hour result? Might be something worth considering over skimmerless. That way if there is a boom of dissolved organics (fish/turbo dies, overfeeding, etc) then the skimmer would pull a lot of gunk out, but under normal conditions, it doesnt bubble up all the way to the top of the neck, so it leaves most dissolved organics and bacteria intact, but oxygenates the water well.

 

[Prosperent]

I wonder if a very dry skim would reproduce his 6 hour result? Might be something worth considering over skimmerless. That way if there is a boom of dissolved organics (fish/turbo dies, overfeeding, etc) then the skimmer would pull a lot of gunk out, but under normal conditions, it doesnt bubble up all the way to the top of the neck, so it leaves most dissolved organics and bacteria intact, but oxygenates the water well.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll probably do a part 2 article that discusses alternatives, and follows along as the tank matures. I'm documenting all of my coral growth and water params, so I should have some solid data.