Skimmerless for 18 months.......

[Smitherington]

I thought I'd post some pics of my MM tank.

It's been running for around 18 months now with the fish stocking more or less complete.

The Lps went in the tank first so are showing a fair bit more growth than the sps which were mainly stocked in the last 6 months,mainly as frags.

It's my first marine tank so I've not been hung up at all about not skimming.

Virtually all the sps are showing decent growth and reasonable colour and my nitrates are virtually 0.

My main issue at the mo is lighting and I'm seriously thinking about making up a large T5 unit for the tank to get a better spread of light but that's another story.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/Ebay 002 (Small)_2.jpg


http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/Ebay 008 (Small).jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/Ebay 015 (Small)_1.jpg


http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/Ebay 011 (Small).jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/Ebay 019 (Small).jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/Ebay 025 (Small).jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q1/Ebay (Small).jpg

Thanks for looking

[Zillion]

That's impressive.:thumbup:

[gobyboy]

looks good, any sump pics??:drool:

[Joanna]

Looking lovely! :D

Joanna

[the fat controler]

It,s nice to see a good looking tank that dosn,t need to use a skimmer. well done:applause:

[craigieboi]

looks a great tank :thumbsup:

[Cranners]

:applause: nice very nice

I would say get into those T5's- I am going to set up my aquarays with T5's to help increase the light spread into the tank

J

[Dive Master]

Wonderful results! Well done.

[Smitherington]

Thanks for the comments.

I like this new section,it's always the first I look at because although we're all keeping marine tanks it's a tiny percentage that have gone down the ecosystem route,especially with no skimmer.

In fact when I first got the tank and was setting it up I detailed my plans on another forum and was made to feel like a fool for even mentioning MM.

I must say that I've had no such issues on UR and the attitude of most members has been a breath of fresh air.

To anyone who's thinking of settng up this type of system I'd say definitely go for it but just take your time.It's well worth it in the long run.

[dan-the-man]

Looks great fella, lovely colours! Got any specs or full tank shots for us? :D

[Snowsurfer]

Looks great mate, some nice growth since i seen it last. Will def have to pop over again soon and see it !!!

Nice to see the mother from where my fox coral came from. Loving the Fathead too!!!

[Smitherington]

Matt I know we keep saying it but yes you'll have to come over again.
It wasn't until I looked at the picture of the fox that I realised how much it had grown since I generously (completely accidentally!) fragged your piece.

Hi Dan,It's a 6x2x2 tank with a 3ft sump.The display is lit with a Giesseman twin 250w halide and 4 55w T5's. The sump with twin T8's fitted with 7500k bulbs.I've been growing chaeto and a broader leafed macroalgae but I'm gradually pruning out the chaeto as it's becoming dominated by the other algae.
I do suffer with quite bad cyano in the sump to the extent that if I don't clear it weekly it impedes the macroalgae.This is despite adding a powerhead to the sump and changing the sump bulbs.TBH I don't mind to much as there's none in the display at all.

As I mentioned before I'm not really happy with my lighting at the moment.I only stocked sps on 2 central bommies under the twin halides with the lps lower down and out to the sides.This works well in principal but 2 bracebars create shadows that I find very irritating.A triple halide unit is out of the question so after seeing the results Matty29 and snowsurfer have had with T5's I'm going to go down that route.Hopefully 9 80w tubes on a custom made frame. That'll learn the shadows and I can get more sps!

I've got a tunze auto top up,deltec phos reactor,schuran calcium reactor and no money.

Cheers

[GCT]

nice tank mate, i dont skim either and tank seems alot better than when i did:)

[junaid]

wow thats an amazing setup man :P

[Andy]

excellent mate, how often do you do water changes and how much?

[Smitherington]

Hi,
I do a 10 gal water change every 2 weeks,hoovering up as much crap as I can.

[Tetley]

Hi,

Thats a lovely tank. :)

ATB

Tets.

[redlion1968]

very nice :)

[JAMESSRICH]

tanks looking good mate! hard to picture what it looked like when i popped around agggeeeess ago - to get the tunze controler

[SueSea]

What a lovely tank! Thanks for showing us that it can be done without a skimmer!

I've been planning my skimmerless (and low tech) tank for the last few months and am just about to put it all together. :)

If it turns out as good as yours - and some others too which have also inspired me - I shall be well pleased! :worship:

Sue C.

[jamieb]

Hi mate,

Your tanks looking fantastic, not thinking about holding a meet soon are you :whistling:

Is that the same Fox coral you got from me?

ATB
Jamie

[Smitherington]

Hi Jamie,
Yes it is!Also found in Snowsurfers tank too. Since getting it out of the light and just leaving it be it's coloured up really well and has grown a fair bit.

I'm going to change over to a home made Matt style T5 system soon.Once that's done I can move some rockwork about and fill the tank out with some more sps.Once it's all sorted I'll defo hold a meet(another 18 months I should think!).

It must have been about a year since you came round James.I was changing the lights then!

Thanks for all your comments everyone,cheers

[jimmyb]

hi smitherington

the tank looks fantastic and some really nice sps colours. any chance of a full tank and sump pic? Ive got a couple of questions as I'm designing a sump for my tank now and you seem to have yours pretty much spot on from the sounds of it.

are you growing cheato in the sump compartment with the miracle mud?
what is the depth of your miracle mud bed?
whats the sump flow (how many times does the sump turn over an hour)?
how did you kick off your mud bed? live rock rubble etc. or just let it take hold its self?

after seeing the colours of your sps I'm very tempted not to use a skimmer now but obviously you have to have the sump set up well to take the skimmer off. Thanks for your help.

[Smitherington]

Hi Jimmy,
I'm at work at the mo so I'll try to post some pics up tomorrow.

Sump wise I'd go for as large an algae growing area as possible.I wish I'd gone for a 4ft sump instead of the 3 I have now.There are 3 tubs,30lbs of MM ina 24x16 inch mud compartment lit with 2 T8's. I pretty much followed the original Leng Sy recommendations for this straight from his website. I was put off using Bio balls from various people and have ended up with a mixture of different sizes of rock and rubble in the compartments either side of the algae.

My return pump is an ocean runner 3500 so I guess with the loss of head the tank volumes turned over 4 or 5 times an hour.Again I followed Leng Sy's instructions.Others may have experience regarding using higher lighting over the sump and tank turnover but I was very aware of running costs with these as they are both on 24\7.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I began using chaeto and after about a year added a broader leafed macro algae which has since over taken the chaeto to the extent that I'll probably remove the rest of it.As far as seeding the mudbed I just let nature take it's course.I seem to remember the algae taking a while to get going as you're waiting for there to be at least some nutrients in the water to kick it off.

I stocked with fish very slowly to begin with up to a point where about a year in the tank was running with nitrates of about 10 to 15.It has been noticeable though that as the system has fully matured they've dropped to the point I struggle to get a reading.Now whether this is due to the algae taking a while to really get going I don't know.You may be able to get to this point quicker with the use of a skimmer,higher lighting levels on the sump,I'm not sure.

Regarding the sps certainly don't think you need a skimmer to keep them.Just check out the 3 skimmerless TOTM's. I wish I'd had these tanks to look at while I was setting up and getting plagued by doubts. They're a real inspiration.

Any other questions please ask,and if any of the other more experienced ecosystem users have anything to add please don't think you're hi jacking the thread.

[monty2302]

looking really well mate, just set mine up using miracle mud

[jimmyb]

thanks for that smitherington