Skimmer??

Hello everyone

Well I just set up my 30 gallon saltwater reef tank 9 days ago and everything seems to be doing well but I still have to add more live rock and I just tested my water parameters and they look good so far but I have one question about protein skimming since I have not installed one yet..If I have 10 pounds of live rock, 45 lbs. of live sand, a few marine plants like sea lettuce, halimeda, brush plant, ect. would it be necessary for me to add a protein skimmer? I only have 1 ocellaris clown, 1 emerald crab, 7 small hermits but i'm going to add 2 more fish 3 at the most so I want to keep my bio load down since I will be adding some corals here soon..I mean if I have to I will but I just wanted a suugestion on this, thanks

 

Hello fishman - go to this article: Protein Skimmer and scroll down to the part that starts with Do I really need to a protein skimmer?

It really comes down to either having a protein skimmer or more frequent partial water changes.

 

ok thanks I'll look into it

 

well my thoughts on getting a skimmer has not really convinced me yet since my marine plants have been doing a great job and also i'm keeping my bioload down with a minimum of 1 fish at the moment I do plan on getting at least 3 more but that's gonna be my limit. Its only been 4 weeks now but progress is coming along great and brown algae is very little, water changes will me help out as it matures.

 

I recommend a protein skimmer but like posted above it is not necessarilly required. And is the " brown algae" that you are referring too on the sand because if so it may just be diagonal which is very common with new tanks.

 

yea its very light algae along some parts of the sand but not much I'll see how it goes and decide in a another month or so but thanks

 

The light brown algae is most likely diatoms, and will disappear on their own with regular water changes.

A note on skimmers - if you think you're going to want one, allow time for it to 'break-in' - it can take anywhere from 24hrs to 2-3 weeks for a skimmer to break-in and operate at it's optimum.