As I mentioned on another thread, I'm setting up my first marine tank - a little 10 g nano mainly for a pair of percula or ocellaris + appropriate inverts. I wondered if experienced guys would consider a skimmer to be necessary/highly recommended or not. On the one hand, it's quite a small tank so I imagine I'll have to be hawk-like in monitoring/tending to water quality. On the other hand, skimmers are quite expensive and it would seem to be quite a lot of equipment in a tiny tank.

If there are good alternatives, what would you recommend?

What say ye, wise forum?

No skimmer needed...just keep up on water changes once a week and be consistent with topping off with freshwater and you will do fine!! Good luck!!

+1 to just water changes. I've a 10g and i'm running without a skimmer, 5 weeks in and no problems with parameters and water looks great.

+1 to that my dear fellow, and if ye need be in need of a good skimmer to keep up with those dirty little clowns they make nano sized hob skimmers as well that are not too bulky. I just recieved a remora nano skimer from a fellow reefer and am so far impressed with the skimming capabilities on a 20g tank. Best of all it looks like a hob filter for a FW tank and doesn't look to out of place since I am not running a sump on this tank. I also have an eshopps pks 75h on my 30g tank that might look a little better in a display but might be somewhat of overkill for a small ten gallon tank. I believe a 2g wc a week should be fine for a tank that small.