To skim or not to skim...

[MR.FEESH]

Hi,

 

I have a 6 gallon nano cube that is pretty much very young- I have one small fish a simple and small cuc and lr+ls. I want to eventually keep some sort of cool invert like an arrow crab or long spine etc. and maybe even another small fish to add more flavor to the tank. I know that doing this will increase the bio load and potetially make my tank a lot messier and prone to disaster. This would be one reason why I would want to skim- to reduce bio load and take harmful stuff out of the water (besides doing the normal water changes) and keep the tank as healthy as possible.

 

However... I also set up my aquascape with strategic places for corals that I have in mind, but I know that by skimming, you can also remove benifical trace elements from the water, thus prohibiting the proliferation of the corals. I know you can supplament but according to this site, it is often hard to measure how much supplamenting you have to do to achevie a happy level for your corals.

 

So...is it worth it to skim and have a healther tank with maybe not so much success with corals, or is it better to keep the tank pretty natural (the way it is with just a power head+filter etc) thus allowing for a wider range of coral?

 

Give your opinions or tell of the setup with your tank (like weather you skim and supplament or keep it natural).

 

Tahnks in advance, MR.FEESH.

[supahtim]

what kind of fish is your small fish? one small fish is enough for a 6g. upgrade if you want more...

 

arrow crab will eat your small fish, and long spine urchins grow many times larger than the actual NC itself.

 

i recommend you don't skim, keep only one small fish (and by that i mean one small fish that will stay small), and use plenty of liverock and other means of natural filtration. the filtration in my dream all-in-one would be a BC14 with 20lbs of LR in the display with 2" of sand, and a fuge in the filter chambers with LR rubble and cheato. water changes every 2 weeks, with a very low bioload (one yasha goby and randalli shrimp).

 

hth,

Tim

[shaggydoo541]

Well I say don't skim. But from your post I can tell you need to do some more research. You do not remove elements by skimming (unless you are pulilng out some very wet skimmate), and if you are pulling out wet skimmer juice on a 6g be prepared for a wild wacky adventure through fluctuating salinity land. I also wouldn't put any fish in a 6g.

[MR.FEESH]

ok- yeah my set up now is all nat.- I have azillion lbs of lr and all that other junk. I admit i'm not knowlageable about skimming- but hey, that's why I started this thread so cut me some slack. The fish I have now is some sort of damsel or chromis- I forget which.

 

k so it looks like skimming is a no for me. Thanks!

[davenia7]

FEESH,

I have totally different reason to say no to the skimming on the tank... where would you find one small enough so that it would take up the entire tank?

you're better off doing lotsa WC's than to run a skimmer. Also, I think that skimming would give you a false sense of security when a tank that small really needs at least weekly WC's.

Good luck on your adventure.

[adinsxq]

I agree with davenia... finding a GOOD skimmer is going to be tough (that small). I vote no skimmer and keep the bioload/feeding light.

[supahtim]

that damsel/chromis is too big for the tank. please consider trading it in for a fish that is small and that will stay small and doesn't need a lot of swimming space. either that or no fish at all.

 

Tim

[MR.FEESH]

which fish would you reccomend?... I found out the type of fish- it's a blue finned damsel. I have had tons of people yell at me for keeping a fish in my NC6 and it's not the one that they would have kept- so lets hear yet another suggestion... -.-

 

As for finding a skimmer that's small enough- theres one on nanocustoms.com that is, u guessed it, custom made to fit in one of the rear copartments for the NC6. My friend has had one from the same company in his AP24 for a while and it works great...but it sounds like I souldn't be skimming.

 

Are you serious about the arrow crab? My lfs sells babys that are only like an inch tall- I actually have a huge hermit that I was afriad would bother the arrow. Wouldn't that size b ok for a short while- and then I could give it back when it got huge? How fast do they grow tho- cuz I have seen a full sized one and it looked like it could do a number on anything small...