Thoughts on Skimmerless 40g breeder ?

[foxface]

Hello everyone. I need some advice. I am curious what your thoughts are to going without a skimmer on a 40g breeder tank with live rock and softies only plus 4 fish. I have a 20g fuge with cheato and using carbon also in the sump. I have a coralife 125 with needle wheel pump. I can't get this thing to skim if my life depended on it. I am getting good bubles in the chamber but getting it to prouce skimmate is a pain in the arse if you know what I mean. Its been running for about 10 weeks. The tank, params and inhabitants look good except for a colony of yellow polyps which are diminishing daily and not opening up. These used to florish in my aquapod I had prior to the transfer. I did switch from MH to T5 with the breeder. I guess most would think no big loss with the yellow polyps but its just the idea that they are not looking healty that bothers me.

Any thoughts.

Thanks for your time.

Johnr

[travisurfer]

you don't NEED the skimmer. if the water level is constant, you shouldn't have many issues with the coralife skimmer.

[foxface]

you don't NEED the skimmer. if the water level is constant, you shouldn't have many issues with the coralife skimmer.

 

Hey travis. Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the input. I have the skimmer in my sump which is setup to maintain a constant water level in that area of the sump.

[glennr1978]

Hey travis. Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the input. I have the skimmer in my sump which is setup to maintain a constant water level in that area of the sump.

I run the same skimmer, and don't have any problems with it. How high do you have it set? I have mine set so that the bubbles come up to the bottom (the grey part) of the collection cup. It doesn't produce the thickest, darkest skimmate I've ever seen, but it is designed for tanks 3x's the size fo yours and mine. That being said, I don't think we push these skimmers to their max, not even close IMO. My old css65 produced some seriously nasty skimmate on my tank, but it was pushed to it's limits.

[nanoty]

Ditto, same skimmer and tank. Mine is pulling out some nasty crap. I had to dial it in pretty good and did overflow it once but it's set now and works great. I also have a valve gate and fishing line mod done on it. Like mentioned you really don't NEED it but why not use it if you have it? If you just can't get it to work, sell it and buy another one.