Q

[Nivy]

Hi there, so I am new to the hobby, I bought the rsm130 from a friend and was sick of the COD so I purchased inTank media rack, can I use this with the normal skimmer which came with the tank? I will upgrade to the tunze in a couple of months,

 

thank you 👍🏻

[Tired]

If the skimmer physically fits into the tank at the proper level for it to operate, and doesn't block anything, it's fine.

 

However, you may not need a skimmer. Skimmers are good for when you need to remove excess organic matter and nutrients from the water, but, if a tank doesn't have an excess of those things, can wind up removing food and nutrients that the corals need. I'd suggest you start without the skimmer, and only add it if you have a problem with nutrients.

 

You should have, at minimum, 5ppm nitrates and 0.05ppm phosphates. Lower can work for some tanks, if the used nutrients are quickly being replaced, but the average tank should be kept no lower than those numbers. Corals need those both to survive. Nitrates should usually be under 20ppm (though some tanks do fine with well over 20), and phosphates don't really have an upper limit. High phosphates may encourage algae, and may not produce the best color results (depending on lighting), but won't directly harm corals at any level you can reasonably hit.

[Nivy]

Oh thank you so much, so it’s ok to take the original skimmer out and just use my new media rack? 

[Tired]

Sure. Reef aquarium manual filtration is actually pretty flexible- as long as you have enough flow for the corals, the rest can be pretty varied. I'd suggest starting with just some filter floss and a bit of activated charcoal, and adding additional media (especially things meant to remove nutrients) only as needed. Some tanks don't even run filter floss, and do fine.

[Nivy]

Awesome, thanks for your help pal 👍🏻👍🏻