Is skimmer needed for 20 gallon mixed coral nano? Sump?

[Trillaman954]

Want as many coral possible. Also have cleaning and blenny. I want to also add fish if possible. But is a skimmer and a sump necessary?

[seabass]

A skimmer isn't necessary, but can sometimes be helpful.  I like running a protein skimmer in systems that contain fish; however, you can often substitute filter floss and activated carbon (housed in a hang on back power filter) to remove the dissolved organics from the water.

 

It's certainly possible to run such a tank without any filtration at all; but I feel that some filtration usually helps.  A sump isn't needed, unless you want a place to hide equipment (like a skimmer, heater, refugium, automatic top-off, etc).  A sump can also provide additional water volume, but they are totally optional.

[boscoT]

I ended up adding a Tunze 9001 skimmer to my 24gal. If you have the space it will not hurt it anything

[jservedio]

3 hours ago, boscoT said:

I ended up adding a Tunze 9001 skimmer to my 24gal. If you have the space it will not hurt it anything

In the beginning when you have a bunch of fish and few corals (or just small corals) a skimmer can be super helpful, but once things start maturing the equation starts to change.

 

After just a few years, if you've got a bunch of mature corals and few fish, like a lot of us tend to run our tanks, you will likely be struggling to keep your nutrients up and the corals will be soaking up all the dissolved organics you can give them. The skimmer may start to hurt since it'll be robbing your water of the organics the corals are all competing for.

 

In my 20g I had to decommission my skimmer (and slowly the rest of the filtration) because it was actually, measurably, hurting things! If your goal is just a couple fish and a smaller nano full of coral, you don't need a skimmer and if you start with one, you'll probably want to get rid of it eventually if you ever have one.

 

Bigger tanks have room for bigger fish and they make exponentially more waste so even when packed full of corals, even a little bit bigger of a tank will probably need a skimmer.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah to be honest after a few years with this tank the reason I run a skimmer (or the main reason anyway) is to get oxygen into the water to stabilise the pH. It's on so low it fills the cup in about 3 months.. 

[boscoT]

@jservedio @Murphs_Reef

 

this is excellent information. Something that I had never considered from my downsizing to a nano.  
 

I currently run the skimmer on its lowest setting as well. The oxygen for ph totally makes sense.  
 

 

[Trillaman954]

Great responses. I’ve been looking at very inexpensive dyi skimmers so with what you guys are telling me it looks like if I do feel like I need a skimmer, I’ll just make one with bottles and wood air stones. How about refugiums for microalgea? I’ve seen some nice, small dyi refugis made out of small filters.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah I run a "kind of" refugium using a clearview frag rack. I currently have it in the display at the moment so my fish get to pick at the algae. But I've created zones from egg crate and even empty food grade plastic cartons. 

 

Here is my "kind of" refugium sat at the top of the tank.. very thick mass of chaeto and other bits 

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Murphs_Reef
Added pictures

[mcarroll]

On 10/9/2023 at 10:32 PM, Trillaman954 said:

Want as many coral possible. Also have cleaning and blenny. I want to also add fish if possible. But is a skimmer and a sump necessary?

In general you want the largest display that fits your space and budget.  Since you talk about DIY'ing a skimmer from the recycle bin, I assume you're on a budget for this build and 20 gallons is what you really have space for.   In that light, a sump and most other extras wouldn't be needed....but I'd also moderate your expectations.   A coral only tank would be much easier to manage in a really basic setup like that.

 

On 10/12/2023 at 8:16 AM, Trillaman954 said:

Great responses. I’ve been looking at very inexpensive dyi skimmers so with what you guys are telling me it looks like if I do feel like I need a skimmer, I’ll just make one with bottles and wood air stones. How about refugiums for microalgea? I’ve seen some nice, small dyi refugis made out of small filters.

If you have more space and more budget, you should opt for a larger display tank before anything else.  Once you get around 30-40 gallons there are more fish options, room for more corals, chemistry is more easily stablilized, there's more habitat for pods/worms/et al, etc.   Check out Julian Sprung's "sermon" about how everything is a refugium.

 

If you're really into DIY, check out "The Avant-Garde Marine Aquarist..." for bunches of great project ideas.  (You may recognize the author if you get around the forums much.)