No skimmer?

[Hammer]

I am trying to start a sal****er tank. I have been keeping freshwater
for several years, and then had to leave the country for a while for a
job and took apart my tank giving away all the fish. I am back now and
trying to start up a sal****er tank. The question is I want a VERY
SIMPLE one to maitain. My job takes me on the road up to two maybe
three weks at a time. Now my wife is home to take care of the tank
when I am gone, but for her taking care of the tank means feeding them,
and if really necessary she MIGHT take out a dead fish.

I tried a protein which I never could get to work right, and then saw
it would probably require her to empty the skimmer, not something that
thrilled her. But I did see on a web site that you could have a deep
sand bed with live rock and no skimmer? I do have about a 4" sand bed
with lots of live rock. Would that work?? I mean is a skimmer really
needed?

Thanks.
Mark.

[TheRock]

Yes you need one. There's a lot of "crap" in the water that needs to be
removed.
I recommend the Aqua C Remora Pro with a drain fitting for you.
So when it starts to fill up it can drain out on it's own.
You'd still have to clean it up every now and then or they just don't work
as good.

SIMPLE to maintain... I don't think can ever mean, set it and forget it.

However if you get a tank full of Damsels then you may be OK.
I've seen Damsels that have been left alone for 2+ months in the same water
no problem.

Get a few crabs for the dead fish problem. They like to eat.

Can you elaborate more on your setup and what you
plan on keeping ?

Chris




"Hammer" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I am trying to start a sal****er tank. I have been keeping freshwater
> for several years, and then had to leave the country for a while for a
> job and took apart my tank giving away all the fish. I am back now and
> trying to start up a sal****er tank. The question is I want a VERY
> SIMPLE one to maitain. My job takes me on the road up to two maybe
> three weks at a time. Now my wife is home to take care of the tank
> when I am gone, but for her taking care of the tank means feeding them,
> and if really necessary she MIGHT take out a dead fish.
>
> I tried a protein which I never could get to work right, and then saw
> it would probably require her to empty the skimmer, not something that
> thrilled her. But I did see on a web site that you could have a deep
> sand bed with live rock and no skimmer? I do have about a 4" sand bed
> with lots of live rock. Would that work?? I mean is a skimmer really
> needed?
>
> Thanks.
> Mark.
>

[Hammer]

Thanks,

My set-up is a 54 gallon corner tank. I currently have about 58 lbs of
live rock curred in it with a deep sand bed of about 4 to 4.5 inches.
I guess I might have been suckered in on a web site that claimed all
you needed was a deep sand bed and live rock and that would be filter
enough. I must say though I set it up around Thanksgiving, but in
some Damsels around Christams and it test well, and the fish are doing
fine.

[TheRock]

I highly recommend browsing this site if you didn't already.
www.wetwebmedia.com
They have a lot of great info and q & a

Including Skimmers and Filtration.
But I believe the Deep sand bed method includes live rock and a skimmer.




"Hammer" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Thanks,
>
> My set-up is a 54 gallon corner tank. I currently have about 58 lbs of
> live rock curred in it with a deep sand bed of about 4 to 4.5 inches.
> I guess I might have been suckered in on a web site that claimed all
> you needed was a deep sand bed and live rock and that would be filter
> enough. I must say though I set it up around Thanksgiving, but in
> some Damsels around Christams and it test well, and the fish are doing
> fine.
>

[Wayne Sallee]

No you don't have to have a skimmer. You can run a reef
tank without one. But I highly recomend that you do have a
skimmer. It helps a lot. Like "TheRock" said, get one with
a drain, and then just get a large collection container.
Then teach the wife how to dump a container of water down
the sink :-) The protine skimmer risor tube needs to be
cleaned periodicaly for it to work at it's best, but when
you are away, I would not worry about having the wife
clean it. You can clean it when you get back.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



TheRock wrote on 1/19/2006 12:06 AM:
> Yes you need one. There's a lot of "crap" in the water that needs to be
> removed.
> I recommend the Aqua C Remora Pro with a drain fitting for you.
> So when it starts to fill up it can drain out on it's own.
> You'd still have to clean it up every now and then or they just don't work
> as good.
>
> SIMPLE to maintain... I don't think can ever mean, set it and forget it.
>
> However if you get a tank full of Damsels then you may be OK.
> I've seen Damsels that have been left alone for 2+ months in the same water
> no problem.
>
> Get a few crabs for the dead fish problem. They like to eat.
>
> Can you elaborate more on your setup and what you
> plan on keeping ?
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
> "Hammer" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>
>>I am trying to start a sal****er tank. I have been keeping freshwater
>>for several years, and then had to leave the country for a while for a
>>job and took apart my tank giving away all the fish. I am back now and
>>trying to start up a sal****er tank. The question is I want a VERY
>>SIMPLE one to maitain. My job takes me on the road up to two maybe
>>three weks at a time. Now my wife is home to take care of the tank
>>when I am gone, but for her taking care of the tank means feeding them,
>>and if really necessary she MIGHT take out a dead fish.
>>
>>I tried a protein which I never could get to work right, and then saw
>>it would probably require her to empty the skimmer, not something that
>>thrilled her. But I did see on a web site that you could have a deep
>>sand bed with live rock and no skimmer? I do have about a 4" sand bed
>>with lots of live rock. Would that work?? I mean is a skimmer really
>>needed?
>>
>>Thanks.
>>Mark.
>>
>
>
>