Do you NEED a protein skimmer?

[NHfishguy]

You can do a seaweed sump on the cheap if you have space. Easiest if your tank is drilled, but you could use a hang on overflow too. A Rubbermaid stock tank $75, a couple of 150 watt halogen parking lot lights 2X$20 and a pump $100 to get the water back to the tank. I toss beach ball sized bunches of cheato every month. My LFS wont take anymore until they sell what the have!

Tom

 

[Kevin8888]

I would say that you dont NEED a skimmer, and you can cut water changes down drastically by using an algea scrubber, as the scrubber will take out huge ammounts of things that water changes are designed to take out. Why do a water change in a FOWLR when you have all 0s on your tests, and your salinity is correct?

 

[Zfishies]

I think ill go with the skimmer so I cut down alot on wc,an algea scrubber for my tank wouldn't it be huge? Speaking of which what's a good wc schedule ?

 

[FLESHY]

WC's depend on a lot of things.

Stocking
Filtration
Feeding
Macro/Micro Algae and other nutrient absorbers in Sump/ DT
Biological Filtration Sump/DT
Chemical Filtration Sump/DT
Nutrient Uptake

The only way to tell is to start testing the parameters that will matter in your tank before and after h2o changes until they are acceptable at both points.