Protein skimmer or no

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
crazyryceman;2643505; said:
I have a green spotted puffer that is in brackish water right now. I've read that as adults they need to be in salt water so would I need a protein skimmer on my tank. It's only a 30 gallon
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It's not necessary for a protein skimmer for a fish only marine tanks. I've ran fish only marine tanks with just a wet dry filter and kept up with regular water changes.

If your fish is doing fine now and you keep up with regular water changes, it is not necessary IMO. And if you don't plan on keeping anymore marine or brackish fish later you'll end up with something you won't use later. A decent skimmer will cost about $100 or so. There are cheaper alternatives out there if you don't mind playing around with it to get it work. I would stay away from Seaclone since they are a pain in the ass to get working.
 
mach_six;2652282; said:
...I would stay away from Seaclone since they are a pain in the ass to get working.
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They are very easy to get working if you read the instructions and think about what is going on. There is only one adjustment, which is the air valve. I don't know how much easier anyone could make it to operate a skimmer.
 
No valves? :ROFL:

:j/k:They are rather simple to setup, problem comes when you don't have enough DOC for it to work well, then the operator thinks it's not working right and keeps readjusting it, so it seems to never work right or has to be adjusted all the time.

Some are easier / better than others.

Dr Joe

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i have my Green Spotted Puffer in full marine with no skimmer. the tank is a 29G, im using a fluval 4+ internal filter and a pair of 250 gph powerheads for flow. i have 22Lbs of Live Rock in there to help the filtration.

puffer is doing great. loves SW never seen him so happy. skimmers do work, no doubt about it, but they are really expensive for what they are... ive seen air pump driven skimmers on sale for £30, which is rediculous for what is basicaly a tube with a cup on the end.

i do 25% a week WC's on my tank. my levels arent perfect at the end of the week, but whose arent? all my live stock is doing great, even my corals. im going to make a refugium, and fit that to my tank also. that will bring the nitrites down, and should get rid of some algae. maybe look into one of those for a cheaper alternative to a skimmer.
 
Ive always heard that skimmers wont work on freshwater but never tried it. Back when I had a brackish tank I had one and it worked but the load was not all that high so it didnt do anything great. Same tank is now full salt and doesnt really need a skimmer but I still run one. might throw an old one on my fresh tank and see what happens.
 
Welcome To MFK!

With a protien skimmer it would be kind of useful when you want him to convert to full salt when the salinity is around 1.018 or above and anything realy below it a regular power filter should be fine on your 30.
 
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