Best skimmer for nano tanks? 10-20g

[19Mateo83]

What is everyone’s thoughts on a skimmer for a 10-20g nano tank? I have seen a few and without feedback and recommendations it’s kinda a shot in the dark as far as quality and functionality goes. I’m hoping with the well of knowledge and experience on R2R that someone can point me in the right direction.

 

[Sigmund]

With that size tank I would not get a skimmer. Just another thing to plug in, and make noise. Water changes for a tank that size will work great. Especially if you do vacuuming of sand beds extra to get rid of extra nutrients. Some of this may depend on your expected bio load. I have a 20 gallon drop-off with no skimmer. My favorite tank, as it is so easy to maintain. My 2cents. Some people love tech, I prefer to just reduce the number of things that can break or go wrong. 25 to 50 percent weekly water change, and the tank just thrives. Years in with it right now.

 

[19Mateo83]

With that size tank I would not get a skimmer. Just another thing to plug in, and make noise. Water changes for a tank that size will work great. Especially if you do vacuuming of sand beds extra to get rid of extra nutrients. Some of this may depend on your expected bio load. I have a 20 gallon drop-off with no skimmer. My favorite tank, as it is so easy to maintain. My 2cents. Some people love tech, I prefer to just reduce the number of things that can break or go wrong. 25 to 50 percent weekly water change, and the tank just thrives. Years in with it right now.

That’s kind of my planned route. I’m about to build out a aqueon 14g rimless into an all in one. Lord knows I don’t need to spend an extra $100+ on something I may or may not need in the long run. But, I was thinking if I wanted a skimmer in the future it would be good to plan now since I’m still in the planning stage for cutting the acrylic for the back and baffles. 5 gal water changes weekly are the plan of action at the moment. 1 gallon changes seem to be keeping my little 5g pretty stable. My bio load for the 5g and for the 14g will be just the CUC, a single clown and a goby if I can find one that stays small enough. Coral plan is mostly softies, a couple lps and Monti caps.

 

[90's reefer]

I have tried a few nano skimmers and found this to be super simple to run.
Here is what I did on my 20g nano cube. 2" pvc, air pump, air stone, and siliconed on cup. Its only been running for 2 weeks on a 4 week old tank.
I need to find a better cup.
Just cleaned it after the 2 weeks.

 

[19Mateo83]

I have tried a few nano skimmers and found this to be super simple to run.
Here is what I did on my 20g nano cube. 2" pvc, air pump, air stone, and siliconed on cup. Its only been running for 2 weeks on a 4 week old tank.
I need to find a better cup.
Just cleaned it after the 2 weeks.
View attachment 3093467View attachment 3093464View attachment 3093466

I’m actually rethinking getting a skimmer, I’m having issues with zero nitrates and zero phosphates. That’s a very ingenious design though, I love the simplicity of it.