Baseline:
32 gallon cube, 15 mos old, lots of rock. Mixed corals - mostly softies, LPS and a few birdsnest corals. 5 small fish, various snails/hermits/urchins and ~ 1.5 in sand bed being constantly turned over by conch and diamond goby. Run fleece filter pad changed weekly, chemipure, biopellets and some matrix in the remaining back chamber that’s been there since the tank was started. Coralife UV sterilizer btwn return pump and display outlet. 5 gallon water change thus far every 1-2 weeks as time allows. Feed once daily, either pellets/flake or frozen mysis. Usually do reef roids once weekly. Nitrates (tested weekly) consistently run 10-12 and Phosphates always 0.03-0.05 on Hannah checkers. (Interestingly enough, these never really change whether it’s only been 1 week or 2 btwn water changes). Tank mostly stays clean / steady with a small amount of filamentous and turf algae and fine algae film on rocks - nothing really grows much or gets out of hand as of now.
Here’s the Question:
I was given a tunze nano protein skimmer for Christmas but I’m not totally sure I even need it? I may add a Blenny in the next few months to pick at fine algae film and of course corals will grow (hopefully) but no other changes planned. Thoughts on installing skimmer or leaving well enough alone?
32 gallon cube, 15 mos old, lots of rock. Mixed corals - mostly softies, LPS and a few birdsnest corals. 5 small fish, various snails/hermits/urchins and ~ 1.5 in sand bed being constantly turned over by conch and diamond goby. Run fleece filter pad changed weekly, chemipure, biopellets and some matrix in the remaining back chamber that’s been there since the tank was started. Coralife UV sterilizer btwn return pump and display outlet. 5 gallon water change thus far every 1-2 weeks as time allows. Feed once daily, either pellets/flake or frozen mysis. Usually do reef roids once weekly. Nitrates (tested weekly) consistently run 10-12 and Phosphates always 0.03-0.05 on Hannah checkers. (Interestingly enough, these never really change whether it’s only been 1 week or 2 btwn water changes). Tank mostly stays clean / steady with a small amount of filamentous and turf algae and fine algae film on rocks - nothing really grows much or gets out of hand as of now.
Here’s the Question:
I was given a tunze nano protein skimmer for Christmas but I’m not totally sure I even need it? I may add a Blenny in the next few months to pick at fine algae film and of course corals will grow (hopefully) but no other changes planned. Thoughts on installing skimmer or leaving well enough alone?
