+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: going skimmerless

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    10

    Unhappy going skimmerless

    I have a 90g with 20g sump and want to go skimmerless. There's room in my sump for a 9.5" wide x 10" tall screen. Will this be strong enough? The other option I was considering was to build my own Santa Monica 100 but the description made it sound like something bigger would be needed.

    Anyone going skimmerless on their 90g? What setup did you pick?

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    69

    Re: going skimmerless

    I initially built my own using outdoor CFL floodlights. I saw the water quality go up but my DIY design was flawed and meant I was messing around with where the water lands on the screen and stuff like that all the time. Pretty soon that got old. I later had Santa Monica build me an ATS and found that it was well worth the investment. My SM ATS has extremely strong lighting. In fact, the lighting is stronger than what you would think would even work but its is evenly spread out at the same time and works extremely well. I just leave my SM ATS alone and change one of the two screens once a week on Sundays. I'd recommend getting a complete SM with lighting or at least buy a bare bones setup from him for cheap without the lighting and you can leverage what you have lighting wise today. A warning though, once you get the base unit, you'll be down at your LFS in no time buying the off the shelf Nova 24" T5 lighting that his ATS uses. Its a cool setup!

    BTW, I have a 92 gal tank with 30 gal sump and the SM 100 is just about right for that size. I wouldn't go any smaller.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    10

    Re: going skimmerless

    Quote Originally Posted by chrissu
    I initially built my own using outdoor CFL floodlights. I saw the water quality go up but my DIY design was flawed and meant I was messing around with where the water lands on the screen and stuff like that all the time. Pretty soon that got old. I later had Santa Monica build me an ATS and found that it was well worth the investment. My SM ATS has extremely strong lighting. In fact, the lighting is stronger than what you would think would even work but its is evenly spread out at the same time and works extremely well. I just leave my SM ATS alone and change one of the two screens once a week on Sundays. I'd recommend getting a complete SM with lighting or at least buy a bare bones setup from him for cheap without the lighting and you can leverage what you have lighting wise today. A warning though, once you get the base unit, you'll be down at your LFS in no time buying the off the shelf Nova 24" T5 lighting that his ATS uses. Its a cool setup!

    BTW, I have a 92 gal tank with 30 gal sump and the SM 100 is just about right for that size. I wouldn't go any smaller.
    I ended up building my own, to fit in my sump and it was a huge disaster. Had a flood three times; guess my design was flawed. So I decided to go with the SM ATS since it looks really well designed. I wish I could have got Santa Monica to build me one but I'm fish poor. So I got my local plastics shop to cut the acrylic for cheap and I put it together myself. I'm looking forward to hooking it up today.

    lol I already picked up the Nova 24" lights.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    289

    Re: going skimmerless

    I have a skimmerless 90g with a 30g sump/fuge. Built me a horizontal that works. May take this week whle wife and kid are gone to convert to a more efficient verticle. Don't hold me to it.
    I too would like an SM 100 or simular but I hate spending money. I'm a Craigslist reefer.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    115

    Re: going skimmerless

    I'd like to help answer that question but all the scrubbers I've built I made 2x to 3x recommended size. The best answer I can give you is. If you built it with a screen that size and can make a double thick screen and maybe go with 50gph per inch if you can and get in at least 90watts of light properly positioned my guess is. YES. But its all bioload and dependant on feeding habits.
    If you can..do it without mechanical filtration as they are pretty heavy nitrate traps. I occasionally pop in a filter to clean up the particulate but I clean it every day while I'm running it otherwise my nitrates creep up to maybe 5 by the end of a week.

    The 55g I have is 2x sized and it is virtually bullet proof and I can feed it sick amounts of food. No skimmer.

+ Reply to Thread

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts