river reef question??????

Hi every1

i bought a river reef 94L about one year ago, i was told to buy a skimmer if i want corals, clams etc... so i took out the foams and carbons!

Then had a spot of ich in the tank so bought a green killing machine of the net. to try and kill all the ich and algea growth

I just wonded if i need the carbon in my tank???? what does it do?? as taken out the skimmer and replaced it with the green mean killing machine in the third chamber.

I still have some foam that collects all the waste etc in the secoond chamber, this seems to be instead of the skimmer

any thoughts?

 

The "Green Killing Machine" is just an internal UV sterilizer - it's highly unlikely that it's powerful enough to have an effect on Ich. Honestly, I'd ditch it and put your skimmer back in.

Carbon pretty much just polishes the water. It will help to removed dissolved nutrients/chemicals/other nasties and keep things clear. Is it required? No, but I like to run it anyway. To me, it just makes things feel clean (and, IMO, is a hell of a lot more effective than just running sponge or filter floss, as you're doing now).

The "foam" does not replace the skimmer. It will catch solid waste in the water column, but that's about it. It won't removed dissolved organics or proteins the way a skimmer will.