Is a skimmer a must for FO

I agree, on a fish only tank a skimmer is not a MUST. Also on the crushed coral as substrate, I disagree. I have crushed coral in my reef thats been set up for more then 9 years and have never had a problem with detrius matter. The CC acts as a buffer. To each their own but thats from my experience.

 

To answer the age old question of Do I have to have a skimmer on my F/O tank that I think rates right up there with the what came first the chicken and egg debate ,

No you don't have to run a skimmer like with the tires on a car they don't have to be inflated with air either to roll and ride , But the ride and roll will be a far easier and smoother enjoyable ride with the tires inflated . As will the aquarium with a skimmer, I myself think the single best thing to ever happen to this hobby was a commercially available well designed affordable skimmer . And would never run a system skimmer less having ran many systems with and with out one the systems with a good skimmer gave me a far better ride with far less problems And I also use 03 .

 

mechanical filters dont remove nearly as much gunk as a skimmer so IMO use one on every SW setup, yeah their not required, and yeah everyone has a friend or has a tank without one... heck i have a tank without one but it was specifically designed not to have one since it's a nano

on a FOWLR the mechanical bio-wheel filter can help keep the water clearer but the skimmer will get the gunk out of your water so if it were my setup, i'd buy a cheap skimmer and use it, as before mentioned the coralife's work great for a sub $200 skimmer or you can break into a ASM for around 235ish that would do a even better job and have easier maintence since that is the only complaint I have with my coralife that cleaning the collection cup is a pain in the rear since the big O ring has a tendency to get blown off when you remove the collection cup, the ASM's you just do a 1/8 twist and the poopcup is off and no headaches just a god awful stench lol

Also best of luck on this setup I had a friend try a huma huma and a dogface not long ago, didn't end well for the dog face unfortunatly then he replaced the dogface with a large panther grouper and the trigger ended up dead... anyway each fish is different so just wanted to say best of luck on whatever you decide with this setup and remember the pics!

 

I think a skimmer is more so important on a fo tank than on a reef. These fish are filthy eaters. They require lots of food and that stuff has to come out of there. Now I'm not saying it isn't important on a reef but most of the time there's a better clean up crew on the reef to get rid of some of that stuff. In most fo tanks, your clean up crew will get eatin