Skimmer for a 36 bowfront

So far Ive looked at the Hydor Slim Skim and the Tunze 9004. This will be my first time using a skimmer. Are these any good? If there something better let me know. Im trying to keep it under $160 and I dont have a sump

 

I recommend looking into an Eshopps PSK-75H. I have zero experience with either of the first two, so it would just be another option. I use the 75H on my 28 nano and a 100H on my 46 bow, and both are working out awesome.

 

Who needs a skimmer?? I know almost everyone prefers to run with one and on a very large setup where doing consistant WC would get expensive fast I would prefer one, but on smaller tanks nothing is better than frequent WC. MrBill will back me up there!

What do you plan on keeping? If you are doing a low nutrient SPS dominated tank or have a large bioload than a skimmer would be good to have but if you plan on keeping a smaller bioload with a mxied reef of softies, leathers, and lps with only a couple easier sps than a skimmer is not really needed. I run my 46gal without one doing a weeky 5gal WC. Just be mindful of everything you add to the tank and keep on top of your testing and WC.

 

Right now I have 2 O. clowns, yellow watchman, and a mandarin. I have colt coral, frogspawn, rainbow ricordia, and some zoas. Ill probably add some more lps later on. So no skimmer?

 

The 2 clowns and goby are ok, the mandarin is probably going to starve without constant addition of PODs. Hopefully you do or plan on having a refugium to help with pod reproduction and stocking in which case macro will take care of your nitrates. I would keep the tank stocked as it is and many of the corals you have prefer water that is a little on the dirty side. Zoas, mushrooms, softies, and leathers all prefer the water to have some organics as they get their food from light and absorbing thigns from the water column. LPS differ depending what ones you are plannong on keeping, I keep many frogspawn and hammers in my unskimmed system with no problems. Goniopora actually do not do well in skimmed systems.

Unless you plan on housing acropora and other hard to keep sps a skimmer prob isnt needed for your system. Watch how much and how often you feed and how many fish you keep in the system and keep on top of your waterchanges

 

Its always up to you and your stocking. But I have run my 30g biocube without a skimmer for a year and a half now. Everything is great.