To Skim or not to Skim?....That is the question.

Aeration is one benefit i can think of

 

I have had a 29 for about 2 years now never skimmed just had a penguin 350 hob filter.. but on the other had I have a 50 and my dad has a 120 and skimmers on those makes a big difference wit the water quality and to help with getting rid of arganic waste.. so id say go with it just for the benefits and u cud get one on buy.com for $42 free shipping well worth it

 

IMO, there's no negative to skimmer and it will benefit all reef tanks. That being said, the point of skimming is to reduce the amount of organic waste in the water. If you do frequent, larger water changes, you can get by without a skimmer. That method however doesn't nearly work as well on larger tanks as the time and money in salt will easily and quickly cover the cost of a skimmer. I agree with Inwall however that if you have sps, I would skim. You will most likely notice much more vitality in your sps and growth rates in your sps if you start to skim. I ran a skimmer for a while, then it broke so I didn't have a skimmer for about 5-6 months. I notice decreased growth rates in all of my corals. If you skim, your phosphates will probably come down too.