Skimmer for 20gallon Tall tank

[Guy W]

I've got a 20 gallon tall tank and I'm thinking about getting a Prizm hang on skimmer for it since I won't be running it to a sump. I have no experience with Prizm skimmers however so I wanted to know what you guys thought about this skimmer or can you recommend another similar hang on skimmer for a 20gallon tall tank?

Also, off the subject a little. I'm going to run this tank with LR/DSB and a skimmer and powerhead for circulation. I've never ran a tank without a wet/dry. I've still got my wet/dry on my 125gallon tank and it's been running for a year and I just don't have the courage to pull the bio-balls.

The reason why is I have a friend with a 125gallon tank and he has the same setup as me, 150# of LR, 4-5" DSB, Lots of Ciruculation, Skimmer in his sump. Only difference is he doesn't have bio-balls. Now he can keep 2 fish alive in there but whenever he puts a 3rd or 4th (he trys to add 1 or 2 every now or then), they die. What I don't understand is, we have tested his water numerous times and there are no problems that we can find. pH is good, 8.0 to 8.3 depending on who's kit we use, Amm. Nitrites are 0, Nitrates never get above 10ppm. dKH is a little on the low side, 7 to 8 degrees, but still ok I think.

On the other hand my tank has been running for almost a year now, and I even moved it once (moving 125gallon setup sucks by the way), and I have never lost a fish. the only difference is the wet/dry.

Anyway, the moral of the story here is I'm just not really confident in running a tank without bio-media based on what i've seen with his setup. But i'm going to give it a try on this small tank since all I want to keep in it are inverts and 2 small percula clowns.

Well thanks for the info.

Guy W

[Soccer]

Hey Guy W good to see you back!

About the skimmer, I personally would say go for the prizm. I just recently (bout a month ago) added a prizm to my 30g reef, and couldn't be happier. They are cheap skimmers, and they work great. I have heard some people having trouble getting them dialed in, but they say when there dialed in they are great. (i never had this problem) They also pull out a heck of a lot of gunk. My nitrites, ammonia and nitrates are all at zero now and the collection cup is always filled with brown foamy gross smelling stuff.
IMO they are worth it and good for small tanks.;)

[BrianH]

Nice to see you back Guy,

I agree with soccer about the prizm. It will be fine on a 20 gal. tank. If you want to spend a little more you could get a Bak Pak but the Prizm should be fine.
I don't know what is going on with your friend's tank but most of the reef tanks I've seen (including mine) are run with LR and a DSB only without any bio filtration and I've never seen any mysterious deaths using this method. He must have some other issue with his tank IMHO.
Brian

[Guy W]

thanks for the info on the prizm skimmer guys. I'll probably end up going with that one.

as for my friends tank, I have no idea why it was so unsucessful. I've never seen a tank running with no hardware filtration, but I've heard of many people doing it. i would imagine you can't keep as many fish in a LR/DSB setup as you could with a wet/dry but he's only got a small Coral Beauty and a small Kole Tang. I guess it will remain a mystery until someone with more experience than myself or him takes a look at his setup.

thanks again.

gW

[BrianH]

Coming into his hobby with a FW background, I had the same fears as you regarding no mechanical biofiltration. I can tell you that I run a 50gal sumpless reef tank with a maroon clown, firefish, hippo tang and a mandarin. Some people would consider my tank overstocked and I don't have any problems. My biofiltration consists of about 75 lbs of LR and 4" sand bed. I used a prizm skimmer on this tank for about seven months and only recently upgraded to a Remora pro. So my skimmer was even undersized for most people. I've also met a few local reefers over the last year and all of them use the same LR/DSB combination. Most of the local fish stores frown upon this method but the local reefers have much nicer tanks than all off those lfs's.
JMHO

Brian