First marine tank

[prowler]

Started 27th August 2003 First Marine tank
Tank 4' x 18" x 18" 240 litres
Water Temperature 26 Degrees Celsius
25 kg Marble Sand (i will be adding more soon)
50 kg Great Barrier Reef Live Rock
Fish: Blue Tang Bi Color Blennie Percula Clown Purple Dottyback Coral Beauty
Green Star polyps Mushrooms Sponges Squamosa Clam Leather Torch
Clean Up Crew: 12 Mini Hermit Crabs Various Snails (Came with rock)
Powerheads x 3 :1200 1050 1000 lph
Lighting: 1 x Lifeglo 6700k 30watt 90cm
1 x Powerglo 18000k 30 Watt 90cm
1 x Coralstar 30 watt 90cm
Blue Actinic comes on at midday goes off 11pm
Other 2 come on 1 pm go off at 10pm
Filtration: Emperor Biowheel 400
Heater: 240 watt
Sea Salt: Aquasonic Ocean Nature Synthetic Sea Salt
Water Parameters:
Ph = 8.1
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5.0
Water changes 25 litres once a week
The water is dechlorinated straight from tap

My tank has only been going 2 months now everything seems to be healthy and growing quite well but i wonder about not having a skimmer. I have read a fair bit since i started in marine but the subject of skimmers always seems to be a bit controversial. I am even after this short time of the opinion that doing water changes weekly the amount of live rock and basically keeping an eye on things that things will be o.k. Am i naive and heading for trouble or do you who have been in the hobby for a while think my set up will be alright.

 

[Anonymous]

I think you're more likely heading for trouble with the lighting you've got (or rather the lack of lighting you've got) considering the clam. Your soft corals will do fine under lower lighting conditions (although you're even at what I would consider the low end for softies).

As for going w/o a skimmer, if you're doing that large a water change that frequently, I think you'll probably be alright. Every now and then look at the surface of your water from underneath (look up through the tank at the underside of the surface). If you see what looks like an oilslick, you're seeing the organics piling up--a sure sign that a skimmer is needed.