For the last 4 weeks I have been running my 187 gallon reef tank without a skimmer as sort of an experiment.

A few months ago I lost a number of corals due to what I believe were very low levels of phosphate in the tank. I run an ARID algae reactor and it does a great job pulling out nutrients. With the ARID you do have to dose nitrates to keep the chaeto growing and lately I have been dosing phosphates to keep levels from going too low. Ultimately, you want nitrates and phosphates at a 100:1 ratio to maximize chaeto growth.

With the ARID you can either use a skimmer or go skimmerless and let the ARID be the sole form of filtration. Ultimately, I decided to MORE