dismantling. New equipment?

[limitedcrew]

I have had a 39 gal. fish w/ live rock tank up and running for about 1 year now. I am planning on dismantling to change substrate to sand and go to reef setup. I have a large cannister filter and 9 watt uv sterilizer already. Do I really need to have a protein skimmer? Never had one before and have had no problems. Suggestions. Thanks. :wink:

 

[Unarce]

Especially for beginning reefers (if this is your first reef tank), it might be in your best interest to have a skimmer.

Please check the following threads if you haven't already:

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=50899

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=50940

 

[cdeakle]

A skimmer would be ideal on a tank that small. Your water parameters can shift really quickly for the worse. Having a skimmer will help you avoid many problems and help keep your water a little more stable. If not you will need to be prepared to do alot more water changes to compensate..........

 

[fishfanatic2]

Yes a skimmer is certainly ideal for a reef of any size. There are many mdoels, I will reccomend the AquaC Remora and second the Prizm. People say the prizm sux, I have one and its fine tho. :?

You may or may not want the sterilizer sinc eit kills good in addition to bad, that topic is a debated one. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I think you are wasting money on a sterilizer. I've never had one and I have had no algae/bacterial problems to think of.