9004 Skimmer on 12g -- Will it produce skimmate?

[Rakie]

I was reading some threads awhile back and read that overpowered skimmers fail to produce skimmate -- I'm not sure why.

I've got a 12g Cycling, I'm going to add a 3-10g Fuge/Sump to keep Cheato and the 9004 in. I plan to house SPS and very likely a heavy fish load (my gf has her heart set on 3-4 fish).

So will this skimmer produce what I'm looking for, or will it not really work adequately in my smaller reef until it's more heavily stocked?

 

[rvitko]

The reason a really oversized skimmer will not work well is that the skimmer whips up a foam layer that floats on the bubbles, that layer has to build sufficiently to be blown up into the cup, bigger skimmers have bigger cups and if that layer stays as a thin film on a large column of bubbles it will break down and decompose and never build up enough to be removed, if it skims it will be sporadic when sufficient waste is present instead of consistent.

The 9004 is rated to 19.5 gallons stocked the way you plan to, so it is really not too oversized, the 9001 is rated to 11 gallons. You really could go either way, if you will have cheat and phosphate remover, the 9001 is probably sufficient, the 9004 will likely only perform well once the stocking goals are reached.

 

[Rakie]

Thank you!

I've got an Aquatic Life 115 right now, and that's pretty much how mine works now -- It can be fairly clean for days until I move a rock or stir up some dust/detritus in the sand so it sounds like what I'm familiar with.

I'm interested in the 9004 because I think it's a fairly substantial upgrade over my Aquatic Life 115. As eventually I'm very likely going to move onto a 30-ish gallon cube type aquarium and still plan to heavily stock it -- I was hoping it would hold up from now until then.

 

[Rakie]

A follow up --

I'm going to transfer my stuff to a 25g tank, as I got a deal I couldn't refuse, and, bigger tank... SO... How would you feel with a 9004 in a heavily stocked tank (4-5 fish), running SPS, with a potential 10-20g Sump (Also with Cheato).

Do you think this is too much for the 9004, or do you feel it is up to the task?

 

[rvitko]

Since the sump is just added volume without load, it is not really counted toward the capacity, I think the 9004 will work very well for a 25.

 

[Rakie]

Thank you! The only things that will be in the sump will be a Skimmer/Equipment, a bunch of Cheato, and Seachem Matrix Bio-media (About 1L).

What do you feel would max out the aquarium fish-wise with a 9004? -- I'm not looking to shove a tang in there, but if my bioload can support it, my family and girlfriend would very much appreciate 5+ fish. Please let me know what you suggest!

Thanks again, have a great day.

 

[rvitko]

I think if you were doing small gobies, damsels, etc, that would be fine. I would personally do fewer fish unless I stuck to just a group of say 3 neon gobies and a shrimp goby and one gramma or something along those lines. It can be hard to balance a small and hungry tank.