help with skimmer

[insanereef]

my tank is 175 gallons with a 20 gallon refuge
i plan on keeping mix of sps and soft coral as well as a few fish and inverts.

what skimmer would be best for me


also the whole "gentle on plankton " thing. can you explain to me the reason to how it does that. as far as i can tell your just saying that your not sucking the water directly into the pump but into the housing then the pump.. any ways im confused. a pump is a pump and an impeller does the same danmage no matter where it is right?

 

[rvitko]

I would recommend the 9010, on this model you can chose plankton safe or not.

I discuss this in fair detail here- http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=718329

The skimmer is plankton safe because it takes in no water. It recirculates the water inside and by establishing an osmotic gradient between purified water within the skimmer and dirty water outside the skimmer the waste enters the skimmer by passive diffusion. I have known people who put the old skimmers in phytoplankton cultures and it did not remove the phytoplankton, at least not faster than it reproduced, of course some will enter but not a significant amount.

 

[insanereef]

would i be better off with the 9020? i like the collection cup on them ( drain thing. what ever you wanna call it)

 

[rvitko]

It is overkill but if you like the drain system it is fine. You can buy that drain system as an accessory but it is about $100.

 

[insanereef]

oh cool thanks! i thoguth that was just a replacment drain not an acessory ( in the marine depot catalouge it is unclear)
so the 9010 and the drain . anything needed if i want to use it in a sump ? is it ok if it is at a slight angel ( my sump tilts to one side)

altho i could put it on my refuge.. but that would be dumb wouldent it

 

[rvitko]

How slight of an angle? I will try to test it.

 

[insanereef]

its a 20 long and the one side is about half an inch lower then the other

 

[rvitko]

Thats a 1.4 degree angle of incline- should be inconsequential.