Protein Skimmer when is one too big?

[waldoz]

Basic question, is there ever a time when you can buy one that is too big? Its there one size that fits all or a good medium size? I don't ever see my self getting into the hundreds of gallons so looking to find one that will fit most bills of salt tanks. I am thinking I am going with a shallow reef tank after I saw the shallow reef tank club tread. Thanks for any info for the newbie. Oh one other thing if you can include what tank size and skimmer you have that would be a plus.

 

[Misled]

You can see mine below in my sig.

 

[sponger0]

The max on a skimmer I would go is 2x the volume of your system. So if oyu have 50 gallons and your sump is 20, I would shoot for something between rated for 100-150 gallons.

On my 40 breeder, that I no longer have, I used a Reef Octopus NWB-110 which is rater for 100 gallons and my system was a total of 55 gallons of water. So it was pretty close to double the water volume. And it worked good for me.

 

[thegrun]

I wouldn't worry about over-sizing until you get to 4x and even then I doubt you would have any problems. Some manufacturers ratings are close to accurate, but I would double your tank size for 90% of the skimmers on the market.

 

[kegogut]

I don't ever see my self getting into the hundreds of gallons .

Mwhahaha. :fish2:

Welcome to the addiction. When I bought my first tank it was a 42 pentagon tank. Now I have that,a 75,a 120,and a 225.

 

[waldoz]

That sounds good. That will give me some wiggle room to grow.

 

[fazilosman]

IMHO it is possible for a skimmer to strip the water of organics and then be unable to sustain a decent foam head. I agree with 2 times the total system volume but would be afraid to push it much beyond that. I do recall that the folks from Reef Speciality (Mike) discussed this in a forum when I was researching my skimmer a few months ago. I had a 300g skimmer on my 90g a few years ago that sort of did this and I could never get it dialed in to be consistent. My new skimmer is a SRO-3000INT on my 165g and that is doing GREAT. The head is consistent and always foamy...

Hope this helps... http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1727974&highlight=sro+foam+head&page=2

The smaller skimmer with the smaller neck is more suitable to your type of display and size. The SRO 3000 is a larger skimmer with a larger neck size that in order for it to skim consistently then there must be enough organics within that skimmer to keep a structured head of foam and crown over into the cup. I can defiantly say that the SRO with its 6" neck is too big for your system. I have a considerably heavy load in my 180gal mixed reef display and IMO the SRO 5000ext is too large and is why I am replacing it with the XP3000ext. If you plan on stocking the tank with some decent size fish then go with the SRO/XP-3000 model but if you plan on keeping the levels low in a mixed reef, I would suggest the XP-2000 as it will skim steady and offer you more control. Like I said you are right in that margin where both model skimmers will work, it is just deciding what is best for you and your system.

 

[b0bab0ey]

IMO, over-sizing/over-skimming isn't going to be an issue for most people.

And if it does become a problem, then you can always set your skimmer to run on a timer, or just don't scrub the cup out when you dump it and that right there will cut down on your skimmer's efficiency.

 

[shonc182]

IMHO it is possible for a skimmer to strip the water of organics and then be unable to sustain a decent foam head. I agree with 2 times the total system volume but would be afraid to push it much beyond that. I do recall that the folks from Reef Speciality (Mike) discussed this in a forum when I was researching my skimmer a few months ago. I had a 300g skimmer on my 90g a few years ago that sort of did this and I could never get it dialed in to be consistent. My new skimmer is a SRO-3000INT on my 165g and that is doing GREAT. The head is consistent and always foamy...

Hope this helps... http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1727974&highlight=sro+foam+head&page=2

+1 -- I have a Reef Octopus NWB-200 (rated for 250gal, I think) on a 90g w/ 22g sump. The system has a moderate load and I too find it difficult to stay consistent. That being said, I still think bigger is almost always better.

 

[sponger0]

IMO, over-sizing/over-skimming isn't going to be an issue for most people.

And if it does become a problem, then you can always set your skimmer to run on a timer, or just don't scrub the cup out when you dump it and that right there will cut down on your skimmer's efficiency.

I was going to say the same is to put it on a timer

 

[jameshr]

You can generally tell that a skimmer is too big when the organics are collected in the neck and not in the cup or if the skimmer can't keep a constant head of foam.

 

[jason2459]

I guess the next question is when is a thread too old to reply to?

 

[nuxx]

A lot of skimmer companies also over-inflate the volumes their skimmers are made for.

You should be fine at 2x system volume.

 

[ca1ore]

I wouldn't worry about over-sizing until you get to 4x and even then I doubt you would have any problems. Some manufacturers ratings are close to accurate, but I would double your tank size for 90% of the skimmers on the market.

I agree with this. Also consider that volume rating on a skimmer is a proxy at best, and useless at worst; and that bioload is what determines the necessary skimmer size. Unfortunately there is no practical way to standardize bioload.

I have routinely used skimmers 'rated' for 3x the volume of a particular tank. On my current 90 gallon FOWLR, for example, I run an ASM G3 that is rated for 250 gallons and it works just fine.

 

[victorcan]

I have a SRO 5000int on my 220 gal DT. However I have a 75Gal Fuge that over flows to a 125gal Sump (approx 70gal volume) the fuge has a cheat and some mangroves in it and the sump has a few fish and a ton of corals in it.. Am I over skimming? I pull good dark brown skim off every day roughly 2/3 full. Was told by coralvue it was way to big a skimmer regardless of my additional tanks on it? I have about 30 fish (roughly 309" of fish) in my dt and a ton of coral? I called coralvue because my 3 week old SRO5000's bubble master pump is ramping up and down sporadically and is even making a whining sound. He tried telling me I had a DC pump and Im like no Ive got the box it came in right here its a bubblemaster5000. Didn't notice the problem till i started turning off the skimmer when I turned off my return to TF. but the tech support guy went into a tirade about me not needing a skimmer that large and I was like I am running biopellets for carbon and have a pretty substantial bioload and was just a real jerk about me not needing a skimmer that big and all I wanted was for them to fix a obviously bad pump! Anyways now the idiots got me second guessing my skimmer choice. none the less Ive owned a dozen or so reef octopus skimmers in the last 20 years and currently employ 3 on 3 different systems, this will more than likely be the last given the attitude, and fact I had to pay for a new pump to be overnighted as he wanted to send me a new impeller to try first which he said Id have in 3-4 days ROFL (and the impeller was perfectly fine) anyways Big bioload Carbon dosing and massive amount of corals? Ive always run my system on the pretense I couldn't skim enough (within reason) if the skimmer could fit in the tanks sump it was better to be big than small

 

[WaReefer458]

I used a sro3000int on my 75 and had great results with it. Only did a few water changes a year and never had water quality issues. I dosed calcium and alk as well as some trace elements. Now I have a 40b with an aquac ev120. It works but with such a small bioload it doesn't keep a good head or fill the cup very fast but the stuff in the cup is thick.