protein skimmer

[naeemn]

hello everyone, I have a 90 gal fish only tank with 60lbs of live rock i have no fish in it yet it's a new set up, do you guys recomend getting a skimmer and if yes what kind should i get any recomndations, thanks for all the help.

 

[Jerry W]

Does the tank have a sump?
A skimmer, while not an absolute necessity, will make your life easier. What kind of fish load do you plan to maintain?
For a hang on unit, a Remora Pro might work, if you keep a light fish load. The CoralLife Super skimmer gets' high marks too.
In-sump models will offer more options.

 

[Maxxumless]

ASM 2 if you have a sump... A PM HOT if you don't. Remora have a big following but I got rid of mine due to it being beat out by a PM and an Excalibur.

 

[naeemn]

I don't have a sump but my filteration system is made up of a bioball system with an overflow and a pump that returns the water after it goes through the bio balls

 

[BadOleRoss]

What does the overflow go in to and what is containing the bioballs?

 

[naeemn]

i guess you can call it a sump but it only has 2 chambers 1 for the bio balls where the water trickles down and another chamber where the pump returns the water

 

[Andrew]

You really shouldn't be using the bio-balls. A standard 20 gallon tank or so would be a good size for a sump. I would say an ASM 2, MRC1, Coralife 220 super skimmer, would all be good.

 

[naeemn]

I don't understand why shouldn't i use bio balls is there any evedence to say that bio balls are bad!! I was discussing this with a friend of mine he has had a salt water tank for more than 10 years and he told me that the company that manifactures instant ocean and it conducted an experiment using differnet methods of filteration including the berlin method and the bioball method and some other methods which i can't remember of the top of my head, but at the end the results for the systems were all the same. Is my information wrong?? I'm getting very confused???

 

[mvandepeer]

From what I have learned, bioballs are used for breaking down "stuff" into nitrates but if you have lots of liverock and substrate, bioballs are not needed. They are not BAD to have, just more to maintain. I think that they are not needed/ are useless in a well established tank. My 2cents
I personally swear by having a refugium for taking care of nitrates/phosphates by using macroalgea and a plus is having more water volume, hides extra stuff like skimmer-heater etc...

 

[Serioussnaps]

Get an ASM G-3. You want regret it. I just did a series of upgrades on a tank and it seems that this was one of my better performers out of the upgrades. And its beautiful in its simplicity as well as needing less maintenance than my previous skimmers.

 

[Andrew]

Many people say bio-balls can be a nitrate trap. I used them for awhile and started to test my nitrates and I did nodice a small increase after time. Plus, wouldn't you rather have the space for a skimmer then bio balls?

 

[bertoni]

The bio-balls do seem to lead to higher nitrate levels in some tanks. The BakPak equivalent did for me. The Instant Ocean manufacturer did do a study like that. I've read it and thought it was pretty bogus. Their setups were run for a few months, one of each type, etc. There are some reviews of it here on RC if you want to do some reading.