Side by Side Skimmers?

[DrHarryLopez]

I bought another skimmer which I put in the same sump side by side.

Someone just told me "skimmer is right next to each other it will pull out just as much when u have one skimmer"

This doesnt make sense to me as a scientist, if the bio load is too great for one skimmer there should be enough load left for the 2nd skimmer. I would think they both would pull an equal amount of Dissolved organic material (DOM.) Of course if the gate valve and pumps are working at the same rate.

Any thoughts?

 

[RokleM]

Correct. It depends on the skimmers, current load, and how well they're sized.

If the current skimmer is underpowered, the second skimmer will help share the load and they may both perform well pulling out more skimmate combined than one could. If the current skimmer is good enough or oversized, you might actually get WORSE skimming because now you have two oversized skimmers competing for a small amount of material (leading to very poor performance of both).

 

[DrHarryLopez]

hmmmm, so i should just monitor the skimmate and use as needed. I have a total of 400 gal system with several large fish. As we know the larger the fish the more poop the leave! Thanks

 

[zsuzsu21]

IME, when i updated my skimmer (twice) the new model rendered the older one useless.

 

[RokleM]

That is absolutely a possibility as well. If one has a distinct advantage, the other may cease to function. Many people oversize skimmers based on manufacture recommendations, but oversizing too far can really inhibit the amount and quality of skimmate. Skimmers do indeed need a certain amount of junk to skim, and if it's too little they just don't work well at all.

Personally, the few times I've upgrade I've keep both online for a while Fun to see them fight and moreover see if I made the right decision. It also gives that new skimmer some time to break in without sacrificing the amount of skimmate being removed by just abruptly taking the old one offline.

 

[zsuzsu21]

IMO, you can't overskim a reef. For instance, i run carbon,a refugium/dsb,chaeto, and a phosphate reactor and my skimmer still sucks out the smelly stuff

 

[RokleM]

IMO, you can't overskim a reef. For instance, i run carbon,a refugium/dsb,chaeto, and a phosphate reactor and my skimmer still sucks out the smelly stuff

None of those things are skimming beyond arguably a very small portion of the chaeto which removes a small amount of phoshate/etc out of the system. Again, it all has to do with the system, bioload, and the skimmer itself. If you strap a MSX200 on a 10-20g tank, it will perform absolutely horribly. Skimmers need a certain amount of funk to get a good head and collection in the neck and cup. It's relatively common for many guys who buy huge skimmers rated for much larger tanks becuase they might upgrade way down the road start to complaining due to theirbig expensive piece of hardware not working well (and rightfully so). A $100 skimmer can stop a $1000 skimmer on the right sized tank

Again, partially correct that filtration is key and many probably under do it a bit, but it is absolutely possible to go to far.

 

[zsuzsu21]

With all due respect to you and your points, I still do not agree that a reef can be overskimmed, though i cannot speak from experience about uber skimmers i find it hard to swallow that they would not eventually skim the nano. I do know that even in ULN/Zeo tanks which run very low DOC/DOM these systems pretty much still rely on uber skimming. I do agree that the uber skimmer is going to take a few to get going, but once it starts, and start it will. what would the difference be? respectfully Curt

 

[titoreefs]

This is a very delicate topic because there is no mention on what tipe of skimmers Drharrylopez is ussing, however what Roclem states is right too, even if the tank is 400gls and you provably put lets say a 4` wide & 6` tall r2k skimmer (wich I dont even know if it exist) it would`nt skim right because of the disign for wich it was made for. It might handle really well a 3000gl or more gls tank but just plainly be over skimed by any other skimmer well disigned for a 400gl tank.
I know this becuase I have done this experiment and have had 2 skimmers working side by side on the same system and have had one just plainly shut down the foam production on the other. Ex. becket vs. mesh weel on same capasity rate.
For example when you buy a cheap skimmer that is sayed to handle a certain amount of water and it comes with a under power pump youll see that it has a really small diameter neck that tells you tha the pump it uses does not pull a lot of air into the skimmers chamber there for it need a small neck to pull out something Ex. Kents nautilus.
I had one of these suckers and it was like 3`- 4` tall and had a cone with like a 1" neck.
It pulled out something but was really a bad skimmer.
Hope that helps.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Hi Tito
The skimmers are ATI Bubble Master 250 (a Pair) sicci pumps rated at `530G/hr

The Main Display tank is 220G dom SPS, 90g refug (with SPS) , 55g frag tank, 75g(`50g full) sump

Main Display Tank

Frag tank in fishroom and refug behind it with lights off.

 

[on the spot]

The skimmers are ATI Bubble Master 250 (a Pair) sicci pumps rated at `530G/hr

That's way more skimming than needed.

Best send one to me.

 

[NyReefNoob]

your right i don't think you can over skim, but you can have a skimmer that is too much for a system and will not run consistant, harry id sell both and get one skimmer big enough for the system

 

[titoreefs]

In this hobby you will always get diferent opinions on what to do, so i want to state clear that what I say is just an opinion like everyone elses is JUST OPINIONS.

In my own experienses its rather better to have one really good skimmer than to have 2, reason for that is that what ever you have in pairs is double the headake cause there are a number of things that can go wrong and will go wrong that can drive a person crazy.
Dont get me wrong; Those are good skimmers but with the money they comand you could have goten a bigger skimmer with the capasity to handle the same or more rate that those pumps provide on 2 skimmers and handle that rate better on a bigger reaction chamber.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

so far both skimmers are skimming about 1/2" of gonk each after 2 days. lets see after a week.

 

[KafudaFish]

With all due respect to you and your points, I still do not agree that a reef can be overskimmed, though i cannot speak from experience about uber skimmers i find it hard to swallow that they would not eventually skim the nano. I do know that even in ULN/Zeo tanks which run very low DOC/DOM these systems pretty much still rely on uber skimming. I do agree that the uber skimmer is going to take a few to get going, but once it starts, and start it will. what would the difference be? respectfully Curt

Would the skimmer work? Yes.
Will the skimmer work all the time? Probably not.
Why? Not enough organics in the system. The skimmer would still bubble and work but skimmate production (as in collected) would vary from day to day.
The system and the skimmer are unbalanced.

As it has been stated more than one way I guess.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Its been just under a month with the two skimmers and my conclusion is that they each are pulling about the same amount of skimate. IMO, I believe that since they are the same model n type of skimmers they are functioning at the same effective levels. Every week I've been cleaning dark gunk from each. I like dry skimming better then wet skimming, but its more work cleaning

 

[DJREEF]

I run dual SROs (same model) and have found it superior in every way to just running one. I believe that 2 undersized skimmers will almost always out perform one over sized skimmer with lower energy consumption (depending on pumps used) on identical/same systems.

DJ

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Cool to know someone else has the same results!

 

[canyousee]

Dr are your NO3 and PO4 readings lower does the tank look better,how are the animals reacting? If all the above or some of the above is positive it really doesnt matter what every ones opinions are.On your tank 2 skimmers are better. If NO3 etc. are not better your wasting energy and you only need one. What makes reefing hard/exciting is everyone's reef set up is different and what works on one makes another one worse.Glad you started the thread.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Nitrates are undetectable, phos 0.04, zero algea or slime, coral doing well. BTW I'm also using the biopellets in my system which is contributing to the health of my reef.