Skimmer Suggestion

[BrianH]

Hi Roger,

I have a 50gal. sumpless reef tank with a prizm skimmer that I'm not satisfied with. I tried looking at your skimmers on the Tunze website but I can't fiqure out exactly how they are mounted. I also have a canopy and would like to know how much clearance is needed. Please let me know if you have a skimmer that might suit my tank.

Thanks

Brian

 

[rvitko]

A 3110/2 or 210/2 is a slightly better performer than a prism. All skimmers mount in the aquarium. If you have 5" of clearance you will be just fine. Of course as with any skimmer line a bigger model will provide more performance, you are at the margin of where I would consider a 3115/2 but these models are much larger while a 3110/2 or 210/2 is so small it will not be obtrusive. a 3115/2 is about the size of a built in overflow box. If you have an acrylic aquarium these skimmers are not a good choice, they work fine with trimless glass as delivered and on a trimmed glass aquarium you will need accessory kit 3000.244.

Roger

 

[MalHavoc]

Roger, along these lines, is the incremental performance step from a 220/3 to a 230/3 quite large? I was considering a 230/3 for the 120 gallon tank that I am putting together. I certainly don't want to purchase a skimmer that would be underpowered for the application. The 120 will be an SPS and LPS tank, with a few fish.

 

[rvitko]

The 230/3 is a real skimmer, the 220/3 is made to fill a marketing niche, it is only useful in my opinion up to maybe 75gals. I would place the 230/3 in performance, above a Berlin or Turboflotor. I am sustaining a 240 softie and fish tank on a 230/2 with no problems.

 

[MalHavoc]

Excellent, thanks, Roger. I'm leaning towards a Tunze skimmer because I don't really want an uberskimmer anyway - I prefer to leave some particulate matter for corals to feed on. One of the things I like about the Tunze skimmers is that they don't scrub the water column.