Skimmers and NPS tanks

[Mischke]

Since feeding in NPS tanks is so heavy, I'm assuming that an oversized skimmer is needed for this kind of tank?

I was hoping to get a general idea of people's tank size and skimmer rating (example; 60 gallon tank with an skimmer rating of 120 gallons, etc). If you'd be willing to tell me I'd appreciate it.

 

[noy]

110g + 30g sump with a CSC250 skimmer - rated at 250g (or 300 depending on where you read it).

I think most skimmers are overrated anyways.

 

[stunreefer]

I run a Reef Octopus NWB-110 (rated at 100 gals) on a ~25 gal net system. I have a Reef Octopus POV rated at 200 gals that I think I'm gonna drop in the sump I feed the crap out of my tank and the POV has a DC pump that I can turn way down assuming it can keep a consistent foam head.

 

[Mischke]

When feeding fine particle food is there any concern that the skimmer may remove them from the water, before the corals get a chance to feed on them?

 

[noy]

A skimmer will skim out particle food no doubt. The question is how long will it stay in your system before it gets drawn into the overflow.

Some foods are floaters (freeze dried cyclop-eeze for example) and get skimmed off fairly quickly.

I have this multi-stage routine in terms of feeding (its easy because I have an apex that is programmed to do this).

I) initial feeding - all pumps / skimmer off - I target feed everything with syringe/turkey baster - even with target feeding - still lots of stuff floating around

ii) Propagation - return pump and skimmer off, reduced flow with directed flow towards specific corals. I turn off some of the flow pumps and I have these lower flow pumps that are pointed to specific corals which kick in. I run this stage for about 30 min. The goal is to channel the remaining fine foods toward the corals without any filtering/skimming. Effectively the food from I) is getting blown around towards the NPS corals.

iii) everything back on - cleaning stage (flow pumps pointed directly to corals in 2 are off however) - the food in the water column will get filtered and skimmed.