6 days till I pick up the tank and I CANT WAIT!.
Anyways...
I am currently trying to decide on what I should do about skimming the new system. I originally intended to purchase a second 3 pump Octopus skimmer. I was going to run each skimmer off its own overflow. That would assure that 100% of the display tank water would be skimmed. I have now decided not to purchase another Octopus skimmer.
My main problem with the skimmer is the pumps. I feel that the pumps do not pull enough air for the body size of the skimmer. This forces me to run the water level higher in the skimmer than what is optimal. The higher water level causes another problem. When a pump stops working, the water rises higher in the airline tubing from the pump than the top of the tubing, which causes a flood. If the pumps were ultra reliable, it wouldn't be a big issue. Unfortunately, at least one of the pumps fails each month. Normally the pumps can be restarted (although you have to blow in the pumps to get them to restart). My guess is that people with the in sump models have these problems, and simply ignore them. With an out of sump skimmer, you are just waiting for disaster. The only way to avoid all this, is to run the skimmer a bit lower than you would expect, and just live with reduced performance. Don't get me wrong, the skimmer still skims, but it just isn't all it could be for the body size. On a 180 or a 210, this skimmer would be great, but I am looking at 900 gallons of water. I need something that packs more of a punch.
I know that a lot of people have been moding their pumps to improve the performance of these skimmers. However, I have also read a bunch of reports that the modded pumps stop working after six months. That might not be a huge deal for people with 1 or 2 pumps, but I don't want to end up with 6 of these things, and have to replace them twice a year. I have already had one pump completely fail, and I replaced that pump and purchased a backup. Obviously, I am already on the road to continuous pump replacement. No need to make things worse by chopping up the pumps.
Which brings us to this:
What skimmer(s) should I buy?
My plan is to run as much as 1500 gph through the display(which will feed the skimmer or skimmers). This amount can be reduced to fit whatever works best for the skimmer, but 1500gph is a practical maximum. The area I have to work with is 48" left to right and around 30" front to back. This space will fit one monster skimmer or a pair of medium size skimmers comfortably. I need a solution that will legitimately skim 900 gallons. I want to stock the 420 gallons of the display very heavily. Since I was not planning on spending a bunch of money on a skimmer, price is an important concern. On the other hand, I don't want to buy something that won't work for the job.
I intend to use the skimmer I have (and stock lightly) until I come up with a better solution. If I ended up deciding to get 2 skimmers, I may purchase one while using my current skimmer and saving for the second skimmer.
The 2 skimmers I am currently looking at seriously:
2 of these --- ReefFlo skimmer --- 12" body 32" tall. Run with a dart.
1 of these --- Volcano skimmer --- 18"body 48" - 72" tall. Run with a dart and air pump.