Tunze 9002 skimmer in a 3g pico?

[ReneX]

Hi there, I've got a question and I figured this would be the right place.

I have a 3 gallon pico tank that houses sun corals. They are fed meaty foods once a day. Right now I'm controlling wastes by frequent massive water changes, but I'd like to add a skimmer to help. Would the 9002 work in this situation? I realized it's massively oversized for the tank but that seems to be somewhat normal for tanks housing nonphotosynthetic corals. My concern is that I've heard of skimmers doing odd things in small volumes and with meaty foods present. My other concern, other than it just failing to skim for mysterious reasons even though the water is very dirty, is that submersion depth is important for this skimmer. My tank water is about 7" deep and I could perhaps get it up to 7.5" deep but no higher. Would this be a problem?

Thanks for your time.

 

[rvitko]

The minimum submersion depth is 7", 7.5" is ideal. If there are a lot of fats and oils in the food that could be a problem. Personally I would probably hook up a 10 gallon sump, it would add a lot of volume and stability and hide the skimmer. I always think it is a fun trick to use a 50 gallon sump on a 5 gallon tank, people are always amazed by the pristine 5 gallon and never know about the huge sump running it.

 

[ReneX]

Thanks Roger. I think I'll give it a try. I rinse my foods before feeding so that should help with the fats and oils. I was going to construct a false wall that will rise above the water level and hide equipment on the back of the tank like the skimmer cup. If I can't get that to work I'll consider a sump.

If all else fails, I have an unskimmed 10 gallon soft coral tank that I'm sure would appreciate the skimmer