Two at 80% ea

[ZoeReef]

Planning a large reef tank..600g for next year.

I hear over and over of the necessity of redundancy. Would I be better off operating 2 skimmer each rated at 500g or so. In tandem they would far exceed the capacity of the tank, yet if one dies, the remaining skimmer will handle most of the needs of the tank.

Any thoughts?

 

[Danables]

IMO one skimmer rated for your tank would be better than two. Why spend extra cash and electricity and on a 2nd skimmer. I would just buy and extra pump just in case the skimmers pump fails.

 

[jjackson]

and honestly, what would happen if your 1 skimmer went down for a week before you could get it back online? it isn't like your water would be stagnant. I mean it isn't the end all of your tank if your skimmers pump died...

 

[ZoeReef]

Thanks! those are the kinds of opinions I wanted to hear.. Andy

 

[Kinetic]

a skimmer doesn't need to be run 24 hours. if you lose one for a week, it's not a problem at all =) your tank should be able to sustain itself, especially such a large one.

rule of thumb for skimmer ratings is that you should usually get one rated for more gallons than your actual tank is. Sometimes the ratings are a little high.

 

[ZoeReef]

thx koden

 

[Kinetic]

no problem

When I got my skimmer, I got one that was rated for twice as much water volume as my tank. That might be overdoing it, but I think it was worth it .

goodluck, and that's a beautiful yuma you have as your avatar.

 

[ZoeReef]

Thanks. I just got that one about a week ago.

 

[pondfrog]

zoereef,
You definately want 2 skimmers that run at any level, the more the better.
Is it more expensive? yes
Is it more time consuming cleaning 2 skimmers? Yes

Are we committed to our hobby? ...........

The reasons to use more than one skimmer are twofold:
1. Any individual skimmer is never running at 100%efficiency, as that muck builds up on the inside your skimmer efficiency drops off, and if you are like most people in hte hobby you clean your skimmers way to infrequently. Then when you do clean them it takes a few days to get up and running at a good level again. Skimmers run best with a very small amount of film/buildup in hte neck. Having 2 skimmers allows you to clean one every other time, so hopefully one is always working fairly well. Heck 3 or 4 skimmers would be even better!

2. THis reason is a bit hypothetical, but there is the idea to use 2 skimmers of differnet methods. The idea being that different types of skimmers are better/worse at removing different types of organics from your water. I can't prove that , but it sure makes sense.

HTH

 

[Kinetic]

hey pondfrog, that's some good stuff.

ideally you'd want two 6 foot skimmers, but hey, would we do just as well as without? Probably.

You're tank will do very well with just one skimmer too, but if you really want a lot of skimming, more the better.

If you're asking if your tank will crash with just one skimmer, it won't because of a single skimmer setup, but if you want the highest efficiency, go with what pondfrog said.

 

[shaw]

The advice that i've heard from the experts is to have two skimmers. Precautionary.
I work in a public aquarium, and it is actually bad when a skimmer goes down. This means big problems, especially because our ozone is directly correlated with the skimmers. so, cloudiness does occur, and possible bacteria flourishes.
hey, if you have the money for a 600 gallon, then might as well be cautious.

thanks
shawn

 

[ZoeReef]

Peace of mind is important. So are dollars. And you're right there will be some major dollars involved with a 600g. Because it's use will be in a public place (church/childcare) I am thinking in terms of levels of redundancy. If I am out of country for a week and I have others involved with husbandry..I still want as much peace of mind as I can reasonably afford. When you're pretty new at this, as I am, it's hard to have the judgment as to what is truly important and what is not.

In all of my reading it seems that the skimmer is such a key component of a healthy tank.

I really appreciate the well expressed comment.. All very helpful in presenting different sides of the mountain.

 

[reefkeeper2]

Why on earth would your skimmer go down? I mean if your going to buy a high end skimmer I can't see any reason why it should fail. Just keep it clean and have replacement parts for your pump available just in case. A lot cheaper than 2 skimmers!

 

[ZoeReef]

reef, a valid thought

 

[shaw]

Let me tell you that skimmers do go down. My work place has about 30 skimmers, ranging in size from 5 foot x 12 in diameter, and up to 13 feet tall by 6 feet in diameter. RK2 skimmers. and yes, they do go down.
anything in the world will "go down" at some time. all animals and machines have faults.

thanks
shawn

 

[ZoeReef]

shaw, if there was a readily available pump, do you think that would take care of the big chunk of problems expected with a skimmer?

 

[chtan]

I would go with 2 skimmers, though 1 huge skimmer may be more cost efficient and energy efficient as you are going to have the display in a public place and may not look at the equipment everyday.

Though a tank can run a week or so without a skimmer, if you had a tank filled with corals or fishes, then a skimmer failure for a day is not a desirable thing as the water quality will deteriorate very fast.

Just look at the amount of gunk produced daily on a fully loaded tank .... with my sps tank, despite using a skimmer 4 times the tank capacity (I have another smaller run one running too), I clean the skimmer cups daily as it is always brown with gunk daily.

Better safe than sorry.