Wippit Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I've seen several references to "aggressive" skimming. Is this running more than one skimmer? Or a skimmer larger than ordinary for a tank? Either? Should this be done as a routine practice or just on an as-needed basis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 It means running "wet". Running dry can take a long time to fill a cup whereas running wet can quickly fill your collection cup. The size of the skimmer itself really has absolutely no bearing whatsoever as to what size tank it can handle. What the size of the skimmer pertains to is how often will you need to dump the cup and clean the thing without going crazy. In essence you could skim a 240g tank with a tiny Euro-Reef RS80 but you'd probably need to clean the cup twice a day, however a much larger skimmer might only need attention once a week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexKilpatrick Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Just to clarify a little more. Aggressive skimming means you skimmate looks kind of like tea. "Dry" skimming means it looks more like coffee. You should be able to tweak it by adjusting the water level in your skimmer. Depending on your sump design, you may need to have an automated top-off in order to keep the water level consistent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddybluewater Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Should this be done as a routine practice or just on an as-needed basis? I think you should always run a skimmer that is designed for a larger tank. IE 50g tank run a 100g skimmer, 100g tank run 180g skimmer. That way the skimmer and you, don't have to work as hard. This will also allow you to skim more aggressively when needed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Daniel Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Well, I've settled on a skimmer rated several times my tank's size. I'm happy and my corals are happy. I tend to disagree with Mike on a larger skimmer not being able to pull out more skimmate over a given period of time. A smaller skimmer (a smaller pump) will most likely remove less than a larger skimmer (with a larger pump), up to some maximum-- I'm sure there will be diminishing returns with larger skimmers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I hooked up a $8,000 Euroreef skimmer to my 75g tank and have the pictures here at ARC to prove it should you care to look it up. I did this because I was having a hard time with a hair algae outbreak and I happened to have this skimmer at my home for another of my tanks. The reason I did this was because I set my Tunze stream pumps down in my sand bed so that all of my detritus would be suspended and be pulled down into my sump to be removed by my skimmer. My RS135 couldn't really keep up as it needed to be emptied every couple of hours. I decided it was time to pull out the Euro-Reef CS 12-5 RCx4 Eheim 1262 skimmer. It holds almost 20g just in the chamber. The cup holds 5g of waste. Sure this really cleaned up the tank and rid me of my algae problem but I will note 2 things of interest. The first was that if I did the math, I emptied the larger cup about once a day as opposed to about once every 2 hours with the smaller skimmer. It was almost directly on par as to how much could be pulled from the water in any given period of time, just it was less hassle on my part with the larger collection cup. And within a couple of days of blowing the pumps directly into the sand bed and rock work, the tank became crystal clear AND BOTH skimmers quit producing. What I did note was that if I had not disturbed the tank as I had, I feel that the larger skimmer would not have produced any more skimmate from the water than the RS135. The water only had so much waste within it to remove. When I made a hurricane hit my reef the RS135 worked just fine at removing the waste, it just had no place to put it. Had I drilled the collection cup and hooked a hose up to a 5g bucket it would have produced the same amount of skimmate as the CS12 did. Keep in mind that everything in my filtration is dependent upon the parameters of my sump, as are all of our tanks. Without changing my sump design and plumbing, I wasn't really skimming any more water through either skimmer. I was still just pulling the same 800gph through the sump. So was this a real world test? I would say yes. Can I compare it to when I set up my 400g tank? No. This is because I will have a 150g sump set up to a 3,000GPH return pump. I will be drafting much more water from the main tank to the skimmer. Now had I changed the parameters of my original design on my 75g tank so that I was drafting more water directly into the skimmer from the tank, then yes I would have seem a difference in the performance. Keep in mind that your skimmer can only remove what your overflow can deliver to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I have a coral life 220 skimmer on my 300 gallon system, I know that it is to small but I bought it when I only had a 175 gallons tank. I have tubing attached to the cup and it runs to a 2.5 gallon jug, so no more cleaning the cup. This was my first skimmer to ever purchase and I assumed that all skimmer cups have the ability to simply attach a drain tube, it that not correct? If I were having to dump the cup a couple of times a day that would be a lot of nasty work (boy that stuff stinks!). Even though it is to small it seems to be working fine, my water paramters are great. If you are aggerssively skimming and have a freshwater top off make sure that you keep an eye on your salinity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.