40 Breeder with only overrated Tunze skimmer as filtration ?

[josh515025]

Hey guys, so currently I had to go fallow and am treating my fish in a 20 Long and I put my inverts and rock in a 20 High. I was running a 35 gallon rimless cube with a Seachem tidal 55 and a Fluval PS1 skimmer. While I wait I decided I'm going to sell the 35 cube and upgrade... Now I wanted to go with a 75 gallon but since I currently rent I know in a year or two or less I'll have to move and a bigger tank would be a major pain. So instead I decided on 40 breeder (not much an upgrade in water volume but better dimensions for aquascaping and my Coral Beauty), and want to go also sumpless for the same reason.

First I was looking into the Fijicube AIO kits. I would've probably used the one in the picture and used Seachem matrix / carbon and placed a Tunze 9004 Skimmer rated for 15-65 gal. Or my other option which I'm leaning more towards now is buying Tunze 9012 skimmer which is rated for 50-260 gallons. Ultimately the money would be about the same considering the Aio kit/pump/media/9004 skimmer vs. just the 9012 skimmer. Oh and it has surface skimming as well. And DC pump so I can adjust how much it skims. And if I upgrade to a 125 gallon a few years down the road once I have my own house it should come in handy.

Does anybody have experience with this skimmer? Or with running only a overpowered skimmer on a not so large tank? Would I be missing out on good options without running filter sock / matrix / carbon / purigen (I have a decent amount of LR)?

 

[BullyBee]

I don’t have experience doing this but always read success stories of FOWLRs just having a big skimmer. I’m not sure about reefs though.

 

[Saltyreef]

Everything looks good. The tunze comline skimmer is a good skimmer for an AIO tank. I used one way back when they first came out.

Proceed

 

[josh515025]

Sweet! So you think I can forgo all the other filtration with this bad boy?

 

[SunnyX]

Hello,

I have always used skimmers rated much higher than my total volume without issue. But, I have always been a heavy feeder. My philosophy for is heavy feedings with an over sized nutrient export system in place. Do this is not for the feint of heart as you walk the fine line of having too clean of a system, which in turn can starve out your corals and lead to a host of debilitating issues such as dinoflagellates.

Another reason to have the proper ratio of nutrients in the system is for the skimmer to preform as designed. If you have less than the desirable amount of nutrients the skimmer will struggle to maintain the proper surface tension required to properly elevate the micro-bubbles.

If i may ask, what type of system do you plan on running? (LPS/SPS/MIXED?).

-Sonny

 

[Gernader]

I’m currently using a Tunze skimmer that’s rated 265g for my 75g tank. Everything is going great and the skimmer is still removing the bad stuff! I wouldn’t worry much for getting an overpowered skimmer, just focus on your nutrient levels and keep them in balance.

 

[josh515025]

Hey sonny, I’m still a beginner but I plan on doing softies and possibly one or two lps frags. More focus on fish than corals for me. Will overskimming be a problem for these corals?

 

[BullyBee]

Hey sonny, I’m still a beginner but I plan on doing softies and possibly one or two lps frags. More focus on fish than corals for me. Will overskimming be a problem for these corals?

My focus is fish and I use a skimmer rated for 75-120g tank.

 

[ApoIsland]

I don’t have experience doing this but always read success stories of FOWLRs just having a big skimmer. I’m not sure about reefs though.

A reef tank is going to have more natural filtration than a FOWLR tank because of the corals sucking up nitrates and phosphates.

You can run any tank on zero mechanical filtration if you are willing to do the water changes. I ran a 55 for a couple years with no sump and no filtration. I did do a 20-25 gallon water change almost every week though so there is increased cost and potentially quite a bit of effort depending on how you have the water change set up.

 

[josh515025]

If I don’t have mechanical filtration wouldn’t a powerful skimmer export the food/waste after it dissolves into the water column? Or is that not ideal. I currently do about 15% water changes every week, but wouldn’t mind doing less often once the tank is more stable

 

[Tamberav]

I had one of these skimmers and personally was not a huge fan. I didn't like the little tabs to take it apart, seemed more difficult to clean then it needed to be. Also where the magnets attach can become brittle over time as they click into little plastic tabs that can break off. It may not be an issue if you never have to change the magnets but it shouldn't have been so flimsy.

Skimming was okay... I ended up getting a CAD that looks like a traditional nice thick body skimmer and it performed better. I have also heard mostly good things about Aquamaxx but never tried one. Ofc with anything you choose, you need to make sure it fits so that may limit your options.

I am normally a big fan of Tunze, love their powerheads and ATO but felt they could design this better.

 

[josh515025]

Yea I was reading up that it was hard to take apart. What size tank did you run it on?