Foam finesse: How do you choose the size of your skimmer?

[LPS Bum]

I have the RedSea 425 so about 100gal and an RSK600. RedSea recommends the 600 for my tank but it's just not necessary. It took forever to break in with my new setup; prob a function of the very low bio load. Totally unrelated to the poll question but interesting to me.....why does RedSea recommend a certain skimmer with a specific water level mark, for a specific RedSea sump, but that mark is impossible to hit unless you put it on a skimmer stand?

Agreed. I’ve noticed that as well.

And that’s exactly why I built myself a DIY skimmer stand. I suppose the bonus is that you can keep some extra water volume in the sump.

 

[Bob Escher]

Oversize. A buble magus curve 5 is rated for up to 140 gallons, my actual total water volume is around 33 gal.

Mine is fifty, without sump water I have had my bubble magus 5 elite for six years, i love it

 

[shwareefer]

I buy one that's too big and then I buy a bigger aquarium.

 

[August]

I agree that the skimmer needs to fit in the place you want to put it. I got a coralife skimmer back in the day thinking I would run it in the sump, until I discovered that my DIY sump and tank stand just wouldn't work and I refused to put in on the back of the tank even though it was a HOB skimmer. I should have returned the thing but I was new to the hobby and thought I could rig up something to work.

I am not seeing any post commenting that skimmers are only part of the filtration and can be undersized if you are running socks or filter fleece. BRS did a section on skimmer selection that I thought was very helpful and they pointed out that you can under size the skimmer. There is a lot of tuning that I have done on my Reef Octopus space saver from adjusting the height of the water in the sump chamber to the flow rate of the varios needle wheel pump.

To fight nitrates I have been dozing carbon to help with bacterial colony production which has been very effective in reducing the nitrates in my tank which used to always run really high. Running a skimmer is suppose to be required as a way to export the nitrate consuming bacteria.

 

[Minifoot77]

I'm still trying to figure it out but I've got 2 simplicity skimmers and they seam to be working well

 

[zoomonster]

When I built this tank, I got a reef octopus XP3000i which is rated 200-300. That was based off a 200g tank and 38g sump. Don't recall my thinking back then but it was probably oversizing since I usually end up overstocking and carrying a heavy bio load. I lucked out when I ordered it because it just did fit in my sump and it's been an awesome skimmer or should I say sludge collector. That HY3000 pump has been running around the clock over 9 years w/o issue with ozone.

 

[NickGrab]

Other, my tank's a 5' x 2' and I run a SRO 5000 ext which would be way overkill for most reef tanks but I have a big fish bio load & carbon dose. The skimmer has a lot of volume and a long, controllable dwell time, it never really stops producing.