SKIMMER CONFIDENCE: How much difference does the RIGHT SKIMMER make?

How confident are you that your skimmer is the right skimmer for your tank?

  • Very Confident

    Votes: 225 41.4%
  • Somewhat Confident

    Votes: 186 34.2%
  • Not Too Confident

    Votes: 55 10.1%
  • Not Confident At All

    Votes: 23 4.2%
  • I Don't Use A Skimmer

    Votes: 48 8.8%
  • Other (please explain in the thread)

    Votes: 7 1.3%

  • Total voters
    544

WallyB

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SIMPLE Proven Skimmers are the best.

Not much to dial in, except when doing something weird to cause as Overreaction.

These TWO Legacy Skimmers, that have been with me for over 2 Decades.

-> (4 Impellers replaced in Original Pumps).
-> Easy to Clean
-> Easy run a Outside Air Line to Each to help with PH.

- One Runs 90 Gallon Tank and the other a 110 Gallon Tank.
- Not the Craziest fish load, but about 10 Medium-Large Fish.
- Fully stocked with Corals in the 90 Gallon Tank.
- I feed a lot and many times a day. Doesn't matter how much the skimmers adjust to load/feeding.
- HOLE DRILLED in Waste Cup for EXTRA CAPACITY (when away from home on vacations)

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Few years back I made a dumb decision, thinking I could improve things with a modern skimmer.

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It barely came close to skimmage extraction. I put It and the EuroReef, running side by side in same sump.

Really tough to tune. Never used the viarble speed Apex 0-10Volt Feature.
And after 2 years of on and off use, broke last Week (Pump Siezed)

I know I picked the Wrong Brand, but not sure it would really matter when comparing with a EuroReef.
 
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MightyMO

"The Algae made me do it!!!"
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I myself am running and old crappy one propped up with pvc pieces to halfway keep it in the sweet spot... I will however be upgrading my sump soon... (already have it) and a brand spanking new nyos 160 skimmer... Will run skimmer and refugium... And see if I can get a good mix of nitrate and phosphate control...

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SaltyAddict

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I'm getting back into the hobby after several years being away. I've set up a temporary 40g tank in my garage with a 10g sump until I can get my main display tank plumbed and a new stand built. I've put my old SWC 160 cone skimmer on the temp system and it's been working relatively well. I don't think I have a huge bio-load for it to really pull crazy amounts of skim out. I only have have two clowns and 3 damsels in there. I've been contemplating wether or not I should replace it with a "more modern" skimmer. I think I will wait until I get my main 90g DT setup but it's something I've been considering.
 

ReefAndBeer

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I have a 320 gallon medium-loaded tank. In the initial setup, I was using Reef Octopus SRO 5000, but I had a nitrate problem. Then I replaced the SRO 5000 with Nyos 300, but my nitrate problem was still not resolved. Yesterday I added Reef Octopus Elite 220 to my system and now two ps are working on the system. I will observe the situation and follow the nitrate.

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dbowman5

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A good skimmer is one that doesn't always make foam. If it's always making foam then it's not getting everything out of the water. If you can go bigger do it. Here is my RK5AC it's rated for 1000 to 2000 gallons. I have 687 gallons of water.
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thank you for the pictures, that is a beast!
 

Treefer32

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I have a Diablo DC skimmer rated for 500 gallons of water volume with a medium stocked tank. I have around 320 gallons of water vollume light to medium stocked. 10% water changes every other week and a ATS that's full of hair algae every 7 days.

My skimmer I have skim fairly wet, and it pulls out yellow fluid. around 8 oz every day depending how wet I Have it skimming in the moment. Within a couple weeks there's a good 1/4" of brown sludge covering the skimmer cup where dried skimmate built up. I feel it does something, but given how much algae my ATS produces, it definitely would not be my only export method. I keep thinking where all that hair algae would be growing if I didn't have the ATS? The nutrients have to go somewhere? I highly doubt the skimmer would make that up.

Now, I also have a cannister filter that I change the 25 micron cartridge every 3 weeks. IT's solid brown (starts out pure white) within 2 weeks, by the third week the flow through the filter is slowed by half or more due to debris building up. Again, where's all that crud going if it wasn't pulled out through filters or skimmers.
 

FishTruck

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I have a old school venturi skimmer (lifereef) that has totally outperformed two other fancy needle wheel skimmers, in terms of being easier to clean the neck and cup, requiring no adjustments once dialed, not getting salt clogged, and using tried and true simple cheap pumps. Also, even though I am running constant mechanical filtration (rollermats), it still pulls out about 24 oz. of fluid so rank that my whole family complains if I dump it down the basement utility sink.

I don't think anyone can answer the question about whether a reef tank really needs a skimmer with anything like scientifically proven certainty. Based on that, my main priority is that the skimmer is not an ongoing hassle. Also, that it is plumbed so that it cant overflow and drain the tank.
 

Belgian Anthias

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As a good skimmer will remove max +- 30% of DOC and 35% of TOC and a bad skimmer +- 20% and 25%, one may conclude there is more difference in price as in performance. ref: http://www.baharini.eu/baharini/doku.php?id=en:makazi:het_water:filtratie:eiwitafschuimer
Still in discussion is its capacity for removing bio-toxins. if a skimmer is also selective in removing bio-toxins this may cause serious problems in the long term. How good is a skimmer in removing bio-toxins?

One of the more interesting things in watching this hobby from the start until now is seeing how things change and how tech moves often to help tech rather than the balance of the tank. For example, when the berlin system was started and skimmers began to be widely used-there was a arms race for the biggest and most efficient skimmers. I even got into it with both feet ending up with a 7 ft tall ETS downdraft. As skimmer efficiency became the most important aspect of the system-other parts of the aquarium were optimized for its use. In some cases this was good-in others it wasnt so much. At the peak of skimmers development-people started to find hair algae and other problems in tanks. Refugiums became more popular- and helped to a point-but systems that had been designed with skimmers in mind-had too long of a dwell time in sump to help skimmer efficiency. This is why you would see tanks with no measurable nutrients in water tests- yet algae in display. By increasing sump flow- the refugiums could out compete tank algae-but at expense of skimmer. Never put all eggs in one basket!
In EU a skimmer was already standard equipment for a marine aquarium in de 60's, long before Peter Wilkens published "Niedere Tiere im tropischen Seewasseraquarium". Peter Wilkins was the first to advise the use of Kalkwasser.
Shane Graber does a comparative test between different skimmer designs in 2001 and a simple counter-current skimmer, generally used in marine aquaria in 1969 in combination with a big bio-filter, due to the publications of Frank De Graaf ( conservator of Artis aquarium, Amsterdam), showed to be the best of the test. The big difference between a refuge and a skimmer for exporting nutrients is the skimmer is very selective and creates an unbalance in the availability of nutrients wich may influence the competition between organisms. For nitrogen management, a bio-filter is still one of the two best options.
What is measured is what is left over at the moment of measuring. I prefer algae to use it all up.
 

Heychanelle

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I have no clue when it comes to my skimmer it came with the tank (TMC micro habitat 30) sometimes it'll fill up in a day sometimes it's empty for weeks, it also smells really strongly of perfume ‍♀️ never been able to figure out why
 

Backtoreefing

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I run an icecap K2-200 good for 200-300 gallons on my 60 gallon display and 30(actuall gallons) gallon sump. I’m actually surprised how much it pulls out. A skimmer has no idea how big your system is, if there is particulate to be skimmed it skims and removes it. The difficult part is tuning it because it extracts so fast when needed. I decided to experiment with it because it was on Sale(might still be) for $299 and it’s built like a tank!
 
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