Dual protein skimmer - any benefit?

[seastar]

I have a 4 chamber sump where the first runs a huge filter sock which I hate maintaining. The 3rd has a protein skimmer which does exactly what you would hope it does.

I have two questions:

1.) My filter socks act like.. well a filter and kind of keep my sump clean. Would removing them create a mess?

2.) Most importantly, is there any benefit to running two protein skimmers, or is that a waste?

 

[prdubois]

I have a 4 chamber sump where the first runs a huge filter sock which I hate maintaining. The 3rd has a protein skimmer which does exactly what you would hope it does.

I have two questions:

1.) My filter socks act like.. well a filter and kind of keep my sump clean. Would removing them create a mess?

2.) Most importantly, is there any benefit to running two protein skimmers, or is that a waste?

1. 50% of what you see in the sock will end up on the bottom of the sump. the rest will end up in the skimmer or back into the display. If cleaning is the issue, use a thinner filter sock to get the big stuff out.
2. You could run two smaller skimmers and get the same result as one large one. I believe in over skimming, but there is a point where there is nothing to skim and the skimmer will sit idle. You will get less in the collection cup and thicker gunk on the neck. To solve that, you can skim wetter.

 

[seastar]

1. 50% of what you see in the sock will end up on the bottom of the sump. the rest will end up in the skimmer or back into the display. If cleaning is the issue, use a thinner filter sock to get the big stuff out.
2. You could run two smaller skimmers and get the same result as one large one. I believe in over skimming, but there is a point where there is nothing to skim and the skimmer will sit idle. You will get less in the collection cup and thicker gunk on the neck. To solve that, you can skim wetter.

Thank you for this...

I think that makes sense. I've always wondered why I haven't seen more dual skimmer setups since people seem to have a good amount of money and would probably be running them if it helped.

 

[bayoupr]

I tried this once and never noticed any difference. One always pulled more out than the other no matter how they were position. These were identical skimmers.

 

[MTWiley]

I run two skimmers(Reef Octopus 110 INT & Simplicity Aquatics DC 120)but it's only because I got the simplicity skimmer for free in a contest (thanks again simplicity aquatics and tidal gardens) after I'd already bought my first skimmer and I was going to test them to compare and sell off the one that didn't perform as well, but they're much more closely matched than I expected and they both pull a decent amount of skimmate from my 60 cube (I tend to skim more like a dark tea than the mud I've seen some people skimming on here though) so I'm content with running both for now since they fit in my sump just fine and I can't fit a bigger bodied skimmer in my sump (unless its one of the few skimmers that has an oval shaped body, but those are pretty few and far between).

 

[Lenny_S]

I use 2 skimmers, but for a different reason. I have a 3 chamber sump. In the first chamber is a very large skimmer (2x tank capacity), middle chamber has a refugium and the last chamber is my pumps. One pump is running 800 GPH as a return, the other about 300 GPH to a bio pellet reactor. I plumb the output of the bio pellet reactor to a second smaller skimmer before going back to the return chamber.
Advantages:
First skimmer grabs a ton of waste before going through the rest of the system
Bio pellet reactors are most effective when the effluent is directed to the intake of a skimmer... You can't get more directed than feeding the skimmer directly.
Redundancy
Disadvantages
Some portion of the pods from the refugium get caught in the second skimmer so don't make their way to the DT
more maintenance
More risk of leak/water with an external skimmer

Overall though I had fantastic results on a previous tank and I'm doing the same setup on a new tank I'm building

 

[piranhaman00]

Bump!

Looking to add another skimmer to my 220 gallon system heavily stocked FO. My currect ReefOct 200INT is rated for 150 gallons, pulls lots of skimmate but nitrates still climb, would adding another skimmer help? There is a lot of "reports" that two skimmer willl work against each other on RC, im thinking thats just hear say passed along.

Anyone using two skimmers?

 

[Soren]

Bump!

Looking to add another skimmer to my 220 gallon system heavily stocked FO. My currect ReefOct 200INT is rated for 150 gallons, pulls lots of skimmate but nitrates still climb, would adding another skimmer help? There is a lot of "reports" that two skimmer willl work against each other on RC, im thinking thats just hear say passed along.

Anyone using two skimmers?

I am planning to run multiple skimmers on my 90-gallon-display/75-gallon-mangroves/75-gallon-sump to allow for heavier stocking. I asked this same question recently, and the feedback I received was that it works to use multiple skimmers.

My main reason for planning multiple skimmers is that I already have a Reef Octopus 90-HOB that came with my current 75-gallon FOWLR (which will be the mangrove tank in the system) and I may be receiving a broken skimmer that I might fix to add to the total skimmer volume. Additionally, it will be cheaper to buy a small skimmer to add if needed than to replace my current skimmer(s) with one large enough for the whole system.

This is not a response from experience, just from researching the same question.

 

[piranhaman00]

I am planning to run multiple skimmers on my 90-gallon-display/75-gallon-mangroves/75-gallon-sump to allow for heavier stocking. I asked this same question recently, and the feedback I received was that it works to use multiple skimmers.

My main reason for planning multiple skimmers is that I already have a Reef Octopus 90-HOB that came with my current 75-gallon FOWLR (which will be the mangrove tank in the system) and I may be receiving a broken skimmer that I might fix to add to the total skimmer volume. Additionally, it will be cheaper to buy a small skimmer to add if needed than to replace my current skimmer(s) with one large enough for the whole system.

This is not a response from experience, just from researching the same question.

Cool! Thanks for the link.