is this skimmer too big for my tank

[rapid]

I have a 40 gallon cube that is gonna be heavily stocked with coral and fish
current critters:
2 clown
1RTBA
1 diamond goby
1 molly
1 torch
1 Dragonet

20 gallon sump

the skimmer i bought
90S SPACE SAVING PROTEIN SKIMMER

from brs seems to work great i can tune it in and its running wet but not to wet empty it about every 3 days usually some nasty stuff. it also fits well in the sump
my nitrate and phosphate seem to be good and all readable around .25 for po4 (which im slowly bring down to .04) and nitrate around 8-10 ppm

 

[brmreefer]

In my opinion...no. I run an oversized skimmer on my system and skim "Wet." This is how I accomplish my water change. I replenish my system with new saltwater by matching the volume of skimmate I drain. Doing my water changes this way allows me to maintain a more efficient way to maintain parameter stability. Just my opinion, so don't take it religiously, but I also believe this reduces any parameter shock doing larger water changes.

My goal has always been "Stability."

Note: Make sure to not let your NO3 and PO4 bottom out, but if routine testing is done then there should not be anything to worry about. There may be a point where dosing NO3/PO4 may be required.

This is all anecdotal, but hope that helps.

 

[brmreefer]

One other thing to add. The larger skimmer should provide a lot of aeration as well. ;Happy

 

[hart24601]

I have that skimmer and I really liked that series, somatic right? Too bad vertex folded.

If that is the skimmer I am running it’s not going to perform well on that size of tank. I am running it on a water box 100.3 with a 150g sump and around a dozen chalk bass and half dozen fairy wrasse in display.

You will have a hard time keeping a stable foam head with it being so oversized to the bioload. It’s a shame for so many years skimmer companies put such silly ratings on them so we got used to buying an “oversized” skimmer but in reality an oversized skimmer is a real pain and often never works consistently.

However if it’s working ok then no need to stress. The issue many have is too large of neck size, there will be a critical level of organics in the water needed to make stable foam. Wider the neck more is needed. So in small tanks you will see nothing from the skimmer then foams for a while and dies back down. If you adjust the level up during that lull when organics are building then the skimmer will overflow once there are enough. But if that’s not happening then you are fine.