More Skimmer Power?

[Kasey Grohowski]

Just wondering if I will need to increase skimming power in the future, I currently have a BM Curve 9. I house a marbled and coral catshark, and a clownfish. When all is said and done I want to have a reef with soft and a couple LPS corals, and about 20 assorted reef fish (no more predators). The BM Curve 9 is rated 240 for heavy bio load. I've read that overskimming is not necessarily good either, but I know my tank will have a very heavy bio load when it is fully stocked. I'm looking at the BM Curve 11 (up to 750 gallons) and the Red Sea RSK 900 (also up to 750 gallons). Any suggestions? Thank you.

 

[P-Dub]

Just wondering if I will need to increase skimming power in the future, I currently have a BM Curve 9. I house a marbled and coral catshark, and a clownfish. When all is said and done I want to have a reef with soft and a couple LPS corals, and about 20 assorted reef fish (no more predators). The BM Curve 9 is rated 240 for heavy bio load. I've read that overskimming is not necessarily good either, but I know my tank will have a very heavy bio load when it is fully stocked. I'm looking at the BM Curve 11 (up to 750 gallons) and the Red Sea RSK 900 (also up to 750 gallons). Any suggestions? Thank you.

Unless I'm missing it somewhere, you didn't state how much water volume you currently have or if you plan to size up your system size with a new tank, when all is said and done.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Unless I'm missing it somewhere, you didn't state how much water volume you currently have or if you plan to size up your system size with a new tank, when all is said and done.

220 sorry

 

[tswanso3]

You can always buy a bigger skimmer and then not run it all the time. I use a Reef Octopus Regal 300 INT on a 180 gallon tank which is overkill, but it keeps pulling out really gross stuff. I typically use the 60 minute feed function (turns skimmer off) once or twice a day when I feed and usually once or twice a week I will turn it off over night.

 

[ca1ore]

Water volume has long been the proxy for skimmer sizing, but it's not really a very good one. Bioload is much better - though of course it's tough to standardize on a set of definitions that are meaningful. What does high mean, versus medium …. or low? I tend to think that skimmer ratings are nonsense, so I oversize - 3X, or even more. My current skimmer, for example, is conservatively rated at 3,000 gallons yet my system is only about 800 (but I have over 100 fish). I also largely dismiss the notion of over-skimming as more myth than reality - my over-sized skimmer has no problems maintaining foam production. I'm not specifically familiar with the BM models, but my feeling would be that you could probably go up a model size and see better performance overall.

 

[jda]

I also dismiss the notion that over skimming is bad. What you don't skim builds up and you have to get it out eventually. The modern day desire to keep excess building blocks in the tank confounds me... they are not food and a larger surplus is not better than having barely any surplus. In any case, skim as much as you can. I have always over skimmed and had great results. I have found that two good skimmers can outproduce a single best-of-breed skimmer, so sometimes just keeping what you have and adding another can be good, if you have room.