Pros and cons of using 2 skimmers

[Jordancsi]

Hi

I have not been in the hobby that long and just wanted to get some other peoples feed back on using 2 skimmers that are under sized for the take i am looking to set up. I was lucky to get a 180gal tank given to me from my uncle. I currently have a reef octopus that is rated for 100gal. my uncle also gave me some equipment from an old tank of his, with that equipment there was a vertex omega 130 skimmer. I was thinking about running both of the skimmers, space is not an issue because everything will be hard piped to my basement.


Some of the Cons I can think of are:

• space
• needed 2 pumps
• having to clean 2 collection cups

some of the pros I can think of are:

• saves money ( I don't have to go out and buy a new skimmer)
• I don't have to worry about under skimming ( both skimmers combined should be able to handle 200gal)

any feed back would be appreciated!

thanks,

J
[h=1][/h][h=1][/h]

 

[gfox]

It probably would work with 2 skimmers.Why don't you try to sell the 2 skimmers and get 1 skimmer for the size of the tank?

 

[Jordancsi]

I have thought of that idea, but I currently have my 75gal set up and want to move everything into the bigger tank. If I where to sell both I would not know where to put my live stock at that time.

 

[Reefing Madness]

By all means, throw 2 of em on there. I had 2 until one of my pumps died and I just never got around to replacing it, but they both worked just fine on the system.

 

[luke33]

Yep, nothing wrong with running two. The only issue you could run into is if one was much larger than the other, and the larger one would shut down the other one. But in this case I believe they will both skim just fine.

 

[zemuss]

You could run one even if undersized because it will still pull the nutrients out. 2 is even better or maybe one with an ATS.