Protein skimmer oversized?

[thatmanMIKEson]

Hello please help with your opinions please before I get this wet, I bought this skimmer but I am worried about it being to big for my system, where I bought it,, on brs its on the upper side of the size, but who has used "oversized " skimmers on their systems with problems, no problems, wished they went bigger, wish they went smaller?
I am setting up a 120 g with icecap 36 reef sump so I have the room in the sump im just worried I should have gone with the 6" but for the extra 100$ I got the 8", I didn't think it would matter..bigger is better right?

 

[biecacka]

I believe you will most likely get better results running it a tad towards the wet side. Typically oversized skimmers struggle because the neck has too much diameter to run it on a lower bioload. this can be offset by running it wetter usually. Might not be as consistent, but it should work.

corey

 

[Rhoads238]

I had an oversized skimmer on my previous tank. I had a hard time getting it dialed in. I felt like it would do nothing or go crazy and overflow and there was no in between. That said my skimmer was significantly oversized and was the wrong choice for my tank.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

WELL, it seems its an answer i dint want to hear possibly that its on the big side may be a pain in the butt to dial in anyone else any advice should i just keep it? ill wait a few days before i get it wet but im hoping not to return, or return then regretting that, lol i should have done a little more research before jumping right in thank you for any advice thanks all!!

 

[stanlalee]

I've had relatively grossly oversized skimmers because I have a 30g and they don't make many decent skimmers for this size. I have yet to run into the "too big to produce" predicament. At its peak (full of corals, lots of thriving sps, 4 fish) I ran a SWC cone 160 which was practically sized for a 75-120g. That produced like a CHAMP until the cheap Atman pump died. Right now I run an aquamaxx fc80 which is optimally sized for a 50-75g IMO. The only one I've had sized about right was an SCA 301 which is a Bubble Magus NAC 3.5 copy (again with cheap Atman pump being the main difference). So far the bigger the skimmer the better (or more) production I've gotten. I'm sure there is a point where poor production happens but based on experience it doesn't happen at a size or two larger.
This was the swc 160 on the 30g/10g sump (yeah I video'd it 10 years ago)