Why not run 2 skimmers?

Clownfishy · May 12, 2019

As I work away a lot, I like to build redundancy into my aquarium. One area I have never thought of is skimming. Any reason why we should not all be running 2 slightly under spec skimmers rather than 1? That way, if one failed, we would still have one skimming and pumping oxygen rich air into the tank.

Pete_the_Puma · May 12, 2019

I think unlike a heater or return pump most tanks can go a REALLY long time without a skimmer and not really suffer (some people actually go skimerless). I doubt there would be any benefit from having two and the space needed would be prohibitive.

Flippers4pups · May 12, 2019

Chances of one failing is low unless it has a old pump or used.

SeaDweller · May 12, 2019

Space, electricity... no need to. Some tanks do better NOT skimming.

Hemmdog · May 12, 2019

Someone on here was running two skimmers. One wet skimming one dry skimming to pull out different stuff. I forget who it was. They seemed to know what they were doing though. So I wouldn’t say it’s worthless just yet.

tehmadreefer · May 12, 2019

Skimming too much out would cause more problems than having a skimmer out for a day or 2. A lot of people actually turns their skimmers off at night in order to not strip out their water too much.

Hemmdog · May 12, 2019

tehmadreefer said:
Skimming too much out would cause more problems than having a skimmer out for a day or 2. A lot of people actually turns their skimmers off at night in order to not strip out their water too much.

That seems like a bad idea, pH drops at night, if anything that’s when you need the skimmer most. It does other beneficial things to your tank besides removing waste.

Clownfishy · May 12, 2019

Thanks for the answers. I was thinking more if I lost my skimmer on day one of a 7 day business trip. I also consider a skimmer critical for more aquarium as it is hooked up to my C02 scrubber so my pH would take a big hit. PH drops equals less calcium and alkalinity uptake but my doser does not know that so it keeps dosing raising these levels.
I like the idea of running one wet and dry skimming.

Justin Cook · May 12, 2019

Clownfishy said:
Thanks for the answers. I was thinking more if I lost my skimmer on day one of a 7 day business trip. I also consider a skimmer critical for more aquarium as it is hooked up to my C02 scrubber so my pH would take a big hit. PH drops equals less calcium and alkalinity uptake but my doser does not know that so it keeps dosing raising these levels.
I like the idea of running one wet and dry skimming.

Please keep us posted if you decide to go for it. I tend to agree with what everyone else says but if it proves effective for you, I'd be interested to hear about it.

tehmadreefer · May 12, 2019

Hemmdog said:
That seems like a bad idea, pH drops at night, if anything that’s when you need the skimmer most. It does other beneficial things to your tank besides removing waste.

Seems and is are two different things. What other items do you care to share that ste beneficial for skimmers? Ph and oxygen and very very negible.

Available oxygen is created by the water going into a sump or fuge and returned back. Just an fyi

Hemmdog · May 12, 2019

tehmadreefer said:
Seems and is are two different things. What other items do you care to share that ste beneficial for skimmers? Ph and oxygen and very very negible.

Available oxygen is created by the water going into a sump or fuge and returned back. Just an fyi

I find both those to not be negligible. I’ve ran both with and without skimmers. I have better calcification and growth when I’m running my skimmer, and I attribute that to it giving me that ever so “negligible” rise from 8.0 to 8.2 in pH. What else would explain a drop in pH when I took my skimmer offline during the day.

Saveafish · May 12, 2019

2 skimmers. Easy. Heavy in heavy out. If you feed crazy amounts for hard fast growth. You want heavy out. 1 is set for dry 1 is set for kinda wet. ( pulls different strands of protein )
Setting as a whoops one MIGHT go out is really doing the opposite of being redundant on that. Setting them up they will ballance each other keeping nutrition at a constant level. One going out will be the same as having one and it goes out but the second one will still fail do to it depending on what the other pulls out. Causing overflow problems to you name it.
Running 2 is really a pain and you have to be careful.