This reason was given as to why I don't want a larger skimmer on my tank. Is this true?
The main reason it's not good to have an oversized skimmer is that it wont produce enough skim to come over the neck if it's too big. I recently did a little experiment on my tank setup. I have been running a reef octo 160 diablo for a long time, I went ahead and tested running 2 of them. The result was that it was too much skimmer, neither produced any amount of skim to go up and over the top of the neck. I shut one down and the other started doing good again.
It is really about the neck size more than anything. So running a big skimmer on a small volume of water doesn't overclean the water, it has to wait until the water is dirty enough to produce enough waste to overcome the size of the neck.
Ideally a perfect setup for a tank would be 2 skimmers, one the right size and a smaller one. Once the big one stops pushing foam over the top due to the absence of dissolved organics the little one would kick on and it would be able to clean more. Or a magical skimmer would sense when it stops producing and tighten up the neck size. These don't exist yet but it would work great i bet.
So when choosing a skimmer look at the neck size and amount of water it skims to match your water volume and stocking level. 30 gallons total volume even heavily stocked would want a 60-100 gph pump, and no larger then about 3" neck size. Myself i would probably go with a 1.5 to 2"
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Last edited by MizTanks; 05-05-2013 at 06:30 PM.
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IMHO,there is no such thing as over skimming. There is choosing the wrong skimmer and not havering as large a bio load as you think you have. Many reefers choose by brand or reviews which is good as long you understand not just your present needs but your future needs. When I choose a skimmer I am concerned with the pump size ,air volume and chamber diameter which in turn adds up to contact time which is what counts. My bubble king pulls twice the water and air as my diablo,which is why it out performs it hands down. Both skimmers pull good amounts of skim one just does it way better. The BK has a much larger neck also. We house 22 fish so good skimming is a must. If you are pulling good skim and everything looks happy join em! Regardless of your neck size !? Lol.
I would add that running two skimmers is not the same as running one bigger one. In fact, running two of the same skimmer may reduce the amount of skimmate produced by both... because they are working against each other. A skimmer has a lower limit to how much organic matter it can remove. So, a skimmer needs to have X amount organics for it to produce enough foam be collected. So, when you put two of the same skimmer on a take it takes 2X the organic matter for either one to collect skimmate.
Here's my attempt at an analogy... If you can't catch a small fish with a net that has too large a mesh size, then adding a second identical net will be no help. What you need is a net with a smaller mesh size. Where fish = organic matter and mesh size = skimmer efficiency (larger mesh size = lower skimmer efficiency).
Do you guys think my BH-1000 is to big for my tank?
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If it ain't broke quit trying to fix it girl ! Your tanks looking great enjoy it. If your still pulling skim it's a workin for ya. If your more intrested in buying new toys then that's a whole diffrent subject. Lol.
No new toys wanted!! Lol Just asking questions for knowledge is all Too sometimes I'm not sure if I understand the way certain things work. Like skimming lol.
Ultimately a bubble machine is a bubble machine. No matter how efficient or inefficient the design, you're still going to pull skimate. However, I disagree that there is no such thing as "over skimming" however. Sure selecting a skimmer that will be upgradeable to a larger system is fine, but at one point you have reached a threshold at which point any larger skimmer will not be any more efficient than a smaller one. After a certain point you are simply wasting money and electricity.
This is why I usually don't recommend that people go over 2x tank volume with skimmer sizing, especially with respected brands or downdraft skimmers. A skimmer will pull the organics out of your water, no matter the size. A smaller skimmer will take longer because less volume of liquid will be in contact with the bubbles at a time but you'll still end up pulling out the same organics.
Also, running two skimmers seems inneficient and I think Tom summed it up perfectly.
Does this make sense?
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Originally Posted by MizTanks
Too sometimes I'm not sure if I understand the way certain things work. Like skimming lol. 
