Good Skimmer for 45g tank

What skimmers would you recommend for a 45g tank with over 45lbs of live rock, 20lb of live sand and 7 fish. I plan to add more livestock like a seastar, or an anemone
Ive had the Berlin airlift 60, and the Seaclone 100 and it doesnt really work when the water gets a little low it just gets discontrolled so i want something good, quiet,not too expensive, and that it doesnt get discontrolled if the water gets low a little. Please help i want to get rid of the Seaclone

 

aquaC remora would be a good skimmer for that sized tank IMO
as would a SWC HOB
Or a reef octopus HOB

But water level in the tank is important for all these skimmers IME
and the water level in tank dropping due to evaporation means your SG is increasing

so you do need to either top up manually on a regular basis ( daily for me)
or look at auto top off - for convenience

Steve

 

I agree with the Remora, a good quality skimmer and so easy to set up. I had one on my 55 for a while. I suggest a maxi jet 1200 as a pump. Do you have a sump? If so, you can look into a sump model. They are nicer b/c you don't have to look at it.

 

As everyone said water level should stay the same for a skimmer to run well all the time. If you don't have the option to fix that right now though, Coralife skimmers do pretty well in changing conditions. I ran a Coralife 125 in my sump with no baffles for awhile and it ran fairly consistent even with the changing water levels. The key is to set the skimmer to run a bit wet when the tank is full. This way as water evaporates it will end up running a little on the dry side. Topping off as often as possible will also help.

 

I have a 50 Gallon set up with the aquac remora + 1200 maxi jet pump, it works really good and i clean out the cup every weekend, topping off is a really important thing to do not only for the skimmer to function correctly, but for the sake of your live stock. if salt level increases allot of things will slowly die off, keep on top of it and you will be fine!! , i would recommend the acuac remora!! +1 with the 1200 maxi jet!!

 

No i dont have a sump so i think i might buy a Aqua C Remora i hear about them all the time here. Thanks everyone