Possible to Over-Skim?

I have seen mixed opinions on this, anyway, I have a 40G breeder that has an ok filter (XP3) and has ~15 time turnover, I will be buying a PM Bullet2 (rated up to 240G) with a 30x12x12 sump, all plumbing, and a Mag18 at an incredible steal ($300 and an hours drive). Will that be overkill? Even if I will be upgrading to a 120+ gallon in a few months? By the way, what would over-skimming do? Take out beneficial oils/proteins/bacteria? Thanks everyone!

 

IMO even though all the setup seems overkill now, it will not be once you upgrade. I have 60 to 65 gallons of total water volume including tank, sump and filters and my skimmer is rated for 200 gallons.... I've never seen any bad side effects to skimming or over skimming in my setup.... and I wet skim!
I had this system running like this for a little more than a year and a half and its still working pretty well and I must say any problems I had with it were cause by my inexperience and impatience.... I learned to wait and try to do things slow now.

 

Precision Marine makes some very nice skimmers.

Can one overskim.....sure. There are some animals that feed primarily in dissolved organics rather than photosynthesis and particulate organic matter or bacterioplankton. Probably, the most popular one is the various species of Xenia. If this is one of your favorite corals, expect it to die (unless you put your skimmer on a timer).

There's all sorts of ways to successfully run a tank. My preference is to have oversized skimmers and feed my corals. Other people like to not feed their corals and have normal sized skimmers. Other people even have undersized skimmers but they only keep corals that like a lot of dissolved organics. Once can be successful with all 3 of the above methods.

 

I do have a Xenia and I thought that may be a problem, but if I feed a little more often and turn the skimmer off for an hour or so following the feeding, will it be fine? I figure I can also move it on the opposite side of the intake to minimize the chances of lack of food. Plus I read Xenia are partially photosynthetic as well?

 

Yes, Xenia are photosynthetic. However, that is used less for food than most other corals (with the exception of non-photosynthetic corals). To my knowledge of many of the gut-studies I've read, they've never found anything in Xenia's gut.....ever. If you feed more, it just has to rot and become dissolved organics for it to feed on it.

 

Ok, I'll see if I can find a good way to still feed it.