Shopping for a skimmer

what kind of bioload? (reef, mixed reef or FO)

Are you running a filter sock?

My only form of mechanical filtration is a skimmer and I have messy fish so I use an oversized skimmer for my tank

IMO I would remove the live rock I feel the best way to keep your nitrates low is to keep the DT and sump free of detritus, and it is harder to do when you have live rock in the sump, unless you have an ammonia problem

 

Do you think a skimmer can be too big?
I do like the idea of a over sized collection cup for when im away.

 

Its a new tank so the load is not too bad... yet!
I do not have a sock at the moment, the drain pipe just dumps it all in the first section

 

It eventually will be a reef. Im not getting to crazy for a long time. Just have a couple small corals and a hand full of fish. Even though ive had freshwater for years i still did a newbie mistake and over fed due to excitement and Im trying to get my cyano back down

 

I believe in overskimming, I started my 180 with a Euroreef 6-2 which is undersized for a 180 and used a filter sock which I changed out every other day, my nitrated would be between 50-100 even after a 20% water change, I then went to a SRO 5000 skimmer and its now at 5ppm and that was before I started a BP reactor. My fish are good size and meat eaters that produce a lot of detritus.

IMO you can do better than that skimmer, you get what you pay for. I think a SRO 2000 would be nice and with the external model you can hook the drain to the skimmer so you know all of the water will be skimmed


When the company gives the "up to" rating I take that with a grain of salt and go with half that

 

After 200 bucks the CFO of operations will stand up and tell me tuff %#*+ you ain't getting it HA!

 

it might help to buy the CFO. some jewelry ....LOL

 

What about from the Hydor line? They have a slim internal skimmer and some external recirculating also.

http://www.marinedepot.com/Hydor_Ko...n_Skimmers-Hydor_USA-HD00771-FIPSISNW-vi.html
http://www.marinedepot.com/Hydor_Pe...n_Skimmers-Hydor_USA-HD00773-FIPSISNW-vi.html

 

Eshopps makes some excelent hang on skimmers if you end up going that route. I have a psk 100 on my 125g fowlr and it works excellently. If u decide to go in sump the psk100 in sump model would fit your demensions. I dont know your budget, but they also have the cone style skimmers that actually have a smaller footprint. Id recomend these skimmers to anyone. My lfs has a huge eshopps skimmer doing their fish display and it works wonders.

 

First off I do want to say thank you all for the replys!! I ended up getting a sig 1911-22 for my birthday so no skimmer. But I'm working a angle to pick up a used aqua ev180 for 150 bucks. If that falls through I'm going with the 6" reef octopus.

Reef Octopus NWB-150 6" Internal Protein Skimmer

It's the best bang for buck that I can fit in the sump. I thinks..