Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - One large skimmer or 2 medium skimmers?

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- - One large skimmer or 2 medium skimmers? (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=80624)

Ive been considering this myself recently......moving to a bigger tank and I currently have a BK mini 180......BK rated for the new tank is $2300......I was thinking about keepin the mini 180 and adding a vertex alpha 200 cone at around $950......now this has got me wondering:neutral:.....thanks guys:mrgreen:

I would run 1 needle wheel and 1 becket style...

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight (Post 656022)

I know I've read a few times over the years that 2 skimmers can somehow limit each other and that a single appropriately rated one will out-perform them. I don't recall the rationale but my instinct is to run one.

Having said that I've run across a few amazing large tank builds over at RC running 2 although if I recall correctly they were both high-end skimmers each already rated to handle the user's load.

I'm running 2 skimmers on my system, I had wondered if they would limit each other but so far they don't seem to be and both work fairly well.

The reason I ended up with two is that I had a pump fail on my SWC 250 cone skimmer and I couldn't afford a new skimmer rated for over 700g. So I got a Skimz SM252 skimmer, to run in the mean time, and then eventually I replaced the SWC pump and now I'm running both.

One thing i noticed..... between the pet store rated skimmers and the industrial skimmers is out to lunch the ratings are.... way over par on them lil guys....

I've been running an undersized skimmer for the past 8 months (can reef member that sold it to me told me it was rated for More than it actually is) and I've managed to keep my nitrates at 0 without water changes

I like the idea of having somewhat of a safety net. When I double or triple my tank I plan on having two that can handle 2/3 of the load each so I know I am covered. Cleaning cups isn't fun, but it only takes 5 minutes.