Who rates skimmers

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Gizmo

Just an off the cuff though, could you not rate a skimmer based on ml/hour of "dense" skimmate (i know dense is a relative term) so at least all skimmers are on a level playing field. You could then calculate how many ml/hr you would need based on your bioload and needs. (no I don't know what that calculation would be, but it wouldn't take much other than experimenting with a baseline skimmer, and varying bio-loads to come up with an approximation)

I wouldn't want to be that sales guy trying to sell those skimmers
Simpler is usually better and specifying specifics like that will cause huge issues as results will always vary. It's one thing to say this skimmer will typically handle 200 gallons of tank volume but to say this skimmer will produce X amount of skim mate is another story. There are certainly skimmers out there that have bad ratings, seaclones are one that come to mind, but good quality skimmers are rated fairly decent in my books, and on occasion some manufacturers do actually give a few rated volumes based on high and low bio-loads.
I think too much thought is going into this, consider all the variables involved in actually determining the right skimmer. Amount of fish and other livestock, size of fish and other livestock, type of fish and other livestock, amount of food feed, allowable nutrient level (sps-low, lps-med, fowlr-high), tank volume, and so on. I mean these ratings are just general guidelines, just like fuel ecomony ratings on cars, they aren't that accurate either but there are too many variables involved for it to be accurate for each person.