One large skimmer or 2 medium skimmers?

[fishytime]

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.....thanks guys

[vanreefer]

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

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by lastlight

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.

[Hustler]

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....

[MarkoD]

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

[Wayne]

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.