What is a good skimmer for a 20g?

[Neuahda]

I have a 20g and I am going to be adding a 10g sump. I have been searching for hours to find a good skimmer for this type of a setup. Without finding out to much useful information I thought I'd come here and ask.

My sump will be a 10g glass tank. I am not sure if a hang on skimmer would be best or a in sump skimmer. I've also debated building my own skimmer(found on the DIY forums). What would be the best skimmer to get? Also keep in mind that I do have a budget of about 100$

Any advice would be helpful.

 

[Neuahda]

Does brand name ever matter? I'm looking at ebay to buy one and they have skimmers as low as 30$(buy now). Are these horrible skimmers? Or should I just save my money and shell out the 250$ for a good skimmer?

 

[Juck]

If you plan on expanding in the future,, bigger tanks etc. then I'd stump up some money for a real good skimmer like the one of the Euroreefs.

If your sticking with smaller tanks then I'd recommend the CPR Bakpak2 or Prizm Deluxe,, both can be bought used for under $100 or so on Ebay.

The Bakpak is the better skimmer, by far, but the Prizm is quite adequate for a well-stocked 20g (Prizms are a bit fiddly while they settle in, but once you get the hang of it they're OK).

These are both Hang-on skimmers,,, I've never used an in-sump skimmer on a smaller tank,, I'm sure someone else here will offer advice.

 

[Neuahda]

What kind of GPH should I go for? Whats the general rule of thumb for skimmers? I heard for sumps you should get a pump that does about 10-15 times your tank size. From what I've seen I would think that a skimmer that is less then 200gph would be ok for a 20g. Also would using a high GPH skimmer be ok to use on a small tank(as long as it's in the sump)?

 

[Juck]

For your sump you only need a pump powerful enough to keep up with the flow of water coming from the display tank. No point getting a 500gph pump if your overflow/drain is only sending 200gph to your sump.

I don't think the GPH of your skimmer really matters on a 20g,, there certainly isn't any rule of thumb.

I have a 300gph Euroreef on my heavily stocked 75g reef,,,, boy does it rule ,,, but previously I had a 500gph+ skimmer on the same tank and it was rubbish compared to the Euroreef.

The skimmer's quality, design and ability to suck gunk outta the water is paramount.

You can use any skimmer that will fit in your sump.

 

[Anonymous]

For your sump you only need a pump powerful enough to keep up with the flow of water coming from the display tank. No point getting a 500gph pump if your overflow/drain is only sending 200gph to your sump.

As a matter of fact, thats exactly what you DON'T want.. - You'll wind up running your return pump dry and possibly damaging it - if nothing else, it'll be making a lot of noise.

Best to go with a return pump thats UNDER your overflow rate as the overflow will only feed back what the return pump feeds it.

FWIW: I use a Euroreef ES5-2 on my understocked 30gallon with a MAG5 return feeding into a SCWD at 4'. - My overflow is HOB, a Marineland SOS. I'm happy with this setup except for the return.. - The SCWD cuts the flow rate too much, I'll be upgrading to a larger MAG return pump.

HTH,
Norm

 

[Juck]

I said 'keep up with the flow of water coming from the display tank'

Did I say 'exceed the flow' anywhere?

Nah

 

[Neuahda]

Thx for the input. I found great information on DIY sumps on http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

He recommends putting 2 holes in your feedback line(below the water line of course). The holes will keep your sump from going dry and your pump from over heating(the water drains back into the sump if the water level goes below the holes). I think its a great idea. I just hope it works when I build my sump.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice!

PS: I think most LFS should not recommend that people start a saltwater tank(at least not without properly informing them). They told me it would be cheap and easy....boy were they wrong!

 

[Anonymous]

I said 'keep up with the flow of water coming from the display tank'

Did I say 'exceed the flow' anywhere?

Nah

I said "Best to go with a return pump thats UNDER your overflow rate as the overflow will only feed back what the return pump feeds it."

Did I say you said "exceed the flow" anywhere?

Nah

All I did was agree with you but point out that if you get too big of a return pump for what your overflow can handle you'll most likely wind up running the pump dry.. :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

Semantics. You're both right, and both saying the same thing.

 

[hillbilly]

:lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 20gal and have a Bak Pak 2r, i like it, it does a good job

 

[Siberman]

I'm using the Prizm on a 20 high 'shroom/polyp tank and it's done ok by me. (fwiw) :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I'm using a Euroreef ES5-2 in a 10g sump for my 30g tank. But theres not much room for anything else so I'm upgrading the sump to a 30g sump/fuge.

I have to cut my skimmer off from time to time to keep from scrubbing the water too clean for my xenia.

 

[Anonymous]

huh? are you saying you starve your xenia if you "over skim"? Im seriously curious on what you mean GratefulDiver, please enlighten me

 

[Anonymous]

Well... - Don't xenia prefer a little more nutrient-rich environment than quite a few other corals? (I don't really know for sure so I don't know that I'm someone to really "enlighten" anyone..) - But if you over-skim isn't that akin to "starving" them sorta?

I do know that the pulsing xenia I've kept so far (which isn't much) have seemed to do better when I'm not overskimming.

They seem to pale out, slow their pulsing and start to go "flaccid" as someone in another thread phrased it I think.. When I cut the amount of skimming I'm doing (put it on a timer and gradually lower the "active" times) they seem to perk back up.

Could be they're just going through some sort of phase but its seemed to do the trick a few times when they've acted this way so far..

<-shrug->
I dunno...