Question about skimmers

[medic29]

Since I still consider myself somewhat new to this hobby (because I am new), I'm trying to understand my skimmer. I have a Super Skimmer 65, and is susposed to be rated for up to a 65 gal tank....that's all nice and everything. Right now it is hanging on the back of my 30 gal tank and is turned all the way down and seems to be working fine as long as I don't mess with it. It makes nice smelly green stuff.

Now I'm looking at setting up a 60 gal tank with a 20 gal sump. I want to place my skimmer in my sump...as well as my heater, etc. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out if I will have to turn my skimmer up since it will really be trying to clean the water from a 60 gal tank, or will it have to run the same as now, even though it will be in a smaller tank?

I know previously when I was trying to get my skimmer dialed in, if I turned it up I got a lot of wet stuff, if not just tank water in the collection cup. How does the skimmer know the difference? I guess I just don't understand how skimmers work.

Any ideas and/or information I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Rick

[cioutlaw]

Turning the skimmer up or down is just to find a sweet spot... too high of water level & you get very wet skimmate & you will have more water than gunk, too low & it will be very dry. I like it to be a dark green where you cant see through it. The Skimmer wont know what size tank its on. My personal opinion you could go with a bigger skimmer but what you have will work on the 60gal tank. I had a Coralife 125 on a 55 gal tank & then used it on a 120gal tank w/ 40 gal sump..it worked fine on both. I also thought it does a better job in sump opposed to HOB. I now have a Euroreef CS180 & Im sure its WAY too big for the small load I have.

[Horace]

Well first off, the ratings on skimmers are almost always way overstated, unless the skimmer is VERY expensive anyway. That skimmer you have is probably about the right size for your 30 and will be undersized on a 60g. Also from what I hear the super skimmers are an aweful hang on tank skimmer and work much better when in the sump. Also skimmers DO perform differently based upon the water level of the water they are sitting in...it has to do with head pressure on the pump and how much air it can pull in as a result of the head(the more head, the less air it can pull = less performance).

Hope that helps a bit.

[GreenBay1]

Come on Kurt, you can do better than that. Where are all the specs and graphs and multi point views. Heck you didn't even write a book for the answer, you must be slacking ;)

[medic29]

So, in a sump, should the pump be closer to the top? I thought in a sump I was susposed to lower it closer to the bottom, whereas while it is hanging on the back it needed to be higher. Does it change anything to put a bigger pump connected to the skimmer?

[GreenBay1]

If you add a bigger pump you will be able to make more bubbles. However, with the larger pump you may not be able to contral the amount of water intake as easily as before. Without adding valves and all, you could cause yourself more pain than gain. I am not 100% sure of this, so I hope Horace will chime in again.

[medic29]

bump

[Benny Z]

the super skimmer 65 will be undersized for ~70 gallons water volume.

i'd look into a used asm g2 or g3.

[medic29]

okay.....I don't know anything about those.

[trendle]

I have a CSS-65 on my tank. It was awful as a HOB unit because it was so ugly. When I set up my sump I moved it down below but actually I am still running it HOB, just hanging on the sump.

It will work much better in the sump because you can run the water level lower than you would in your display tank. The directions call for the pump to be no more than 3 inches from the surface of the water and there is just no way you can do that when running it as a HOB on your display. I set up the baffles in my sump so that the pump would be closer to the surface of the water and it works MUCH better.

Overall I am very happy with the CSS-65, but I run it on a 29 gal with 10 gal sump.

[MattAranda]

I have just been looking in to how Skimmers work the other day at work and I found a very helpful link...

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/fm/feature/index.php

It basically explains EVERY last thing you need to know about these and the different types of skimmers available. A skimmer is rated as a "GOOD" skimmer based on the amount of air bubbles that you can get to hit the volume of water flowing into it. The more time/longer amount of time that the water is being filtered through these air bubbles, THE BETTER. But anyway, go to the site and read this, it will educate you well!

[MattAranda]

Also, from what I have read it sounds like a hang on style skimmer being in your actual tank would be the most effective. I am also new to the hobby and this may not be right but it sounds like a protein skimmer is in force to lessen the load on your main filter. If you place it in the sump, that does not seem as effective. Take it for what it is, Im a rookie.