- Today we show you how to size a skimmer
to your tank, meaning get the right tool
for the right job, the first time.
Keep that tank clean, save yourself some cash,
all in five minutes or less.
(upbeat drum beat)
Hey this is Ryan with BRStv's 5 minute Guide to Skimmers.
This protein skimmer mini series is direct answers
to the most common questions because information
should never be a barrier to
getting the most from your skimmer.
This week we'll share with you
how to size a skimmer to almost any size tank.
We're looking for peak performance
without wasting money on something larger than we need,
or worse having to rapidly upgrade later
because it ended up too small.
The right tool for the right job, the first time.
The challenge here is the recommendations
on the box are just guidelines,
so when it says, good for tanks up to 100 gallons,
that's just a starting point.
Some of the better options will be clear
with 75 gallons for heavy bioload.
150 for medium, or 225 for a light bioload,
but the challenge here isn't just
what light, medium, and heavy bioload
actually means, is that amount of fish,
or amount of food?
But even beyond that, your other
filtration here plays a role as well.
For instance, if you change out
your filter socks every two to three days,
you're dramatically reducing the bioload on the skimmer.
Okay, so that all sounds complex, but trust me,
by the end of this video, I think most reefers
will have this down, and will be able to pick
out the right tool with relative ease.
That said, I know how hard this is
because I got the wrong one
more times than I'd like to count.
In my case, more often than not,
by going too powerful,
but I also talked to thousands of reefers
who got this wrong as well.
And it just sucks, and it can be solved.
The first thing I'm gonna share is
bigger is not necessarily better.
Over-sizing your skimmer does not mean it'll work better.
In fact, performance will often be notably worse.
I'll go one step further, in saying going too big
will actually cause way more problems than going too small.
So if I had advice for anyone, it's lean
to the smaller end of the spectrum, rather than the larger.
The right size is obviously the right answer,
but this is why under powered is better than over powered.
An under powered skimmer will actually work decent.
Meaning it provides a consistent foam
that flows over into the cup.
That's because there's ample organics
in the tank to produce the desired foam.
However, just like any under powered
or under sized filter, it's leaving a lot behind.
And only removing a portion of what's possible.
I mean the tank water's gonna yellow a lot faster.
Undesirable contaminants will build up faster,
most notably continually rising nitrate
and phosphate levels that can lead
to all kinds of undesirable pest outbreaks.
Particularly in those first few years of a tank.
So it might seem like going larger than needed
is a better option, but it isn't.
And that's because when you go too big,
the skimmer often simply doesn't work at all.
There simply isn't enough organics in the tank
to support that large skimmer neck.
And the increased amount of air leaving
through that large neck, just pops the thin
organic content foam before it can collect
and flow over into the cup.
Net result is there's no shortage of bubbles
in the skimmer body, but the top,
where it's supposed to be creating
that thick stable foam, it actually
just looks like a boiling pot of water.
When it does produce foam,
it's often erratic and overflows
with just mostly water.
So that's why I believe under size is better than oversized.
I'd personally rather have an undersized tool
that partially works but consistently.
Rather than an oversized tool
that doesn't work at all,
or very inconsistently.
So let's get it right, properly sizing your skimmer
means three things: understanding what low, medium,
and heavy bioload is, how other elements
of filtration affect that,
and are you selecting the skimmer
or bioload for day one, or for a year from now?
So first low, medium, and heavy bioload
means only one thing, while it's loosely related
to how many fish you have, it's actually not that.
In terms of sizing a skimmer, bioload is 100%
solely based on how much food you put into the tank.
For instance if you feed a single cube of food
to your tank, it might be considered a fairly
light bioload if you feed one cube in the morning,
and one at night, or two cubes a day,
medium bioload might be a good way to describe that.
However, if you're feeding a variety of frozen foods
pellets, and algae sheets everyday,
that's best described as a heavy bioload.
And heavy input is matched with heavy output.
So this is why a skimmer can have those ranges
from 75 gallons all the way up to three times that
at 225, if both those tanks have ten fish
and fed the exact same thing, this is less
about the size of the tank, and more about the food input.
And why the same skimmer will work on both these tanks.
If this is your first tank, I'd assume
the middle of that range.
If this is your second or third tank,
you all ready know the fish stocking
and feeding habits you have,
and the right end of that spectrum for you.
I'd use the manufacturer's guidelines accordingly.
However, there are other filters in the tank
that play a role here as well,
so that's the second consideration.
For instance, if you have filter socks in your sump,
but rarely change them out,
it probably won't change the equation much,
but if you swap them out every day
or use something like an automatic fleece roller
or roller mat,
you're affectively removing a ton of organics
before they break down.
So even though you add three cubes a day,
it might be considered heavy input.
The net approach of total filtration
that removes half of it,
means a skimmer's only dealing with low to medium input.
So the net of the equation is
if the skimmer is the primary filter in your system,
go with the manufacturer's suggestion,
but if you're installing advanced
or elaborate approaches to filtration
or willing to supplement simple approaches of filtration
like filter socks with manual efforts and frequent changing,
then I'd go to the smaller end
of the manufacturer's suggested range.
The third piece of this is one that reefers rarely consider,
size the skimmer to where you're going,
not where you are and understand the difference.
If you're gonna have 30 adult fish in a 120 gallon tank
with heavy food input, size the skimmer to that,
because that's where you're going.
That means simply understanding
it may not perform ideally day one,
when you only have a few tiny fish
and very limited organic input.
It's oversized for that purpose
and probably won't perform erratically
until you get the bio load that it was designed for.
Accurate expectations are pretty critical
to achieving the best performance
and knowing what that looks like.
Sadly the conundrum here
is newer tanks are actually more dependent
on ideal filtration than established tanks.
The best path to solving that is a skimmer
that has a wide performance operating range
that can scale performance with your system.
Body and neck of the skimmer are basically fixed,
so the best way to do that,
is with options that'll allow you to scale the amount of air
injected into the skimmer.
AC skimmers do that with a valve on the airline
in an acceptable option, but when you turn down the air,
the water flow increases, which is not ideal.
For that reason, DC skimmers are the best option
for selecting something that will scale with your system,
and related bio load over time.
DC skimmers come with a control pad,
which tunes down the air and water at the exact same time.
So the real question now that it's much clearer
on how to use the manufacturer's sizing guide
is to select a skimmer matched to your food input,
overall approach to filtration,
and sizing to where you're going, not where you're starting,
is how do I tune the skimmer to get the best performance
at the beginning and end?
The answer to that and the entire skimmer mini series
can be found right here,
because information should never be a barrier
to getting the most out of your skimmer.