question about over skimming a tank...

[flipteg]

if you have a skimmer that is rated over (2x or more) than the water volume in your tank, would you still expect it to constantly be producing foam...? or would you have to expect a "down time" when the bubbles just don't reach the top maybe because of the lack of nutrients to skim...?

my situation is i have a 30 gallon tank with an Aqua Medic skimmer rated for about 60 gallons... it has an Ocean Runner 2000 pump... i don't know if the skimmer sucks but most of the time, the bubbles are not even reaching the top unless i open the air valve more to produce a wetter skimmate...

i know the skimmer is capable of producing very dark skimmate because a few times a day, for short periods, the bubbles will start getting very thick and it will start producing very foamy skimmate... but as i said, it only does this a few times a day... which means if i set the skimmer to skim this dark, it would take about a week or 2 before i have to empty out its small collection cup...

i don't know if this is because the skimmer is not good, or because there's just nothing for it to skim most of the time... in my 30 gallons i only have two 1.5" fish and two small gobies... the rest are corals, four shrimps, chaeto, and about 45lbs. of live rocks... i feed the fishes small portions once every 2 days...

[KyleP]

It sounds to me that the skimmer just doesn't have much to skim. You probably notice that it produces more junk soon after you feed the fish. Mine does the same. I don't think you are overskimming your tank. You will read some posts about maybe certain corals like a little dirtier water, but ultimately the cleaner the water, the better. I really don't think this is an issue you need to worry about. Assuming your skimmer is working properly, seems to me you have a good problem on your hands.

[flipteg]

i'm not really too worried about over skimming... the reason i asked this question is because i have been toying with the idea of upgrading to a better skimmer... i'm not after the very best skimmer that money can buy... i actually like the one i have now... but what i'm thinking is, if i do upgrade later, after spending all that money on a new one, it's not good when i find out that it's doing the same thing because of the fact that it doesn't have anything to skim to begin with...

[BrokeColoReefer]

I ran a aqua c EV180 on a 12 gallon nano for a while.. and it always skimmed a little.

[KyleP]

If you plan on sticking with the 30 gallon, I would stick with your current skimmer. Save your money for something else. Even if you upgrade to a 60 gallon tank or less, I would still give your current skimmer a shot to handle the load. Upgrade only if you have to.