Suggestions on Skimmer?

[patrick76]

I am going to get a skimmer for my 29 gallon tank which one would be the best?


http://www.aquacave.com/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=632

I was thinking of any of the ones on the first row.

[BNS77]

I have a Tunze 9005, but I have mine in a 10g sump. Do you have a sump or were you just going to hang it on the side? Also, the Tunze is rated at 132g, so it does a great job of skimming. If you decide you like it let me know as mine will be available in about 2 weeks. I'm breaking my 29g down and selling the equipment off.

[BNS77]

You could get alot better skimmer for cheaper. Mine is only about 9 months old.

[patrick76]

I don't have a sump.

[patrick76]

Any suggestions?

[kgross]

For a 29 gallon tank, any of those Octopus skimmers would be fine.

Kim

[patrick76]

Any other suggestions?

[patrick76]

Which do you think is better bak pak hob skimmers or octupus skimmer? Also my lfs said that i should keep my canister filter also to keep my tank water clear. Do i need a canister also or can i just run a skimmer on my tank?

[sedor]

A canister filter will help keep your water crystal clear if you run carbon in it, but you will also have to maintain it and keep it clean every week otherwise your nitrates could get out of wack. I don't think you need it on your system. A skimmer, and around 50 lbs of LR should be all the filteration you need.

I have used Octopus HOB skimmers and for the money, they are a great choice, remember to get one that states it capable of handling about 3 times the amount of your tank. So for you, one that says it can handle a 90G tank.

[patrick76]

How about the octupus that you can put carbon in it?

[kgross]

Just about all of them you can put bags of carbon in, but it can be dangerous. But some like this one OCT-BH100f (http://jensaltwaterhaven.com/products/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=24_25&products_id=3) are made to add filter media to.

Kim

[patrick76]

How dangerous is it? Just using carbon is risky?

[patrick76]

Ok im still confused. Some people tell me i need a canister filter and a skimmer. Some tell me all i need is a hob filter. Some tell me hob filter and skimmer. Some tell me all i need is a skimmer. What is the best for my 29 gallon tank'/?

[Zann]

depends on what u want to keep in it some say all u need is water changes do a 5 to 10 gal water change a week and u will be ok . i have a friend who has a great tank he changes his once a week like clockwork and his tank looks great. the thing is u cant get lazy with the changes. but for a skimmer a octo hob skimmer is ur best bet.

[ccirish]

I had a 29 gal and ran it initially with just a hob filter and levels were fine but does not leave room for error and need to keep bio-load down, so I had only 2 fish. I decided to add more fish so I removed the hob and just had a skimmer. I have a 40 gal breeder now and only run a deltec mce300 skimmer.

[kgross]

With a 29 gallon tank you can get away with a skimmer (actually on any tank you can, but I would not suggest it), since 29 gallons is easy to do good water changes. If you changed out 5 gallons a week, you would have great water quality unless you were overfeeding the tank.

A skimmer is a great investment for a reef tank, it will react to changes faster than anything else and can help save you from many problems. A canister filter is not needed on a reef tank, and can be bad for the tank depending on how you set it up. You want the rock/sand to do the biological filtration and if you have bio media in the canister it will try to do bio filtration as well, causing higher nitrate levels. Plus a canister filter will be acting as a mechanical filter on your tank traping pods, food etc, and not allowing your corals to eat them. Plus all the food etc that is trapped will start breaking down causing nitrate in your tank.

Kim

[sedor]

Be careful when adding carbon to your skimmer. I had the Octopus BH300F and I decided it would be a good idea to add a bag of ChemiPure. I had it in the 3rd chamber and after a couple days it unlodged itself and plugged my return pipe causing the skimmer to overflow and resulted in a mini flood. I then put the bag into the second chamber and it worked fine, but it was never really compact enough to do its job.

[patrick76]

Well decided to keep the canister for a little while and decided to get some base rock. S if i keep the canister for a little while long make sure to take the bio media out?

[patrick76]

Then in about 2 months im going to get a octopus skimmer.

[kgross]

Once you have enough rock in the system, yes slowly remove all the biomedia in the canister. But you want to do it slowly, about 1/4 of it a week for 4 weeks.

Kim

[patrick76]

Why slowely?

[kgross]

Because currently most of your biofilter bacteria is living on that biomedia. When you remove it, you will be removing the bacteria, and you might not have enough to eat all the ammonia that is produced. If you remove it slowly, bacteria will start growing on the rocks to eat the "extra" ammonia that is not eaten in the filter, so you do not have an ammonia spike.

Kim

[patrick76]

I have some live rock in my tank.

[kgross]

How much rock, how much sand, and is it course or fine, and how much life do you have in the tank?

Kim

[patrick76]

29 Gallon, not sure how much sand pretty fine like beach sand. 10 pounds of live rock and 26 pounds of base rock. 2 Clown fish and few turbo snails and hermets.

[kgross]

You should be fine on Bio filtration, just take it slow on removing the bio media in the canister so you don't have an ammonia spike.

Kim