skimmer pump question?

[drex]

hey guys ive always just ran my prizm skimmer and been alright, well now i switched over to aggressive fish about 5 days ago and moved al my live rock etc and it made quite a mess. its cleaning up slowly but i dont want to wait or ever have this happen again, SO im getting a bigger skimmer from my LFS for a great deal and it is an in sump, which i have always just had my prizm hanging on my sump. for a pump for my new skimmer can i just use a large rio pump? or do i need like a return pump like i use from my sump back up to my tank.im asking because i have 2 rio 2400's sitting here and if it would work that would be great and save me a ton.im a little short on money right now. any advice is appreciated.thanks

 

[nordy]

As for the question of which pump to use, your skimmer will probably work best with a pump that has the same gph as it originally came with. For cleaning up the tank I recommend a canister type filter that would be pretty effective at cleaning up dirt/debris suspended in the water, in a way that a skimmer just won't work. You can get a basic one pretty cheap and could just hang it on your tank when ever you need to clean up the water, A canister filter can also give you the option of running carbon when needed. They do have the downside of cleaning the media though.

 

[drex]

well my tank is drilled so as far as collecting media out of the water it is flowing plenty to do that, but my little prizm has to work its a$$ off ot keep up .my water was CRYSTAL clear when i had my reef a week ago. took it down and traded a bunch of my coral in and sold my fish , moved all my live rock to give more swimming space and put in 2 fish for my predator tank and you can just see stuff floating its cloudy, i changed my filter pad etc thinking that was the problem but its just not getting much better to quickly and if the filter would do it, it would be doing it much faster then this.i have had to empty my skimmer 4-5 times in the past 3 days, somewhat of me adjusting it all over hte place but its just not doing the trick. NOW, the skimmer i am buying from my LFS has been there quite some time, it has no pump for it, i have no idea what came with it. they just threw it on the shelf 2 yrs ago and it has sat, few small pieces are missing and what not and i can figure all that out, just not sure what pump to use. i assumed a rio 2400 would give enough flow/water,but im no expert on skimmers.this skimmer is rated for like a 240 gallon and it is going to be doing my 100 gallons..im planning on upgrading my tnak within 3 months and figured i would just do this now. thanks !

 

[sk8shorty01]

I would think that a Rio2400 would be a little to big for a skimmer, although if you put a ball valve to control the flow in between the pump and the skimmer you could probably get away with it. I am by no means an expert on skimmers, this is just my own logical guess (which could be completely wrong).

 

[drex]

yeah the rio will pump 750 gallons per hour into it, i have a brand new one sitting here and was hoping it would work..i have an old rio 1700 i believe sitting around but it makes some noise while running. thats my main question is would this work? this skimmer is big, its for like 250 gallons or more. its quite a bit bigger in size then the coralife one rated for 125 gallons"they sell it there so i compare"this has been sitting there for a few years so im sure its not the greatest skimmer, but i know it will do much better then my little prizm. so anymore input would be great!"thanks for the guys who have already i appreciate it."

 

[drex]

i read up on skylab protein skimmers, not sure how good they are haha but on their skimmers rated at 180 gallons or more they rate a 700 gallon per hour OR MORE pump..so i guess all i want to hear is "yes you can use your rio 2500" once i figure out how i am going to fit this into my sump...