Just bought a Tunze 9002

the 9002 was not enough for my tank. i had it and had to buy another skimmer. i can tell you the skim coming out of my swc 120 is proof. that the 9002 wasn't cutting it. i have about 40 - 45 gallons of actual water. thats after rock and sand is in.
most manufactures over rate their skimmers. tunze is one that gives you high bio loads and low bio load estimates. swc also does this. but not all do this.
i didn't buy my swc with thoughts of upgrading to a larger tank, most people will tell you going +1 on a skimmer is a good idea. i have found it to be true. since the tunze should have handled my bio load and didn't.

no problem powerman


sollie im glad its working out for you and hope it continues to as your tank progresses.

 

And I don't mean to side track... but it is interesting that the OP had a skimmer rated well for his system... at least in range, and went to a smaller skimmer. I don't have personal knowledge with the 9002 so I will have to defer to the experts on their capabilities.

... but just so we are all on the same page... Most folks back in the day cheaped out and got some big honkin skimmer that was over rated for their tank... it's actual capabilities were less than rated and so most folks came out with the idea to over rate.

If you buy a quality skimmer from a quality manufacturer, then you will get a skimmer that has been properly rated. You could cheap out and get the next biggest skimmer by another maker... but you would not save any money, and you would not add any capacity.

If you buy a properly rated skimmer from a reputable maker and it is the best skimmer you can buy at the time... then you will have no problem selling that quality skimmer if and when you decide to go bigger and recoup some of your cost instead of buying a big honkin piece of junk and then realizing it can't do the bigger tank and then sell it for pennies on the dollar cause nobody wants to buy it. There are many ways to save money.

 

The question isn't the size of the neck, but the air flow matched to the neck. Too big of a neck with too low of air flow with a properly matched tank/skimmer equals poor performance. A properly sized setup with low nutrients just means that it shuts down and does not produce. In either case you must tweak the water level and move it to a place it is not meant to be to "correct" the imbalance.

From those I have talked to, there is a belief that over rated skimmer remove less organics because of a less stable foam head. I can agree with that at least in the sense to correct the myth that bigger skimmers remove more... at least the correction brings thing more in line with reality.

But there has been some doubt in my mind if bigger skimmer indeed remove less... certainly not more, but some doubt as far as less. If the organics are bound up in the reaction chamber, and are indeed attached to a bubble... then they are effectively "removed" from the system... they just not have been collected in the cup... if and when enough build up for the air flow to push them over to the cup they are removed... and if the power was cut and the skimmer emptied then yes they would be added back to the system. Perhaps a technicality... just something I'm curious about. Sorry if I'm on my own little kick here.