Protein Skimmer Dilemma!

Ok so here's my situation, I originally bought a Reef Octopus XP1000SSS with a auto neck cleaner which was initially intended for about a custom 100gal which I think may have been pushing it for this size skimmer (I think...). Well, bad news is that where I was gonna place the tank got nixed, but the good news is the new location now will allow me to put a 5' tank, so I'm looking at getting a 120XH gal. So my question is:

Will my skimmer be under rated for a 120gal tank with a 30gal sump? I intended to have it medium stocked.

Would like to hear from anybody also who has this skimmer on a larger tank.

 

Given that it's only a twitch underrated, I'd be inclined to not worry about it. Watch carefully and upgrade if it isn't keeping up.

 

I have read a lot of articles saying that you shouldn't run the skimmer all the time because it can skim too much. Using that frame of mind, a skimmer that is a little too small for your tank can run all the time and not over skim.

Just a thought.

 

You could feasibly run that tank with no skimmer and be successful, so running it with an undersized one should be even easier.

The thing to remember here is that filtration must be balanced against nutrient input. This essentially means that more filtration will allow for the addition of more nutrients which will allow for greater saturation of nutrients in the water without nitrate or phosphate proliferation.

I shoot for barely readable nutrients which means I'm slightly defeating my filtration and thus supplying the maximum saturation of nutrients in my system with the given filtration. That said, you can more easily attain your maximum saturation with less filtration and due to the fact that you're adding less waste to your aquarium, there's much more room for error.

 

Ok thanks. I was planning on also doing ecobak biopellets, would this help with the biopellet bacteria consuming extra nutrients, aiding the work of the skimmer? I would like to keep my xp10000sss for this setup for the time being. I was hoping to keep it to avoid the hassle of trying to sell and forking out more money for a bigger skimmer.