Skimmer question!
 

Hey! I'm a rural newbie reefer, and before I head down island to where actual stores and things exist, I was hoping to get an answer to a particular question: how much power does a skimmer pump need to have? I got a bunch of equipment used, including a Remora skimmer that has no pump. I currently have it plumbed to my sump's return pump (225 gph or so) but I'm not sure if there isn't much for it to skim (mollies are going in to get the bioload capacity up on this trip; they'll later breed anemone food to give my planned black clowns a job) or it isn't getting enough pressure. It's been running for about two weeks now, my nitrogen values are all nice and low (they're zero when I'm not running them on the colorimeters at work ;) ), and I do have some algae and diatoms hanging out on my initial bit of live rock.

The display tank is a 48" 45 gallon with about an inch of aragonite, the sump is 30 gallons and mostly refugium. I'm planning on macroalgae and eventually sea grasses, so there's 3-4" sand in there so far. My eventual stocking plan is a pair of black ocellaris clowns with a handful of either bicolor or half-and-half chromis, along with some shrimp, gobies, and assorted inverts for cleaning.

I want to say that I had mine hooked up to a maxijet 1200.

Kait is correct. According to the Aqua C website the original pump for the Remora is the MaxiJet 1200.

Original and required aren't always the same thing XD Is the 1200 rated for 1200 gph or is it just part of the name?

yes, depending on how you are using it. j&l aquatics has a good description of its capabilities