2 Skimmers... One System.. Thoughts and opinions?
 

Hey there Guys.. I Have made room in my sump for the broken euro reef skimmer that I just got the new needlewheel.. Now.. Would running a Euroreef-250 and a Deltec 2050 on the same system have any bennifets.. This is on a 125G Tank... I had to cut some of my acrilic sump to make both fit.. But I did make both fit do you guys think that this is worth doing.?? I have never heard of someone running 2 skimmers before lol.. And with doing this.. do i need as much Live rock doing this guys??
Thanks :D

PS.. I do know it is overkill.. But can you overskim your tank??

http://www.xwebsystems.com/canreef/skimmer.jpg

I run 2 Aqua Medic T1000 on my 165 and I believe golbaldesigns runs 2 skimmers as well.

Really now.. Im finding that the euroreef is doing all the work and the deltec just sits there and fizzes.. No foam at all.. But I figure as the bioload increases that will change..

How did you like them aqua medics?? I want to get a BK180.. but if the 2 do just as good as job.. I will just keep the 2!!

Wouldn't having them both in such a close proximity contained in the sump affect performance? I would think one skimmer ejecting freshly skimmed water and turning over water in the sump next to the other might be less efficient than having lets say one in the sump and a HOB on the display or another tank that is connected to the system.

I dont have a ton of cash laying around to blow on skimmers but I considered having a HOB on a frag tank I am going to plumb into my main system. I know water is like air in this case it goes everywhere and carries everything with it but with that said I am not convinced physical placement would still not have an impact... ?

Palmer

If I were running two skimmers I'd want each in a different chamber and have my drain line split to feed both chambers... maybe return pump inbetween them. My thinking is that both would get equally dirty water and neither would get water that's been skimmed by the other but it's just a theory.

You will never be able to over-skim your tank. Even the best skimmer can only skim about 30% of total organics in a tank.

I run 2 skimmers, each in a different chamber... Working well.

HYDOR 1000 in first chamber and SWC160 in second. Both pulling out lots of dark brown/black skimmate....

Two skimmers!?..........Sounds like a great idea to me, twice the oxygenation and double the export!
I run 2 skimmers in the same sump. If there were deleterious effects I wouldn't notice them because both skimmers consistently collect copious amounts of thick dark skimmate. I noticed the smaller one collected a little slower comparatively so I restricted the flow a little to compensate.
Two skimmers should not lessen the need for live rock.

They work great, pull lots of crap out equally. I have them in 2 different chambers, one right after the other and they skim out close to the same amount every week.

Quite awhile back I remember people talking about this. I heard another theory, that the skimmers, because of different bubble fractioning... will skim out different parts of the dissolved organic load that the other one doesnt get. Bubble-size differences and 'hang-time' will vary I presume. It makes sense. And yes as people mentioned... cant overskim a tank.

Cheers,

Chris