[untamed]

I'm recalling that study that recently tried to measure WHAT was being removed by skimmers and how quickly various models removed it.

I believe that their conclusions were that the "larger" skimmer (the one the processed a larger volume of water per hour) removed the measured stuff more quickly, but that all the skimmers tested reduced the measured stuff to about the same level given time.

It struck me that a big difference between the test environment and an actual aquarium is that the aquarium continually generates new waste so a truly undersized skimmer won't ever get the chance to catch up and waste could accumulate.

Yes, I agree...it is more about bioload than actual water volume.

IMHO, size matters. In order to increase the amount of water it can process per hour, the chamber needs to get bigger. Increasing the flow rate with a smaller chamber just reduces the amount of time the water is in contact with the air bubbles (dwell time). In my case, I wanted to get to 1.5x tank volume per hour (600gph) with 2 minute dwell time inside the skimmer. That means that I need to have a 20 gallon chamber....yikes!

After that, I didn't really pay attention to what the skimmer says it is rated for.