Bigger is better right?

[mike31154]

Things definitely tight with the tall sump under the stand. Fitting & maintaining skimmer down there will be a nasty chore. In fact, working on anything down there will be a hassle. Might consider something a little shorter.

Sumps are great & I'd love to have one myself, but I've been running without for years. Not saying you should, but the reason I mention this is that because I don't have a sump, my skimmer is external, mounted on a little stand next to the display. It's a diy wooden air diffuser skimmer that came with the tank when I purchased it years ago. I realize you've already purchased a skimmer but figured you may want some additional info, perhaps for the future.

There has been much discussion, some research & plenty of new developments regarding skimmer technology over the years, but the bottom line is, most of them end up being roughly equal in performance. Even my old tech air diffuser rig does a fine job of pulling organics out of the water. The main factors determining skimmer efficiency (aside from physical size) are bubble size (smaller=better) & contact time between the water passing thru skimmer & bubbles (longer contact time=better). Wooden air diffusers need to be changed out periodically, but they produce some of the finest bubbles I've seen. A small power head in a skimming box in my display moves water slowly through my skimmer. I can regulate the height of the water column by either throttling the power head, the air pump output or adjusting a valve on the skimmer return line. Low power consumption & quiet operation are a couple of other pros to using this old school method. Cons are that the thing is sitting there next to my display & I wish it was a little taller to lengthen contact time.

Here are some photos, a few years old, but should give you an idea of how an air driven skimmer works






A search on air driven, counter current skimmers should bring up plenty of additional info for your reading pleasure. Some day I will have a basement sump which will feature a 6 foot air driven skimmer!

[gobytron]

There are quite a few really nice skimmerless tanks out there.

I have always found that unless you are keeping sps, A skimmer can be left out of a successful reef.

You just need to be consistent and generous with your water changes.

You state you are primarily interested in softies.

If that's the case, you can definitely skip getting a pricey skimmer at first and get one down the line if you start to add more demanding coral or if you start to get lazy on your water changes.

[reefwithareefer]

If you are more interested in softies, I have three you can have for free...

[helimech]

Well once I am up and running, I'll take you up on that!

[helimech]

Yeah, I need to think about my sump, I realised that it was tight when I started looking at the plumbing. Being in a rental suite, I wanted one mainly for backup in case any equipment leaked. There will be some redundancies built in
I think I am going to try and drop the lower section (advantage of building it yourself) I have the height on sump I do because it was free

[helimech]

Well I got the tank up and running, the dry rock and live rock in there and looks like it's diatoming it up!

[helimech]

I also lowered the supports on the bottom and so the 50gal might still work for the sump. For now I have a temp sump that is just a bin to give me time to think through the sump and design it the way I want!

[canadianbudz604]

Looking good, can't wait to see it stocked up.