Advice on this filer?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Zero333

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
45
Location
Jersey City, NJ
I don't have any experience with that particular brand - but since your tank is a 10gal my advise (especially among the cheaper/more affordable brands) is to get one that is rated for 40gal or so, and then even if (when) it becomes less effective you are still covered.

For example - the prizm std skimmer is considered junk by lots of folks, and it is "rated" for a 90 gal tank. Actually on about a 20 or 30 gal tank they do quite well.
 
Gotcha.
Is it possible to have too much skimming/over skim. I would hate to do that. I plan on only having small inverts a couple fish and coral in there, would i be removing anything I need by having too large of a skimmer for the volume??

thanks
 
You can probably use the AquaC Remora hang on back skimmer. I use one on my 14g tank and it works good and easy to setup.

AquaC is coming out with a skimmer just for nano tanks sometimes soon.
 
My friend has a 10 gallon marine tank also but he doesnt run a skimmer. he purchased a Marineland Bio filter mini. The LFS says if you run a filter with a bio wheel that you dont need a skimmer especialy in such a small tank. I really wouldnt worry about it as long as you do weekly water changes.
 
those bio wheels are nitrate factories and will give you problems in the long run.

Like ilikefish said, you really don't need a skimmer in a 10g tank. I ran my 10g for over a year with no skimmer. I didn't over feed and did weekly 10% water changes to import trace elements and export waste. I also had around 10lb of live rock for natural filtration.
 
Ditto the bio wheel / nitrate factory. If you go skimmerless, then you could do *only* water changes, tho' I'd do large ones. (3 to 5 gal per week).

Some folks believe it is possible to overskim, but I'm not one of them :). I bet if you did a search across AA on "overskimming" you'd get a few opinions.

I thought of another inexpensive option, look for a (perhaps used) Aqua Clear 300 or Aqua Clear 500 and run charcoal and/or macro algae in the reservoir. This would "skim" but it would provide more than enough water circulation without needing any powerheads and would give you a space to put some calpura ...
 
the skilter should be just fine on your 10 gal. tank providing you have LS substrate and 15-20 lbs of LR. The skimmer option is nice. It is not the best set up around but it should work well for you.
 
Currently i have about 13# of live rock. 40# of LS. a mini-biowheel filter(without the bio-wheel) and a 201 ph.

I was just interested in using the skilfer as a PS and filter all in one, and was wondering if it would do a good enough job in such a small tank.
Would this do what i am looking for? Would it make things any worse? Would i benefit from putting something other then the filter cartridge in the filter i have now (such as carbon or something?)

thanks
 
It should a fine skimmer in a 10 gal. I would toss in another 5-10lbs of LR as well.
 
If you have 12 lbs of live rock & sand, I don't see any need for additional filtration. The Skilter is a very inefficient skimmer. You only have about 1 inch of contact time between the bubbles and water. It does not surface skim. It has a very skinny neck, restricting output. However, for a 10 gallon, it would do the trick, but i just dont' see the need.

Also, the Skilter is a very loud unit. The worst i've ever had.
 
Yes you can overskim. Skimming not only removes the bad stuff but it also removes trace elements. On that small of a tank I wouldn't use a skimmer as it is very easy to remove too much quite easily.JMO
 
Back
Top Bottom