Can You Ever Have A Skimmer Too Large For The Tank

[connorsbala]

Hey
Ive got a cheap air-driven skimmer on my seahorse tank that surprisingly seems to be doing the job, theres alot of liquid in the collection cup etc, so im pleased
Now, at work i think we've got a spair V2 (or something) skimmer lying around. I was offered this before but i declined, as i wasnt sure if it would fit on my tank. Anyways, im going in tomorow.
I want a skimmer on my 70l reef tank now, as i will be feeding frozen foods everyday now as i have a mandarin, who actually eats frozen atm (touch wood).
Now i can either get the cheap skimmer which removes surface protein(reason why i got it for SH tank and i feed frozen foods twice a day in there) or i can take home the skimmer thats lying around.
Now my question is if this skimmer is recommended for a larger tzank, could i use it on mine? This may be a silly question but im sure people say you can never have too large a skimmer
Cheers

 

[andywg]

If you don't believe skimming is detrimental to a tank then you can never have too large a skimmer. Some people feel skimming can be bad in an d of itself, so larger skimmers are worse.

Whether a skimmer can be too big therefore depends on which of the above two camps you are in.

 

[Colin_T]

About the only time you can overskim a tank is if you don't do regular water changes and don't use supplements to keep the minerals in the water. Also if you plan on keeping corals like gonioporas then you should minimise the skimmer size or not use one at all.

Skimmers can and do remove some trace elements from the water and if you don't do water changes or add supplements then corals and inverts can suffer from deficiencies over the long term. However if you do a partial water change each month or more often, then it should not be a problem.

Most skimmers will strip out plankton form the water and this can reduce the survival rate of certain plankton feeding corals like goniopora and dendronephthya. If you plan on keeping these corals then you should either provide plankton on a daily basis or keep them in a tank without a protein skimmer.

One of the shops in my area has some huge skimmers on their marine tanks. The skimmer chamber (with the airbubbles) is 4ft tall and about 10inches in diameter. They collect huge amounts of gunk from the tanks they are running on. The fish and corals do fine in their systems.

 

[Musho3210]

it skims as much as it can skim, then stops, unless over skimming means skimming an infinite amount of nothing/water, then it cant over skim.