Skimmer Question

[Flumpus]

I just went to my LFS with my wife to price equipment for the conversion to SW of her 10g tank (for seahorses, see my other thread for my long post of questions ). So anyway, the plan was to use my wife's Aquaclear filter with some sort of good filter media in it, get a powerhead, and skip the skimmer. A seemingly knowledgable employee told us that a Red Sea Prizm Skimmer would be able to skim, and provide enough flow to replace the powerhead and filter, because it has a media basket. Would that work? We don't need a ton of flow because we're not going to do corals. Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[fish_keeper2]

i use the same skimmer in my 10 gal nano. it seems to work really well.

 

[Flumpus]

Do you have any other filter or powerhead in there though?

 

[fish_keeper2]

yes i have a filter made for 10 gal that provides 80 gph and i have put some chemi pure in it. i also have a powerhead that provides 175 gph.......its from aqua clear. also in the media basket to my skimmer i have activated carbon.

 

[maestro]

yes i have a filter made for 10 gal that provides 80 gph and i have put some chemi pure in it. i also have a powerhead that provides 175 gph.......its from aqua clear. also in the media basket to my skimmer i have activated carbon.

You have to be carefull with skimmers and seahorses, the microbubbles can cause major problems for the seahorses.

Have a good look on seahorse.org before you decide on anything

 

[Flumpus]

Well, I had a plan, Aquaclear filter and a powerhead, but no skimmer. The guy at my LFS threw me off, but I'm back on track now, and will add a skimmer later if I really think I need it.

 

[bunjiweb]

We use a Red-Sea Prizm Skimmer on a 4ft Seahorse tank at work and it has never caused any problems? If it really is a problem though it would be much amplified in a 10G tank. The skimmers themselves are fairly good, if a little noisy at times, but i would have a powerhead in the tank aswell because you don't want the skimmer turned up to full blast because if you do, A ) it leaks, B ) you don't skim effectively and get a much more watery skim.

If you live in america there are various internal nano-skimmers, and if you live in the UK there are ones such as the Sander Maxi-skim 200 which i use on my 15G nano that is an air-driven internal skimmer from TMC.

Ben

 

[pleder]

You will not be able to keep any type of larger seahorse in a 10g tank. This includes reidi, erectus, kuda ( except fuscus ), barbs, kellogi, spins, or comes. The only seahorses that a 10g would be suitable for are zoastroe or caps, but even keeping caps in a 10g is pushing it and you would need a chiller. The min size would be a 25t, but really a 29g tall IMHO

Skimmers are known to cause problems in seahorses that are predispositioned to Gas Bubble Disease. Many use skimmers on syngnathid tanks without issue, but if there is an occurance of GBD then the skimmer should be removed immediatley.