So I have a question. If he has 1000 gallons of water, 500 is display 250 is coral frag tank and the other 250 is sump. He needs a skimmer accurately rated at 500 right? Not one rated for a 1000? Assuming the tank is stocked with an average amount of fish not over stocked.
The display is 750 the drag is around 240 and I’m not sure what the sump holds. So will i need a Skimmer for a 750?
There isn’t really a defined answer there. Some people say only get the size skimmer rated for your display, others say your total water volume. What also makes it tough is a lot of skimmers are rated differently, some over rate there skimmers for sales and others I have seen are actually underrated. I like to have a little cushion in my skimming, but there is such a thing as over skimming. For an SPS tank, skimming will be crucial, you do not want to skimp on skimming with such sensitive corals at risk. I don’t know what the plan is on stocking, but you were talking about an eel, a big waste contributor, therefore you will need a very good skimmer to compensate. As mentioned before, with such a big water volume, it will be harder to have water parameters get out of line, but once they are, it will be extremely hard/time consuming/expensive to fix. Are you planning on having a frag tank? I would account that into the skimmer water volume rating. The sump some people don’t count while others do, I would especially if you keep live rock in it. I would be looking at a skimmer rated for around 1000g just to be safe. Its going to be expensive but running a 750g tank is anything but cheap.