Which BK external skimmer

[bct15]

I am having a little trouble selecting a skimmer for my system, id like to go with an external bubble king but don’t want to over or undersize it. I don’t know how conservative royal exclusive is with their sizing, I feel many manufacturers are very “gracious” with their sizing estimates but the bubble King stats seems more conservative relative to tank size estimates.

I am building a 480 gallon display that will be an sps dominant tank. It will have a number of tangs, wrasses, Anthias, pair of clowns, and a few random gobies and other oddities. The fish and coral will be added over time and not all at once. It will have a sump and refugium (probably 150 gallons total), but I feel this is less important.

Right now I am trying to choose between the external deluxe 300 and external deluxe 400. I am leaning more towards the 300 as I fear the 400 may be too much. Which of these best suits my system, and will be able to keep up as bioload expands?

Also, what internal skimmers also are properly sized for this system...as I may make a left turn and go internal at the last minute?

Thank you


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[slief]

Honestly, I would go with the 250 and not a 300 and especially not the 400. We base our sizing on the display size because our sumps and refugiums do not contribute to the load. Instead they help reduce the load. FWIW. Bubble Kings are VERY conservatively rated and really should not be oversized for best/most consistent performance.

I run a 250 sized Bubble King on my 480 gallon display with over 70 fish in it. At least 10 of those are 8-10" and the 250 can still handle much more. My concern with a 300 sized skimmer in your case would be consistency. Also consider that I could have gone with a 300 instead of the 250 when I bought my SM250 but i knew better and I am happy with my decision to stick with the 250 vs the 300. Thus. if it were me, I would go with the 250 unless you are going to have a very heavy load which would amount to about 1/2 inch of fish per display gallon which in an SPS dominant tank would be ludicrous.