sro xp2000 very over-rated

[bglegs]

I've been running this skimmer since march 5 and my nitrate levels are around 20 ppm...it's in 6.25 of water
My setup is 135 dt with 55 sump/fuge ...total volume 160 gals..in fuge is a ball of chaeto and mangrove plant....using a 6500k cfl ...12hr cycle..
List of fish
1 2" cowfish
1 1" clown
1 ringtail clingfish
1 3" purple tang
1 4" powder blue
1 3" flasher wrasse
1 brittle star
1 sea urchin
1 cleaner shrimp
2 blood shrimp

This is a new build so I don't have a good lighting system yet.But by the way it's going I won't be able to add corals or anything else....Also I feed once a day....

[rbnice1]

Well I wouldnt say its over rated. I would say your using it on to big of a tank. I wouldnt recommend the xp2000 on anything over a 90.

I think you should have looked into the SWC mini-s or maybe the Super Reef Octopus XP 3000.


Also I have a overly large skimmer and my trates still wont stay under 10 unless I run a denitrifier.

[bglegs]

reef speciality rates it at roughly 200 gal heavy bio-load...

[stanlalee]

are you basing this on nitrates? You cant base a skimmers performance on nitrates, if anything you should be blaming the cheato. You havent even had the skimmer running 2 months (of which at least the first week was break in time) which makes it nearly impossible to blame or perhaps your expectations of what a skimmer can do for you is too high.. How new is the set up, how much are you feeding once a day, how far apart were the fish added, how established is the rock, are there many large peices of rock (anaerobic area), water change amount and schedule? the skimmer is the probably the last thing you should point towards and plenty capable for what you have.

If you planned on it being a reef tank putting that fish load in FIRST makes it pretty difficult to start with 0-5 nitrates. Reef tanks are much easier to keep nitrates down. the more corals the better. All those corals and associated critters utilize a significant amount of nutrients that dont get uses in a fish only tank At 20ppm you can add pretty much anything but SPS and they will do more good than harm with your water quality but if you wanted to START with low nitrates you keep the fish load low while you add the corals and then ramp up the fish load after you have a good load of nutrient needy corals in the tank.

[rbnice1]

Originally Posted by bglegs

reef speciality rates it at roughly 200 gal heavy bio-load...

I think if you look on here at skimmer recommendations you wont see it ranked as high as reef specialty.