# Is Skilter 250 power filter & protein skimmer good for 26g?



## benny503

*Is Skilter 250 power filter & protein skimmer good for 2*

I just bougth a 26G sw tank that came with Skilter 250 power filter & protein skimmer. This tank been up and running over 6 months with the previous owner and it didn't have any issue. I just want to know is this filter good for 26gal fish tank? Thanks, Benny


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## Pasfur

Hi Benny,

In marine systems the majority of problems that occur as a result of poor equipment occur long term. Lets not make any assumptions at all based on 6 months of success. Instead, lets look at the filter based on your goals.

Your aquarium is small, so you have that advantage when it comes to skimming needs. The skilter is, without much debate from hobbyists, the single most ineffective protein skimmer available in the hobby today. The reaction chamber is extremely small, which leads to very little contact time between the bubbles and water. The gallons per hour is sufficient, but this measure is useless unless we are comparing products with similar contact time and bubble quality.

That being said, the skilter can be used effectively depending on what you are intending to keep and what your plans are for water changes and other filtration. 

For example, this would be a setup that i would support, using a skilter:
26 gallons, aragonite sand, live rock, 2 Ocellaris Clownfish, and a few extremely hardy soft corals such as Yellow Polyps, Green Star Polyps, and mushrooms.

For another example, this would be a setup that i would not support at all:
26 gallons, aragonite sand, artificial corals, a few small fish, and a couple of inverts.

In other words, it depends completely on your willingness to work within the limits of this filter. My suggestion is to work with the filter you have. You can get your hands we with a marine system and when you are ready to upgrade in tank size then we can talk about real skimmer options. 

By the way, you can upgrade the skilter to improve its effectiveness. If you have a small air pump and some airline tubing, then this is very inexpensive. You need to buy a wooden airstone at your LFS. Run airline tubing into the reaction chamber and use the wooden airstone to provide additional air bubbles. This works well on this unit and doubles its efficiency. I ran a 10 gallon system with a skilter 250 using this technique and it was rather effective.

Finally, if you want a more efficient unit now without spending much money at all, consider some of these options available on e-bay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=110262005124
http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-New-Mini-...438&_trkparms=39:1|65:15&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
http://cgi.ebay.com/PS-75-Protein-S...743&_trkparms=39:1|65:15&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I like the last option best, because it can move up to a 38 gallon tank or even a 55 gallon fish-only setup. On a 26 gallon it should really kick. I just installed this unit on a friends 29 gallon tank and the results have been very nice.


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## benny503

Thank you very much, I just bought a 35G powerhead for the fish tank. Now I am investing in protein Skimmer.


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## Pasfur

The PS-75 I listed above....
I have now bought from this guy 2 times on e-bay and both experiences were very positive. For what its worth.


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## benny503

Thanks Pasfur, I am currently the highest bidder "you're the high bidder and currently in the lead. "


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## benny503

Here is a picture of my new fish tank.


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## benny503

Here is what I have inside the tank for now


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## benny503

BTW, would you help me to identify what corals I have there? Plus what best products do I feed them with and how often? Thank you very much in advance.


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## iamntbatman

Awesome tank!

I'm not a saltwater guy (yet) so I'll have to let someone else do the coral ID's.


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## Pasfur

Is that a mix of Tufa and Lava rock? Is there any actual live rock in the aquarium? If no, i would strongly encourage you to do two things:

1) add 2 or 3 pieces of live rock, 4 or 5 pounds apiece. You can do this gradually if needed. 

2) When you buy your first piece of live rock, as the LFS if they will give you some "rubble" from the bottom of the live rock vat. Then pour the rubble behind your stack of rock.

These two steps should be enough to really seed the tank well and help establish a much more natural environment for your fish. The tank will be full of life in the form of copepods and amphipods that you will never have otherwise.

As to the coral identification, it is very hard to tell. I see what look like both Grand Polyps (Palythoa grandis) and Flower Anemone, which a lot of hobbyists consider to be a type of Mushroom coral. I will bring this thread to Cody's attention and see if he can help. Just out of curiousity, what did the seller tell you they are?

By they way, i have bad news for you. Your Domino Damsel has to be removed. No doubt about it. This fish is WAY to mean for an aquarium your size and will TERRORIZE anything you put with it. Here is my suggestion: For the next several days use your fish net to feed the fish. Put your food in the net, then put the net in the tank. After a few days of this, your Damsel will jump in the net for you.

Let me know after you get your skimmer. I'll walk you through the setup.


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## benny503

OMG, those rocks are not LR??? The previous owner doesn't know much about sw, so am I. I thought all this time they are LR. I will go to the LFS tomorrow get a few LR. Thanks a lot for letting me know,

And about the 3 dots fish, yes I saw it trying to attack my yellowtail blue damsey. I will have it remove from my tank soon. Thanks again for all your help.


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## Cody

You definatley have a bunch of Palys for the most part. These are the smaller things you have all around with different colors. These don't need to be fed directly, as these are photosynthic. Just keep water quality up. I am no expert on ID'ing them, since there are so many, but if you want to check out ZoaID's gallery, they may have something in there. I use this to ID my Zoas/Palys ( http://zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=15 ).

I also see stuff that resemble sponges. Again, good water is needed since these take in the particles.

The fish looks like a Domino Damsel, but I would need a close up pic to make sure.

And finally, the big hairy thing in the middle is something I cannot ID. I would guess a Fan Worm/Featherduster.


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## iamntbatman

Not to hijack the thread, but can tuffa and lava rock be used in a reef setup if it's mixed with live rock? Will the coraline and other critters colonize these types of rock? If so, I think it could be a good looking addition to a reef setup.


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## benny503

To Pasfur: I won the auction and paid for it "Congratulations Benny, you've completed Checkout. Benny, your payment of US $38.90 has been processed by PayPal. You will receive an email receipt shortly. For more information, click the "View Order Details", please let me know do i have to buy the filter pad for this?


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## benny503

iamntbatman: you are not hi-jacking the topic  that will be my next question too. Thank you. 


Cody: Thank you for you help. After the protein skimmer complete I will move to lighting.


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## Pasfur

The skimmer you purchased does not use require the purchase of a filter pad. However, i would recommend that you purchase a new pair of inexpensive womens panty hose. You will clip the end of the hosing and attach it to the output of your skimmer to eliminate bubbles from entering the aquarium.

Tufa & Lava Rock... yes, it can be used in a marine system. This rock is very porous and is an ideal type of rock to mix with live rock. In time, the tufa and lava rock would become "seeded" with life from the live rock, although it may take several years for the full benefits to occur. I have several pieces of tufa rock helping to form the base of my reef.

Coraline algae will grow almost anywhere, given the proper conditions. You will even find coraline algae growing on snail and hermit crab shells! So yes, coraline can grow successfully on Tufa or Lava rock.


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## benny503

Pasfur, my friend gave me this (what you call, rock?) couple days ago. I soaked it in my bucket of salt water that I saved to do water change for my fish tank. Do you think I should put this in my tank? This rock is out of it original tank over 3 years already.


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## Pasfur

Ok, i am about to give you some advice that is a total secret. Shhhh.... don't tell nobody.

What i am about to say will cause thousands of reef keepers across the country to loose sleep for several nights. I will be ridiculed, criticized, and possibly banned from this forum. Ok, here goes...

If it is aquarium safe (which it is), and you think it would look nice, then it is ok to put it into your aquarium.

That being said, what you have is an "artificial" coral. It is a man made decoration. In the 1980's these were standard place in a marine aquarium. As live rock and affordable lighting has become readily available, the large majority of hobbyists have utilized live rock and living corals in their aquariums. 

Personally, I enjoy some artificial coral in my aquariums. I use a mix of live rock, living corals, and artificial corals. The aquarium is mine, so i get to make the decisions on what i enjoy looking at. Keep in mind, as algae grows on the artificial coral it will loose its white color. And you do NOT want to take the artificial corals out of the aquarium and clean them. This is stressful to the fish. 

When i buy a digital camera here in the near future i will post some pics of my setup. ( I am watching e-bay for digital cameras daily.) I think artificial corals can blend nicely in low cost marine reef soft coral or fish & live rock system.


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## benny503

Thanks so much Pasfur.... you are my hero. 

Pasfur.... I will tell you a secret too, last night my friend gave me a whole box of this. His ex-wife spended a lot of money on this huge salt water tank. When they divorce, my friend removed all the stuff inside the tank and hold on to it. Now he is giving it to me. The picture that I posted do no justice for this rock,I will wait till the morning to take some pictures and post in here.... it look very real, and I know the friend of mine. His ex-wife and him so rich that I dont think they use artificial corals (may be I look up at them too much) but I will show you what I got and you can give me advices :wink:


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## benny503

Pasfur, please ignored my previous post. I just did a search on google image for artificial coral and some of the pictures came out is what my friend gave it to me. I am such an idiot, all this time I thought my friend gave me gold


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## Pasfur

Hey, you still got a fortune for free! Those artificial pieces are NOT cheap. One day you may decide to do a tank full of Triggers, Puffers, Large Angelfish, etc. When you do, you will be glad to have all those free decorations!


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## benny503

Here are some of the pictures that I took today.... do you think I have the use for them in my current tank? Are these corals helping my tank or just for look? My sandle is size 9 some of the coral are bigger then 12"


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## Cody

You can use them as decoration if you would like. And, as Pasfur mentioned, you can make a killer Predator tank!


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## Pasfur

Cody said:


> You can use them as decoration if you would like. And, as Pasfur mentioned, you can make a killer Predator tank!


Agreed. I would just mix these pieces in your aquarium as you see fit. Just remember to add some live rock first.


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## benny503

My Odyssea PS75 protien skmimer arrived today, I already have it setup and hanged it on my tank and running. Do I still need the skiltler filter?


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## benny503

Pasfur, thank you very much for recommending the PS75 protein skimmer, it works so perfect. I can see lots of brow stuff insice the cups plus I dum the water twice already. This works way better then the skilter that i had.


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## Pasfur

I would use the skilter for mechanical filtration and a place to place a carbon pouch. Plus the water movement is good. 

Glad you like the skimmer.


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## benny503

Everyone and especially pasfur, thank you all for all your help all this time. Yes I did take everyone here for advices. I did bought a protein skimmer, live rocks lots of it and removed the 3 dots damsey. Now I still have the yellowtail damsy left, this is the only fish left in my tank. I feel sad for my fish because I think he is getting lonely. 

My next question would be what kind of fish to buy that will do well with my yellow tail damsey? Below is a picture of my current setup in my fish tank... and again thank you everyone here :BIGkissy:


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## Cody

Whoa, that's a lot of rock! When I first looked st that, I was going to say take some out, watch the bottom glass in case a rock falls, etc etc, but the more I look at it, it is actually a pretty good design IMO. All that rock will greatly help your biological filtration. The only flaw that I see is the top rocks on the left are very close to the surface. Be careful with putting corals on that; espically when doing water changes.

Others will disagree with me, but I would get the damsel out. Damsels are evil 99% of the time, and will kill fish 3-4 times bigger than them because of the harrasment they put on the fish. I know someone whos damsel killed his *female* Clownfish (more aggresive in a pair). Then, killed off the male and his Firefish. I know plent of stories where Damsels have killed plenty of fish. Inverts too.

Check: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=161367
Read the posts here. Very good about Damsels being in first then adding livestock: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=152192


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## benny503

Cody, 
Thank you. I apprieciated your info, it hurt me when I found out that damsey are being agressive. My lfs would not take the damsey back and I dont want to spear it either. It does look nice in the tank, I think I am just am going to keep the little guy. Poor little guy just have to stay in it by himself till someone else who want him. Mean while do you think I should put some corals in it? Xenia is nice looking, what do you think?


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## benny503

BTW, you are right about too much LR on the left hand side of the tank. I was trying hide the the skimmer in the background. I dont want to but any corals around the intake and the output of the skimmer. :BIGcool:


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## Pasfur

benny503 said:


> Cody,
> Thank you. I apprieciated your info, it hurt me when I found out that damsey are being agressive. My lfs would not take the damsey back and I dont want to spear it either. It does look nice in the tank, I think I am just am going to keep the little guy. Poor little guy just have to stay in it by himself till someone else who want him. Mean while do you think I should put some corals in it? Xenia is nice looking, what do you think?


I have such a perfect solution that i have to pat myself on the back. Are you ready? This is really good....

Just set up another tank! Seriously. Here is how. Remove 2 pieces of live rock from the top left and top right sides of the tank. This will make your aquarium look more open and allow you greater depth options for placing corals. 

Then, use these pieces of live rock as the filter for a new 10 gallon aquarium. This 10 gallon can be a species only tank for your Damsel fish. And you can use some of your pretty fake coral pieces in the 10 gallon! 

Add substrate, a power head for water circulation, and a small heater. Now you are good to go!

I'm on a role, so check this out. You can use this tank for a variety of purposes. Increase lighting and use small rocks to grow hair algae for feeding your main tank. Additional algae growth will help copepod populations which you can move to the display. You can even add some mushrooms, yellow star polyps, green star, or maybe try your hand at Sun Coral, all of which can tolerate standard florescent tubes. 

This is so obvious, i'm not sure why you are still reading! Go buy a 10 gallon.


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## benny503

Pasfur :welldone: great idea. I just showed your reply to my gf. She said "Very good excuse to buy another fish tank, 5 fish tanks are not enought for you already?" Then she said "No" I spend more time changing water for all my fish tanks more then taking her out. Well I guess that's a no. :frustrated: :BIGweepy: 

Did you get a digital camera yet? I can't wait to see your tank. :brow:


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## Pasfur

I can tell you are a youngster benny, because in life you have to prioritize. When faced with such a decision, do i make my girlfriend happy?, or do i set up another fish tank?, the decision should be clear.

I need a digital camera. I realize this. Tomorrow may be the day. Are you listening to me Walmart? Run a July 4th special! Pics are coming soon. 

Speaking of pics, somebody message me with foolproof simple steps on how to post pics. I don't want to steal this thread, so a message will do.

Hey benny... did you hear the news? On July 4th weekend you can buy an empty 10 gallon aquarium for the low price of $10!


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## benny503

Pasfur, here are some steps I do to insert pictures to this website. If you have any other problem encounter let me know I can do a screen shots and take you step by step. 

1. Load the the pictures from your camera to your computer (or anyone computer.) 
2. Resize your picture, use paint software from your computer to resize it. From your windown go to
a. "Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint"
b. From Paint go to "File, Open" then select your picture
c. Once you have your picture on the main Paint page, go to "Image, Stretch/Skew"
d. Inside the Stretch box, drop the 100% of Horizontal and Vertical to 50%
e. Once you see the picture is small enought, click on "File, Save"
3. Loading the pictures, in the reply post or they call it "Message body" click on "insert", click on "upload image", 
4. The upload picture box will pop up, click on "Browse" select you picture, then click on "send". 
5. It will load your picture into the forum, then click on "standard"

Then click on "submit" you are done. If you still cant get it, you can PM me with your number I will call you and guy you step by step.


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## benny503

Now back to my questions :lol: I am thinking of buying this light, is this too much light for my tank? Is this the right price? 


{FROM THE SELLER Advertisement}

I have for sale a 24'' MH light. The light brand new cost me $595 from Coralreefecosystems.com (http://www.coralreefecosystems.com/l...unsupply-1.asp). I also put in a 10,000k Ushio Aqualite double ended HQI ($75), 2x 24w Actinic bulbs ($50), and an electronic ballast ($125).

The system is less that two weeks old and I currently have it hanging above a 37g tank. Overall the light setup cost me $750. Probably paid a bit much for it but I made the impulsive move and bought it. I am sure some people know that mood which I speak of.

I have sadly moved on right after buying this light to a little bit bigger tank and I need to sell this one to pay for some of the new tank. I am looking to get somewhere around 350-400 for this light as it is essentially brand new.

The pictures I added are of the actual light, the box showing it has a two year warranty with the local company Sunlight supply out of Vancouver, Wa. And then the side of the box showing whats included in the light (plus the bulbs/ballast)


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## Pasfur

It is probably a nice system, but i can't imagine why you'd pay $350 to $400 for lighting. You can keep just about anything you want under compact florescent bulbs and pay 1/2 that price. 

I am curious about your long term plans. What do you intend to keep in your aquarium? You can wing is in freshwater, but you really need to do some long term planning in a SW system.


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## benny503

My long term plan? I want to have lots of corals and few fish :? I think corals does make big different in reef tank... its make the tank more colorful and more pretttttier. 8)


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## Pasfur

Ok, for the sake of long term planning, let me be very intentionally critical of your setup. Granted, some of this is nitpicking, but seeing as how you do not have any livestock yet, now is the proper time to think about these things.

First, your sand bed is not deep enough. In a reef tank, you want a 4'' deep sand bed (3'' minimum) to achieve proper denitrification. With a goal of zero Nitrate, this is a very important point.

Next, you probably have to much live rock to achieve good water circulation. Poor water circulation results in heavy algae outbreaks, especially cyno. To elaborate... You have 2 power heads in place, plus the skimmer output, but i still see potential issues. You should have water circulation at all levels of the aquarium, as well as around all sides of the rock. I would lower one power head and raise the other. Also direct one powerhead behind the rock, and the other towards the front of the aquarium. If it was me, i would add a 3rd power head and remove a few pieces of live rock, as I suggested in an earlier post. I would also move a few smaller pieces of live rock, such as you have placed at the top edges, and place them UNDER the bottom rock, to allow for greater water circulation under your live rock bed. 

Moving on, it also appears that you have live rock touching the side glass. How will you scrape algae? Also, the output sponge from your skimmer needs to be easily removed for cleaning SEVERAL TIMES PER WEEK. Can you achieve this easily with the rock you have in place.

Next, as mentioned, you need a lighting upgrade. Here is the type of unit you might want to consider:
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/3959/product.web
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/823/product.web
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/10940/product.web

Keep in mind, all of these choice will need claps to attach to your aquarium.

For the record, here is my lighting:
http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-LIGHT-...ryZ46314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Please do not take this as an endorsement. I have only been using this unit for a few weeks, so i have no idea of the long term quality. Coralife makes a similar unit that is proven to be of high quality and is also easily found on e-Bay. I opted to take a chance on a lower cost unit, because I plan to upgrade tank size within the next 3 years anyhow. Long term quality was not a concern for me.

And finally, you HAVE to remove the damsel. No choice on that. So, you either set up another tank, or you give him away. I am in shock that your LFS is not willing to take this fish back. That is simply unacceptable and ridiculous customer service. It is a damsel! Every LFS takes them back after the cycle. Who are these people and what retail world are they living in?


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## Pasfur

Pics are posted Benny. I started a new thread.


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## benny503

Thanks pasfur, I saw how are you very much successful with your tank. I am taking every piece of the advices you gave me (Thank you so much) For now I am waiting to setup lighting. Your posted is good I did pick out http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/204884/product.web for my tank. Thank you.... I will post some pictures here really soon.


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