[slief]

Originally Posted by mlb75

After being in this hobby for quite awhile I'm getting ready to downshift a bit and go from a roughly 400-450 gallon system (300G display) that I've had running for 8 years to I think a 90g (30x30x24 cube) with a 60g (24x24x24g cube so probably 35-40g operating volume) sump.

I've had a BK SM250 running on the 300 and absolutely love that it will reliably pull whatever I want it to even though I know it's oversized for the tank. Knowing that it won't work on the smaller tank what if any unit would you recommend for a tank of that size or is that really smaller than the BK's are designed to run on?

My other thought is to go skimmerless and try the fuge only route, any thoughts? Intention for the new tank is SPS dominant around a center island with a few LPS on the bottom outside edges and hoping to have ~20 small schooling type fish (pair of clowns, pair of cardinals, school of chromis, and some wrasses) so would be a decent bioload for that volume.

TIA

For that small of a system you could go with either the Double Cone 150 or the Mini 160. The Mini 160 will be more set it and forget it where as the Double Cone will need some tuning to get it dialed in. I ran a Mini 160 on a lightly stocked 90 gallon display and was really impressed with it since the only adjusting needed was setting the level inside the skimmer via the wedge pipe.