new to this hobby any help will GREATLY be appreciated thanks to all

[Skimmy]

so here's the deal on the skimming....
you want about 600 lph of air injection for about every 100g of display tank.
cone shaped skimmers are about %20-%25 more productive than an identical cylinder skimmer.
there is some give and take on this recommendation depending upon if you plan on a refugium
and carbon in a media reactor (you should have all 3, skimmer, refugium, and carbon in reactor).
so an extreme 250 is more skimmer than you need, i would look at getting the swc 160 cone,
then later you could increase the air injection from 700 to 900lph with a slightly larger $15 impeller if you need to.
you could do the same to the $195 SWC bmk 150, wich is the same as the 160 cone, just cylinder shaped instead for $80 less.

http://www.shop.reeffiltration.com/product.sc?productId=60&categoryId=3


As far as the led's?? they go down to about 75% after about 50,000 hrs, which at 12 hrs a day is over 10 years.
the trick is getting a fixture that has both passive and active cooling(heat sink and fan together).
most purveyors offer a 2-3 warranty on led's as well.

 

[myfast02]

yes im doing a larger refugium 55g to 75g and as for the reactor im not sure what i need exactly i know im going to need a calcium reactor as far as anything else im unsure exactly of what to get and what brands to look into as well as stay away from and again i appreciate ALL of the help youre offering me its helping me a great deal as well as letting me move along in this hobby with alot more ease

 

[myfast02]

so as of now im either going to get the 200 extreme or the 180 cone with your experience which would you prefer the 200 being $290 and the 180 being $375 price not really being the issue here im only wanting to get the better of the two i guess i should say and one that can handle a bit more if i decide to add another small tank or put a bigger bio load on it

 

[ac7av]

I hashed over the same question when I got mine. Now I think there has been some pump changes since I did my research last year but the bottom line is the extreme 200 is more volume and more capably of supporting a larger bio load but not by much. Ether way you go there are upgrades you can do to ether skimmer and they will both work well. the 180 cone takes up a bit less space and has a more efficient design with the cone shape reaction chamber, that's part of the price increase. The old extreme 200 skimmers had some start up issues but that's been resolved in the new models unless you happen to get a new old stock one.

Skimmy does know the skimmers better them most anyone.