Heavy Stocking vs. Normal Stocking

[drw94]

I have been reading up on new protein skimmers, and calcium reactors and some of the higher end model have two tank ratings, heavy stocking and normal stocking. What is the magic number between the two. Is it related to fish load or coral load in the tank. I prefer my tank to have a few fish and tons of corals mainly hard corals. The calcium reactor is a pretty easy one to guess at, but the protein skimmer has me confussed. i am upgrading to a 180 gallon main tank with a 60 gallon frag tank and a 150 gallon sump filled half way. Does this mean I get a skimmer for a 390 gallons or 315 gallons and then to I follow the heavy or normal stocking recommendation? My tank will be 95% SPS. This also leads into another question,do corals produce any biproduct that gets skimmed out? Well I will stop here as my brain is starting to hurt!
Time to have a few more

[alaskaknucklehead]

Sorry I cant help with much exept I do know that corals do release toxins into the water column that skimming can remove.
Sure some real help will be on the way...

[rockster2599]

I think the skimmer is mainly referring to fish load and doesnt refer to corals. What it is basically talking about is what you add to the tank in terms of feed, so your corals dont really come in to play (unless you are adding lots of Phyto/coral food). alaskaknucklehead is right that corals do add toxins to the water but this is mainly when competing for space and is more pronounced in LPS (slow growing) corals.

Rockster

[Neptune]

A skimmers job is to remove dissolved organic compounds. Byproducts from any of your inhabitants can be responsible here.

You do want to get a skimmer rated for total volume, not just your display tank volume.

The light/heavy stocking level thing sounds more like one of the ploys I have been seeing more of lately in the marine keeping market.

[SPC]

Heavy vs light stocking is extremely subjective due to many variables coming into play. If one goes by fish load, then what would one use for the bench mark?

I have been running a Beckett skimmer rated for 1000 gallons on my 180 gallon tank for about the last 6 months. The tank contains 4 small fish (3" or under) and yet valonia grows quite well in my system . Knowing this should I conclude that 4 small fish is heavy stocking when considering which skimmer to purchase?

IME get the biggest skimmer you can and run the heck out of it.

Steve