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What skimmer and why? What do you own?


PatO

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Ok. With the other recent threads, let's do a skimmer thread. This isn't a "what skimmer should I get" thread, but hopefully it will help noobs or anyone else that may be looking for an upgrade or change.

 

Post should be as follows.

Tank size (not including sump)

bioload (maybe by amount of fish or specify 3 hungry tangs)

why you chose xxx skimmer

Carbon dosing if any?

time running it

what you think about it.

 

 

My Previous skimmers

 

Reef octopus xs200

80 gal tank

Heavy stock with 2-3 tangs an angel and a few smaller fish

I had almost unlimited sump space and wanted an oversized skimmer.

Ran for 6-8 months

Fantastic killer skimmer, a little noisy, some startup problems, but very touchy. I eventually got tired of it randomly overflowing for no reason.

 

SRO 2000

150 gal tank

Medium stock with 4-5 tangs

Loved my last skimmer but didn't want the same pump.

Ran for 6-8 months

Fantastic skimmer. Much happier with the bubble blaster pump on this one. Air intake was loudest part of my setup, fixed that with a intake muffler, seemed to be more steady. Only sold because I downgraded tanks.

 

Sca-301

60 cube

Light stocked

Wanted cheap, this fit the bill for ~$80-100

Ran for 6 months

Sucky little skimmer. Poor quality. Reasonable skim production. Terrible terrible micro bubbles. Can't trust the motor to start up consistently.

 

Bubble magus curve 5

60 cube

Medium lite stock

I was over my previous skimmer and wanted to start doing coral. I was also limited to a deep water height and a short skimmer height with the way my stand is. Read this worked with deep water

Just started carbon dosing

Ran for 6 months so far

Very happy overall with this skimmer. Ran it in 8-9" of water and it kicks butt. Not many micro bubbles, not very loud. Quality construction. Good little pump. Very small footprint. Recently started carbon dosing and may need a bigger skimmer. Will prolly upgrade to curve 7

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Currently I run a Hi-Seas SC300 skimmer. Its rated up to 500g I believe and I'm sure it could handle that just fine. Its 12" diameter and 25" tall, internal pump that pulls 65w and 3000lph air. I'm guessing it is pulling around 1500gph water as well. I generally get around a gallon of black skimmate every 7-10 days. Features I like are output adjustment, air flow adjustment, footprint, ability to break entire skimmer apart, drain plug. What I don't like is how the collection cup fits on the body and I believe the neck could be a little smaller in diameter and have a better transition. But for the price its pretty tough to be beat.

 

Past skimmers I've owned: Via Aqua sk200, Via Aqua sk388, Oct 150, Oct 200, SWC Extreme 160, SWC Extreme 200, SWC Extreme 250, SWC 120 Cone, SWC 160 Cone, SWC 150 BMK, SWC 180 Cone, SWC 250 Cone, SWC 300 Cone, Bermuda HOT, Bubble Magus HOT, Bubble Magus NA6, Bubble Magus NA3, Warner Marine 161 Cone, Warner Marine 250 Cone, Skimz 143 Cone, ASM Mini, ASM G3, a few Down Draft skimmers, Aqua C Remora, Legendary Sea Clone, C&C 200, Odyssea ps75, Odyssea ps160, ER 180, Aqua Euro 400

 

Just to name a few, I would imagine I'm missing 15-20 others. My favorite skimmer out of those is the SWC 160 cone with modified impeller. It just was a straight up work horse and balanced perfectly. My least favorite was an Aqua C Remora. I ran every one of the above skimmers for a few months minimum. The swc160 cone I ran for probably 5yrs, its biggest drawback was the atman pump as they would burn up with mesh. With a pinwheel they work well for 2+yrs.

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If a skimmer uses an internal pump or odd external pump, particularly the bigger ones, does that mean that if/when the pump dies, the skimmer is gonna be expensive/impossible to fix?

 

For example, your Hi-Seas skimmer is sold, from what I can tell, only through Alibaba. I found no mention of replacement parts.

 

Another example, the CPR skimmer I have uses a RIO +1700 pump which went bad. I had to buy another RIO, which is a notoriously bad pump, since I couldn't figure out how to make anything else work. Even with that, it still ain't much.

 

Trying to learn about such things ----- John

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John, that looks pretty similar, I believe the company I purchased it from made a few adjustments but overall probably the same skimmer. As far as replacements for an internal pump, yes its much more difficult than a external pump. You can generally modify the external pump easily vs internal which takes quite a bit more work. And its why I purchased a spare pump when I got it : )

 

 

Also your 500g capacity skimmer on a 100g question. If the skimmer is to large for the system there are never enough organics to build a proper foam head to skim, so in the case of the hi sea's sc300, it has a 6" neck diameter so it takes a pretty good organic load to continuously skim. If you threw it on a 100g system with a light load it would maybe have a foam head from time to time but mostly would just sit there and look like soda fizz in the skimmer. So your better off getting a skimmer better suited for your tank. 100g system probably a 3-4" diameter neck would be the largest I would go with.

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And to the point of the thread:

 

Old Coralife 220, in sump

Chose it mainly by availability (a friend was selling it at a good price)

Main tank - 125 gallons. (sump is 75 gallons, and another 10 gallon frag/growout tank is plumbed in, both containing fish)

Bioload - total of 16 fish in system (only 1 hungry yellow tang)

Carbon/Phosguard combo (Seachem's Seagel) run continuously in Phosban reactor

Seems to pull nice dark skimmate, I've been using it for about 5 years, and have talked about upgrading for the same length of time!

 

Overall my tank seems pretty happy, great coral growth, and fish are healthy, spawning, etc.

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Ken, I have never done any studies with neck diameters but have tried many skimmers, mostly on my old 125g. Any time I went over a 4" id neck the skimmer just didn't work as well. You just don't want to get ridiculous with the neck id. So something like a 75g and 5" neck id I would consider ridiculous. Usually I look at air pull so a 100g system I would use a skimmer that pulls 600-900 lph air. Also you need to look at air pull and neck diameter. My skimmer pulls 3000lph air and has a 6" neck id. If it pulled 1500 lph air it would be like a corvette with 100 hp, it would work but not be close to its full potential. Then there is the opposite, to much air and to small of neck id. You basically have a ford escort with 1000hp, it will work but if you give it any gas it's uncontrollable, and touchy as can be. Hth

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Skimmer : Octopus 200 Int Elite Skimmer with DC Pump

Tank :180 gal

Sump:Trigger Systems Ruby ELITE Sump (41.7 gal)

Bioload: Still stocking tank, will be heavy bioload when finished with Butterflyfish, Large and dwarf angels, a tang ,foxface,Moorish Idol,2 sand sifting gobies, and few smaller fish.

 

Skimmer rating: 400 Gallon – Light Filtration Demand | 300 Gallon – Medium Filtration Demand | 200 Gallon – Heavy Filtration Demand

I like this skimmer very much. The pump is dead silent which is one of the main reasons I chose this skimmer. It is easy to get cup off and clean. It can be a little touchy sometimes and overflows but not too bad. It is not like I am constantly adjusting it or anything like that. It has been running for a little over a year now. I chose my skimmer first then the sump. The skimmer just barely fits in the sump. That is why I chose this sump and it adjustable from 7" to 10" of water level.

 

Previous skimmer was an external one which was way too loud and had to go.

 

___________

 

Tank: 34 gal Solana

Skimmer: Saffphire Aquatics (no longer made)

This skimmer works ok for an internal AIO nano tank. It needs to be pulled out and cleaned monthly or the air intake clogs. I have had to replace pump and is in not easy to find one that fits as Saffphire Aquatics made their own mod to the pump that came with it. I also had to mod a new pump to get it to fit. Wish I could find a better internal skimmer for this tank though.

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I run a Reef Octopus 150nw on my 90g with 4 tangs. It has a 30g sump.

 

I have always tried to run a skimmer that is DOUBLE the water volume of my sys, assuming affordability. This model is rated for about 180-200g.

 

Pat is right going 5x the rating, it won't work as intended bc the bioload is too small.

 

If you need to get rid of a skimmer that big let me know though ;)!

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I run a Reef Octopus 150nw on my 90g with 4 tangs. It has a 30g sump. I have always tried to run a skimmer that is DOUBLE the water volume of my sys, assuming affordability. This model is rated for about 180-200g. Pat is right going 5x the rating, it won't work as intended bc the bioload is too small. If you need to get rid of a skimmer that big let me know though ;)!

Are you referring to mine? Mine is not too big, rated for 200 gal with heavy bio load, which I have. It works great for my tank.

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I'm currently running an SWC 150 on my 67 gal w 40b sump, I like this skimmer because it works and I got a good deal on it lol, on my 90 gal w apx 30 gal sump I'm running the vertex 180 int, this is by far my favorite skimmer, pretty easy to set and let it go....I've got a reeflo orca that's good for up to 1000 gal here's a pic just for fun! for the record I'm not running the orca!!

 

 

IMG]http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/19/d5f8642a3b13dd72ec26eb6b28ac111e.jpg[/img]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Oh man, that'll be a long list. Going to skip the SeaClones, Prizm, and BakPak's...


Aquamaxx HOB-1

44g Pentagon

Mixed Reef, 3 fish, inverts

Came with the tank

No Dosing


I ran this for about a year before the tank sprung a leak at one of the front panels, narrowly missing my almost new TV at the time


This thing was awesome. I believe it was rated for something like a 75g tank and it filled up about a half of the cup per day with nastiness. I would absolutely not hestitate to drop $200 on one of these if you can only run a HOB for your tank. Very quiet with a Sicce pump, well built and looked good with the blue acrylic and even had a drilled cup for external collection or you could dump it back into the the skimmer body to avoid an overflow, at the expense of reintroducing funk the to the water but hey, pick your battles.




Octopus Classic 1000 Hang on back

40B Mixed reef with 2 Clowns

Similar specs to the Aquamaxx and price was right

No Dosing


This has been a champ of a skimmer as well. It's similar to the Aquamaxx though not quite as quiet but seems to pull out more consistent skimmate even with such a light bioload. I feed the tank somewhat heavy because they get the leftover from the big tank which usually has tons of reef frenzy, selcon, reef roids, and reef frenzy mixed in and it tends to settle. It's designed similar to the aquamaxx though it doesn't have a traditional bubble plate like it had though it has a lot more air which likely attributes to pulling a good deal more. New they are nearly the same cost. The only negative of the Octopus is parts are a little tougher to find and its quite tall due to the pump being an under mount setup as opposed to internal. That does make cleanup a breeze though since it's just a quick spin of the union and off comes the pump. The collection cup is a little larger though offers no option for external collection unless you were to modify it.




Eshoppes PSK75H Hang on Back

40B Mixed Reef

Figured it was worth a try

No Dosing


First off I hate Eshoppes as a company. Did me wrong once and pretty much vowed off of them. Being sicce powered like the Aquamaxx I figured it would be halfway decent especially since it had a cylindrical body instead of square like the Aquamaxx and Octopus models. It's OK. Not as good as either of the above though it's very quiet and looks better then the Octopus BH1000. The collection cup is large but skimmate is like tea, though I have a similar bio load on it. It's tall, so if you are trying to hide it that's not happening. The one plus as far as HOB options go I've seen NO microbubbles in the display whatsoever.




Vertex Omega 150

100G Mixed Reef

Purchased because it fit the sump and it was new to market and wanted to try

No Dosing


This skimmer is very, very good. The build quality is probably better than my car. Titanium screws hold the beast together and that's the best part. The ENTIRE skimmer comes apart, base, bubble plate, body, cup, pump, etc. It's a wine glass type body so it has a very smooth transition. The pump is a "custom" Sicce that Vertex had commissioned I guess. Quiet, efficient and really sucks in the air. I have no problem filling the cup weekly with some sheer nastiness. You can tell when it's time because it'll stink up the entire room the tank is in and holds probably a quart. It's fairly thick cell cast acrylic, ozone safe and has an injection port ready to go, the cup is actually threaded and has an o ring in rather than a gasket type seal which I really like. It's coarse thread so only a couple turns to get it out and if need be you can lift it by the cup with no issue. It's only cons, parts availability is difficult. One screw that goes to the pad that the pump sits on went in my garbage disposal. It almost won the fight but has just enough thread damage it's useless. I cannot find these guys and Vertex has been useless with getting back to me. The other, cost. It's a $400 machine. Worth it yes, but I've had entire tanks that cost less. I'm expecting years out of this thing!




This is the past couple years worth, and probably the most relevant.

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Awesome. I was hoping to have a omega review. I'm looking to upgrade at some point and that's on my list (mainly for the Black Friday price the last few years). Prolly pickup the 150 if its on sale again this year.

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I'm going to be watching that as well. Planning to build a frag system over the winter and going to watch for a 130. It may be overkill though but I know it'll work. Ugh. Lol

 

The New Octopus Prime skimmers look VERY similar. Curious about how they do. Haven't had too much experience with the Aquatrance pumps.

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Skimmer : Vertex Omega 130

Tank : 40 Gallon Breeder with 20 Gallon DIY sump/refugium, running around 1 year, 9 months

Bioload : Yellow Tang, Orchid Dottyback, 2 Ruby Red Dragonets, 1 Ocellaris Clownfish, 3 Pencil Urchins

Reason for buying : Cost, purchased on Black Friday it's year of introduction

Comments : Overall I think this is a great skimmer with a very reliable pump (I believe it is a modified Sicce one). The only annoying thing that could be fixed if I just purchased a separate collection reservoir is the tendency for it to go nuts during feed times. It is one of those newer "wine glass" designs. I could also just shut it down for the ten minutes or so and do frequently.

 

This is and was my first skimmer, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it is very easy to tear down to run in a vinegar bath and clean out as needed and the screws are all titanium and don't tarnish at all. One of the best purchases I have made so far in this hobby, though in my opinion it might be a little small for this water volume and bioload and probably would be more efficient in a slightly smaller system since I have to dump the collection cup about once a week.

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