What equals a good skimmer?

[ChizerBunoi]

I will have a total of about 75 gallons of net water in the sump and display. If my skimmer is rated for 80 - 120 gallons and I have a very low bioload (2 false percula clownfish), would my skimmer be good enough?

Or is a good skimmer the next size up? I want to start full zeovit but am not sure if my skimmer is good enough.

[ChizerBunoi]

Bump.

[Proteus]

Yes it should be sufficient. What make do you have

[Skimmerking]

Out of all my skimmers that. I have owned which is pretty much every type of a skimmer out there other then the klas skimmer and a h&s skimmer. I have always shot for 2-3 times of what I can skim. Uou can always over skim but u can't under skim I believe that if u run into problems with uourntank like over feeding and extra nutrients you can always skim it out when u have a bigger skimmer.

Now if u want to runs wetter skim mate u can with a bigger skimmer if u have a smaller skimmer u can't do a lot like skim wet. The reason is the skimming is working overtime to keep up with the tank.

[Myka]

I will have a total of about 75 gallons of net water in the sump and display. If my skimmer is rated for 80 - 120 gallons and I have a very low bioload (2 false percula clownfish), would my skimmer be good enough?

It depends what brand it is. There are a lot of poorly designed skimmers out there and many manufacturers hugely overrate their skimmers' abilities. Generally, the better brand of skimmers aren't overrated as much as cheaper brand skimmers. Personally, I like to get a good brand of skimmer that is rated for about double the capacity of my aquarium. I have a SWC 180 Cone on my 90-gallon (plus 15 in sump) reef which is rated for 150-gallons heavily stocked and 250-gallons lightly stocked. I like how this skimmer performs on my tanks' size. I have an SWC 120 Cone on my 50-gallon (plus 8 in sump) reef which is rated for 55-gallons heavily stocked and 90-gallons lightly stocked. I feel this skimmer is at the top of its ability on my 50-gallon, and think it would be best on a 40-gallon reef.

[reefwars]

Reef life support systems.....best Skimmers I've ever seen including bubble king....

[Lampshade]

http://www.aquariumcontrollers.com/files/skimmers.html

This is a pretty old chart, but fairly accurate from what I've seen. My biggest thing for skimmers isn't really what they pull, as long as it's consistent. They need to skim enough to keep the nutrients down obviously, but a skimmer that you need to mess with constantly will be pretty much useless in the long run.

For example. the neck on the coralife skimmer is small, so trying to balance your skimmate from a wet to dry skimmate is a VERY fine adjustment, this also changes with air pressure and water level, so if you have your sump water move 1/8", you go from a wet skim to no skim. It was VERY frustrating, half the time I'd not be skimming, and the other half I'd be dumping all my skimmate back into the tank. After trying a few others, I now have an ATI skimmer with a nice large neck, I have a very consistant skim, and never have to worry about it. I've set it to a fairly dry skim, and it does this for weeks/months without me touching it.(unless a crab goes down the overflow... those guys love my skimmer intake)

Anyways, whatever you end up thinking of getting ask on this forum for past experiance, there's some good low cost skimmers that preform very well, and other high cost ones that are not worth the plastic they're made from. Some people like Skimmer King have owned pretty much everything, so know far far too much about skimmers and have very good advice on what to get.

[sphelps]

Reef life support systems.....best Skimmers I've ever seen including bubble king....

Careful now, those be fighting words http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv126/Marston72/image017-27.gif

[Skimmerking]

Careful now, those be fighting words http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv126/Marston72/image017-27.gif

I hold him and Steve u hit him

[reefwars]

i stand strongly behind my statement :P

[subman]

Reef life support systems.....best Skimmers I've ever seen including bubble king....

Obviously never owned a Bk hey Denny. Once you go BK you never go back

[kien]

:pop2:

[reefwars]

Obviously never owned a Bk hey Denny. Once you go BK you never go back

i have access to every skimmer on the market remember;)

[subman]

Yes but access and owning are two totally different things:wink:

[reefwars]

Yes but access and owning are two totally different things:wink:


i stand strongly behind my statement:P

im guessing youve never owned a rlss??? :twised:

[subman]

Hehehe you got me there. Because like I said once you go Bk you never go back rofl

[reefwars]

bk is a great skimmer line but.....id have to take out a mortgage to own one lol, the rlss is under $1000 and have a wide rating with the waveline pumps, plus controller.

with your bk now wouldnt it be nice to be able to turn it down or up a notch by the push of a button , not having to retune, push button feed??

:P


heres a review on AA

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/5/review

im in love with this skimmer, there i said it lol :P

[Skimmerking]

no mortage needed go with a Vertex Cone Denny

[Skimmerking]

i have access to every skimmer on the market remember;)

BEEN There, DOne That Hence the name.:lol:

I won't lie I tell it like it is .

[subman]

bk is a great skimmer line but.....id have to take out a mortgage to own one lol, the rlss is under $1000 and have a wide rating with the waveline pumps, plus controller.

with your bk now wouldnt it be nice to be able to turn it down or up a notch by the push of a button , not having to retune, push button feed??

:P


heres a review on AA

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/5/review

im in love with this skimmer, there i said it lol :P
up until tonight I would have said no as I could set my watch by my bk but the reef booster I added yesterday has made it go crazy so you caught me on a bad night lol
the rlss does look impressive for sure, maybe I'll look at one next time I'm in the market for a new skimmer

[reefwars]

no mortage needed go with a Vertex Cone Denny


i dont think i remember those:twised: lol yes , honestly ive always been a vertex man but the times they are a changing;)

up until tonight I would have said no as I could set my watch by my bk but the reef booster I added yesterday has made it go crazy so you caught me on a bad night lol
the rlss does look impressive for sure, maybe I'll look at one next time I'm in the market for a new skimmer

all the same though if we were talking free and i could only take one.... either the top of the line bk or the top of the line rlss , yes i would take the bk anyday lol ....then id sell it move to the bahamas with my rlss lolllll i know ...cheesy :mrgreen:

[sphelps]

A skimmer really comes down to two things, the pump and the build quality and attention to detail of the body. I've seen rlss skimmers, yes the build quality is good but not at the same level of BKs, does it use titanium screws? I think not :wink:

The wavelines have not proven themselves yet as decent contenders either. I run two waveline pumps, they are really good for the price especially being DC but they don't compare to the red dragons. The housing leak when used externally so the rlss external versions would not be a smart move IMO. The power supplies run way too hot, switched mine out to fan cooled units. Two issues I've had in a couple months, both pumps so not isolated issues.

The only thing I'd give it credit for is that it's Canadian made, however more likely relabeled Chinese products for the most part with Canadian assembly. Regardless anything labeled as Canadian made is a plus in my books. That said it's not German so the extra point still goes to BK :surprise:

Not saying rlss skimmers aren't great, but certainly not better than BKs, making statements like that with no bases is just silly.

[ChizerBunoi]

Thanks for the response. I am running a Bubble Magus skimmer. According to Zeovit, you want to run a good protein skimmer, but not one that is too oversize that will pull out all of the food that you are dumping in. This is where the question came from.

[sphelps]

Yeah it's probably been said already but a good skimmer comes down to reputable brand not the manufacture rating. Zeovit is just saying you need to skim good but don't go crazy and use a skimmer that's made for 10x the volume so it strips out everything you add immediately, that's all.

Sorry about the tanget, Denny started it http://images.netsolsites.com/imagecafe/emoticons/smiley-tongue-out.gif

[reefwars]

That said it's not German so the extra point still goes to BK :surprise:


ah yeah pull the german card lol

ive never ran the wavelines external yet but internal no issues i see, but like you said its a new line so who knows after some time, youve had yours longer i hope mine dont go south lol:mrgreen:

[reefwars]

Sorry about the tanget, Denny started it http://images.netsolsites.com/imagecafe/emoticons/smiley-tongue-out.gif

lol i know its the carbon massacre all over again :mrgreen::mrgreen:

[sphelps]

ah yeah pull the german card lol


It is a good card :)

[kien]

lol i know its the carbon massacre all over again :mrgreen::mrgreen:

I'm so confused.. So do I run carbon in my bubble king 400 or is that frowned upon?? Where do we stand on that? #TrollBait

[reefwars]

I'm so confused.. So do I run carbon in my bubble king 400 or is that frowned upon?? Where do we stand on that? #TrollBait

some say to do it , but i dont like to run carbon in my skimmer....i run gfo and so far so good i get a good brown tea:mrgreen:

[Palmer]

I don't have the SWC come skimmer which I hear are better I have the older extreme model with the sicce pump. I know a lot of people do not like this pump but this skimmer has been one of the best purchases I have made. I bought it in 2009 and it has been running without issue and producing good skim mate. The best thing though is the price I paid for what I got out of it. For my next tank I will be trying out a SWC cone skimmer given my success with this one.

[kies1]

I have been running a reef octopus with bubble blaster pump. 3year warranty on pump and so far works like a beast on my 90 gallon mixed reef. For the money it is great bang for your buck. Build quality is impressive as well.

[banditpowdercoat]

I don't have the SWC come skimmer which I hear are better I have the older extreme model with the sicce pump. I know a lot of people do not like this pump but this skimmer has been one of the best purchases I have made. I bought it in 2009 and it has been running without issue and producing good skim mate. The best thing though is the price I paid for what I got out of it. For my next tank I will be trying out a SWC cone skimmer given my success with this one.

I do, and it's a sicce pump I belive. LOVE IT!!! Just clean cup n skim!!! Only cleaned the pump once in 18 mos!!!!

[ChizerBunoi]

Wow that is amazing. I have to clean my bubble magus every 6 months. Then the impeller doesn't start on its own if the pvc is not on exactly perfect. I hate this brand of skimmer. Never again.

[Palmer]

I have only cleaned my Sicce pump once in three years.