Beckett Vs Needle wheel

[patrick123]

Hi,

I'm a newbie here just finished setting up my 6ft tank. I have recently gone through the same delima trying to choose the right skimmer. I guess different type of skimmer has a different application depending on what you keep and what is your constraint. If you just want a tank with a few nemos and anemone, a weipro will do just fine.

On the other hand, if you are SPS pro, and going to invest heavily on expensive livestock, and you have a room behind the tank like what AT has, and electricity is not a concern, then you can build the biggest kickass dual beckett, or even triple beckett skimmer, and run it with 3xMD70.

As for me, I don't have a room to hide, so I have to fit everything in the cabinet undernealth, and electricity is a big concern for me, as I'm already running 3 ponds in the garden, and my monthly electricity bill is already $400+. I don't want to pay $700-800 per month on electricity alone.

So I went and bought the H&S. It only uses 38w, as compare to a single or dual beckette, that will easily use up to 200-300w of electricity 24/7.

Cheers,

Patrick

[robe]

Probably one thing that most people left out is turnover of water through the skimmer. Why most people who are into SPS uses beckett type skimmer is turnover. You need to have a higher turnover in order to clean the water faster.

I have used a venturi RSB skimmer before and using an Eheim 1060 at 2200 lph. The output from the skimmer is at most a 1/3 of the eheim rated flowrate. It cannot even come close to my DIY beckett in terms of skimmate production and throughput using a 3000 lph Halida pump. The becketts foam riser tube is 3 inches compared to an RSB's 1.5 inch (400% bigger area)

For a needle wheel I cannot comment as I have not tried but maybe those who have it can comment on the throughput of water out of lets say an H&S or Euroreef.

The original beckett skimmer designers rated their skimmers in terms of how much water it can turnover in an hour.

[ervine]

But with needlewheels with recirculation pumps, the throughput is simply what you want to put it at right? Whereas for becketts it's a must to have high throughputs for the beckett to function in the first place

[Achilles Tang]

I haven't seen the kind of high water input rates being recommended into a standard needlewheel skimmer. Perhaps if you get this:

... then you force more water in for a higher turnover. But I am sure you can get 3 or 4 beckett skimmers for the price of this one... and for sure the becketts will still beat the pants off this model in terms of performance.

For the standard skimmer modified with a needlewheel impeller, you will see immediate gains, (dunno how much, 50%?) .

But skimmer against skimmer... a real NW skimmer like the Deltec vs a beckett skimmer... to probably match the performance eg. turnover, speed... the Deltec would probably require a lot of pumps and have to be fat like the above.

The beckett skimmers are not known to be cheap to run but its basically still the best skimmer around... (till the next best foaming technology comes around).

Too bad Deltecs are positioned as the 'mercedes benz' of the aquarium equipments.... quality finishing, reliable, nice performance but premium price tag.

A Beckett is probably like a Corvette... typical American style.... a fiery red, eye-turning, big, loud, fast and a 'pants off the seat' thrilling ride-giving machine but heavy & gas-guzzling.

My 2 cents, but can someone give me a big NW skimmer so I can do a test vs my Beckett?

[patrick123]

AT Boss,

I like the way you describe Deltec as Mercedes and Beckett as Corvette. When I'm ready for SPS, I will invest in a Corvette, if not, at least a Mustang GT turbo...hehehee

BTW, what will H&S be? A BMW?

[untouchables]

i think the argument will be endless but this is my personal conclusion. for small to medium setup, NW or spray injection is better as they require lower flow rate and small setup. however, for big tanks, beckett is better as it is more suited to handle high volume and require big installation.

therefore, it is not feasible to compare based on a particular fixed size, instead, we should put these 2 at the top, side by side and use them appropriately.

cheers!