How to Test a Skimmer

[dt8666]

That will narrow down your selection to a few. Then its up to you to look around and visit other ppl's reef and see how the various skimmers are etc etc.

I like the above. That is the best we can share experience rather than just talking on the forum as wording not always can express the real situation.

May be we can start a new topic to group reefer by area. For me, I am very keen to know who are the reefer in Tampines area that willing to share experience. As I still don't believe I have optimum setup on my H&S. Not luck trying to get advise from M*.

I spend too much on equipment test, so if we can see it on action, that worth many $$$ and can save reefer many $$$ and time trying to get it right.

[acidjazz]

Higher-end skimmers basicaly can be limit to:

1) Deltec

2) Schuran

3) Mazzei

4) Beckett

5) Euro-reef

6) Aqua-C

7) Bubble King

8) H&S

Like wad bro AlfaRomeo mention, i also believe its a cost vs effectiveness for reefers when choosing a skimmer.

There's really no one "best" skimmer, its more about preference and depth of ur pocket.

[AlfaRomeo]

but dunt take watever I say as the gospel truth hor.. Im a newbie, not an EXPERT! Just throwing out ideas on how I went about deciding on the skimmer I am using.

[Melvyn Tan]

Mazzei & Beckett are the injectors (a method employed to produce bubbles) not brand of skimmers, otherwise the listing would be;

Mazzei

Beckett

Needlewheel

Schuran Injector

Aqua C spray injection

[weileong]

Not all becketts are made the same.

Same like needlewheel, it is the way micro bubbles are produced, under needlewheel you have BK, deltec, H&S etc.

Quite difficult to group the skimmer using the same method to produce bubbles... example, macro would not be comparable to H&S and deltec.

In the same case, doesn't meant a skimmer made using a beckett injector would be good.

Factors like easy of maintenance, ease of tunning and stability of skimming all comes into consideration.

Most of the time you have to actually use the product to find it's pro and cons, at times when people tell some reefers they also find it hard to believe until they actually use it and found the problem

[weisoon]

Few more to add:

1) Deltec

2) Schuran

3) Mazzei

4) Beckett

5) Euro-reef

6) Aqua-C

7) Bubble King

8) H&S

9) Sander

10) AquaMedic

11) Grotech

Plus a few others not so popular(does not mean not good).

[Melvyn Tan]

Not all becketts are made the same.

Same like needlewheel, it is the way micro bubbles are produced, under needlewheel you have BK, deltec, H&S etc.

Quite difficult to group the skimmer using the same method to produce bubbles... example, macro would not be comparable to H&S and deltec.

In the same case, doesn't meant a skimmer made using a beckett injector would be good.

Factors like easy of maintenance, ease of tunning and stability of skimming all comes into consideration.

Most of the time you have to actually use the product to find it's pro and cons, at times when people tell some reefers they also find it hard to believe until they actually use it and found the problem

Agree

So for Beckett and Mazzei, perhaps can name a few of the makes? that are good?

Needlewheel

1) H&S

2) Deltec

3) Bubbleking

4) Grotech

5) Euro-reef

Venturi

1) Aquamedic

Proprietary

1) Schuran (Injector)

2) Aqua C (Spray Injection)

Mazzei

1) Sunny's Orange (His make pulls out orange gunk!!!)

2) ?

Beckett

1) Roidan's Quad

2) ?

[Melvyn Tan]

Any new testing? me looking for another skimmer....

[Tigger]

how abt a scuhran?

My suchran skims better than my needlewheel.

[Melvyn Tan]

Is that a new skimmer? hehhehe

[aquabeAnz]

how abt a scuhran?

My suchran skims better than my needlewheel.

Sure bo teacher?

What criteria u set it on?

Looks ah? then of course Schuran wins hands down la

[Tigger]

I prefer wet skimming. I have adjusted the water level of the NW skimmer to the neck of the collection cup and not abt to collect much wet skimmate.

When I was using the suhran jetkim, i m able to get a lot of wet skimmate. The NW skmmer seems to produce less skimate since the introduction of suhran. The suhran is also able to consistently produce ~500ml of skimmate weekly.

[Melvyn Tan]

Wah so good ah? not many pretty boys can be intelligent, looks like this one is pretty and intelligent.....hehhehehe

[Melvyn Tan]

The suhran jetkim must be really good, cos i cannot even reach 500ml (weekly ie. 5days for me) even when i feed henry's food daily in collection of skimmate for both skimmer.

You must be doing water top-up very frequently ? Well it is a good thing as it coincidentally will help in more small water changes.

[Tigger]

I feed alot these days, up to maybe 5 times a day w F2 flakes or F1 pellets.

On top of tat, hav also been feeding Tropicmarin Zooplan + Aquaz golden pearls pearls.

Having say that, my NO3 reading has also improve to 25ppm from previous 100ppm. I m convince heavy skimming is the way to go to reduce nutruient build up.

Yes daily top-up of 1.5L of kalk via my diy kalk delivery system every day.

[Melvyn Tan]

Whoah...you must be pretty free, how envious to be able to feed up to 5 times a day ! And oh yes, pretty cheap way of dosing 1.5L kalk via your diy delivery system ! who needs kent kalk delivery or tunze for that matter?

Hey guys ! we have a DIY guru just about able to do anything and will help you save money !

Looks like no need to go lfs to buy equipment anymore...maybe i shall just pass you the buck for a "Tiger Skimmer" and damn those Deltecs, H&Ss, Suhran and Grotesque skimmer !

Give the man a Tiger !

[Earthborne]

I'm no expert in this "war of skimmers". However I'm surprised that argument in this thread is heavily dominated by the air capacity parameter generated by a skimmer. I think this is seriously biased. Everyone understands the basic mechanism of protein skimming. So going back to fundamentals, the performance/efficientcy of any skimmer shd be dependent on the following factors:

Air capacity & bubble size & residence bubble lifetime in chamber: the 3 factors cannot be decoupled easily. Comparing the same total air volume, having finer bubbles is definetly more efficent because protein extraction is a surface dependent reaction.

Impact of residence bubble time will be depend on organic concentration in water. If water is heavy with organics, then bubble surface will be used up in no time, so swirling the same bubble around the chamber for a long time will no extract anymore protein. In this case, only having more air capacity will increase skimming efficiency.

Another case, having super fine bubbles, protein sticking surface area is definitely increased but if water flow is compensated (ie. reduce to genetrate more air bubbles), the overall organic concentration in the reaction chamber will decrease faster & to extract the same skimming efficiency, one would need to increase water input (ie. bringing in more DOC loaded water to be skimmed).

What we can control in a skimmer test is to make sure all skimmers tested use the same rated pump for bubble generation & output flow rate. This is easier said than done. Why? Because different type of skimmers are desgined differently. A Deltec can use 1,2 ...X no. of re-circulation pumps, feed pump flow is also variable. Then u have beckette skimmers---can have x no. of beckettes & flow rates. Also the DOC% in water will determine the efficiency in different type of skimming. Then still have different bubbles sizes, different residence time....how to control & draw conclusion?

I really do not see how a "skimmer test" will yield practical & conclusive results that's applicable to everyone in the reefing community.