skimmer discussion

[[V]tEc]

Although i have been reefing for abt 3 yrs....i still quite confuse on how 1 will grade a skimmer as good or no good....

so how do u guys see if ur skimmer is good enuff for ur tank? by looking at skim mate? by measuring ur NO3?

[Solo77]

hahaha....think generally is the brand....lol... why start this topic....

[onizukaa]

for me i see the skim mate, more skim mate in 1-2 days = good for me

[mitlancer]

hmm, my nano skimmer for my nano tank is producing skimmate so much tat I have to clear almost 2-3 times per day... is either my water is super polluted or the skimmer is too efficient or the skim cup is too small???

[TayHongSiang]

Cannot just observe skimmate...coz if you do heavy feeding...there will be dirty skimmate...even for a lousy skimmer like weipro from personal experience.

Established brands are part of marketing strategy...and ang mohs are very good with that. With good branding, you can charge high prices for your products and of course, that comes with certain level of quality and performance to do that..just like benz and bmw...and overtime...trust and loyalty is build with consumers that pple eventually spread thru word-of-mouth.

If you really want to know if your skimmer is good...hahahaha...i tell you lah....if an anemone gets into the wavewaver and got blended...and yr tank did not crash...u know u have a good skimmer!

[mitlancer]

If you really want to know if your skimmer is good...hahahaha...i tell you lah....if an anemone gets into the wavewaver and got blended...and yr tank did not crash...u know u have a good skimmer!

haha... this is a very risky xperiment.... shall skip this... LOL

[[V]tEc]

hahaha....think generally is the brand....lol... why start this topic....

cos i m very curious why some ppl install a skimmer n can say this skimmer very good, better than other brand skimmer....so i wish to know how they come to that? how they tell the new skimmer is better. for me i mostly use low end stuff....so not sure how those high end skimmer perform....

[[V]tEc]

i dun think looking from skim mate tell u alot? for example wet skimming sure produce more than dry skimming.....so not accurate right

[yikai]

IMO its quite hard to tell if a skimmer is good or not. skimmate can vary from tank to tank, water condition etc. dry or wet skim? how to compare? in terms of NO3 reduction, quite hard to say too. because if your tank is too overloded with nutrients, the convertion of rubbish to NO3 will be too quick for your skimmate to remove.

brand makes alot of difference too imo. imagine an air stone skimmer being slapped with a sticker of deltec or bubble king. lol. will be selling like hot cakes and will be having great reviews.

[Solo77]

Personally, I like to see how fine the bubble is being formed and the mass of them. However, one thing I don't know Is how to guage the contact and reaction time as it affect the skimmer performance. For skim mate, is possible to guage but think the rest of the parameter must be consistent. The parameters include water cleanliness and adjustment of yr skimmer. Know one reefer who owned deltec 701 and getting skimmate everyday but after changin to another skimmer, canT get the skimmate from 701 and very inconsistent in skimming due to adjustmet. Given a chance, he will not change. Another factor I look at skimmer is it's sensitivity to adjustment.

[TayHongSiang]

First of all, it has to be an apple to apple comparison...can't compare air stone with downdraft or venturi..right? Comparison has to be made within same category...for example, for HOB..you can compare deltec MCE series with CPR Bak Pak, Reef octopus HOB, aquamedic turboflotor, aqua C remora, red sea prizm, etc...to name a few. Then cone models, you should compare between skimz, reef octopus, bubble king....

[arcanehacker]

My take is looking at more general consensus on its performance.. and never just jump in to new skimmers.. wait a yr or more..

Skimmate is only one expect.. one might say not look at that due to feeding habits and stuff. Esp in LFS where they want to show the poweress of their new product so they overfeed the skimmer.

However, based on hobbyist experiences on different skimmers, it should be reasonably accurate. I'm pretty sure very little would go all out feeding frenzy just because they changed a new skimmer.

Ease of use I find is very important.. I have recently got another reputable needlewheel model and found out that it wasn't as I have expected. I don't think its broken. Its functioning but its really hard to tune the level.. and everytime I restart the pumps, its tuning time again .. I never had this problem with my concurrent running AP701 or previously used APF600..

Not to mention I cannot fine tune the skimmate as compared to Deltecs.. its mainly always wet. Yes one may say to makes no diff or wet is better. To me, to be able to tune wet or dry is a plus.

(This brand is always used to compare with Deltecs).

Reliability.. pumps must not break down.. at least not within the warranty period. Yes warranty is good but I'd rather have a peace of mind that its running smoothly for the next few years..

Build is only my last concern. Again the 2 brands I have mentioned on my second point. People prefer the built of the particular brand over Deltec so they go for that first brand. I only agree to half of it.. yes I must say, that particular brand has really strong built. The body/plastics/PVC are very sturdy, compared to materials used for most skimmers (inc Deltecs). I'm very sure they don't break as easily. However, because of my ease of use opinion, it really breaks the deal.. sturdy so what ..

[jackywongto]

The finer the bubbles and the more the fine bubbles, the better it is.

[arcanehacker]

Personally, I like to see how fine the bubble is being formed and the mass of them. However, one thing I don't know Is how to guage the contact and reaction time as it affect the skimmer performance. For skim mate, is possible to guage but think the rest of the parameter must be consistent. The parameters include water cleanliness and adjustment of yr skimmer. Know one reefer who owned deltec 701 and getting skimmate everyday but after changin to another skimmer, canT get the skimmate from 701 and very inconsistent in skimming due to adjustmet. Given a chance, he will not change. Another factor I look at skimmer is it's sensitivity to adjustment.

Is it me?? ..hehe. I didn't change.. I'm running 2 concurrent models/brands in sump.. .. see above post. My opinion is surely an apple to apple comparison..

[onizukaa]

last time using beckett skimmer,the tuning part is damn lazy.. haha

after changing to deltec, just need to on it and after setting ONCE to wet or dry skim, it will always stay at the level.

seeing so much skim mate after 1-2 days and cleaning it often makes me feel that it's pumping hard, compare to weipro, which will take quite long to have the skim mate i had for deltec for 1-2 days.

in any case, the end user who uses weipro is happy, and the fishes in the tank are happy, wei pro will be a good skimmer, it all depends on individual and budget

[zorden]

my view on skimmer. tried the few skimmer -

beckett its a work horse and definitely can churn out lots of skimmate but on the down side, its consume lots of electricity. Please be green and change to a energy efficient skimmer

deltec 851 which is consider a very decent skimmer and its very user friendly. Cons.. nosiy.

Hns my 2 aquabee pump its consider one of the best skimmer i got but its an unfair comparison with deltec, its meant for 1600L tank and yes, its become very noisy and i got it replace with Reef octupus xp2000 cone. Yes i love the controls for the finner bubbles for my hns skimmer. allow u to control the bubbles, water flow and yes i can get very nice skimmate.

Xp2000 reef octopus cone, its not as quiet as the vendor claim, fairly cheap but maybe too much turbulence and the skimmate wise.. well cant comment much as my tank only have one cardinal.

If you really want to know what is a good skimmer. u can try to google or read up mojo skimmer review @ rc. In SG, we have very limited skimmer brand around, no i-tec, no atb and no alpha cone.

my humble conclusion for skimmer is long reacton time for the bubbles and YES same wth jack, the finer bubbles the better.

[Gouldian]

My personal beliefs is that skimmers are built to remove gunck from the system and therefore the more gunk removed the better.

Like some of the reefers here, I conclude which skimmer is better by running 2 skimmers in the same system to see which one manages to pull out more gunk. However, you need to take in considerations the re-selling of your unwanted skimmers after testing.

The quality of the materials and pump used is also important as well when looking at the durabilty aspect of the skimmer.

[arcanehacker]

my view on skimmer. tried the few skimmer -

beckett its a work horse and definitely can churn out lots of skimmate but on the down side, its consume lots of electricity. Please be green and change to a energy efficient skimmer

I'm very sure no one can deny the excellent performance of a beckett skimmer.. but like you said, takes up too much power.. esp in Singapore where electricity bills are going up so high every few months..

Not only its about being green already.. its about retaining more colours in our wallets for other stuff.. hehe

[Solo77]

not you....so now i got a few reefers who can back my justification....lol. ....

Is it me?? ..hehe. I didn't change.. I'm running 2 concurrent models/brands in sump.. .. see above post. My opinion is surely an apple to apple comparison..

[serravorte]

just a little contribution to the thread...

02 barlett die

01 flame wrasse die

02 mystery wrasse die

many others more then couldnt remember....

Skimmer go crazy... but tank still alive...

one accident, half of the livestock gone... i believe, due to skimmer still working hard...

the other half of my livestock is being revived...

Conclusion : skimmer is the heart of the system in reefing, just like engine is for a car... the bigger the cc.. the better the drive... however, ppl can be satisfied with a 800cc china car while some drives a BMW and still not satisfied... so more like personal preference as too many factors involve..

*personal taste* -> get a reputable and respected brand, at least when it goes wrong, many ppl goes wrong with u... u wont be alone... HEHE... cheers guys..

Haf fun in reefing... its a long and enjoyable experience...

[LaW]

its really hard to determine whats good unless you set skimmers side by side running in a "fair" and controlled condition.

i personally have use airstone skimmer ==> venturi weipro ==> marco skimmer ==> beckette 5ft ==> Bubblemaster BM250 ==> Bubblemagus self-import BM460 which is huge and running on 4 needlewheel pumps and finally settled down with a Bubbleking SM300.

my advice is, if u are hardcore enough, got some extra $ to spare and most importanly when always in doubt whether your skimmer is serving you well, go for the top brands, it hardly will go wrong. and save you the $ for keep upgrading to the better range like me.

so far my best skimmers used is Bubbleking SM300 and then BM460.

[zorden]

i know of one reefer who have very stunning sps uses only those cheapo skimmer but his overall husbandry is good thus his sps still flourish like wild fire.

[MarcoVan]

i know of one reefer who have very stunning sps uses only those cheapo skimmer but his overall husbandry is good thus his sps still flourish like wild fire.

who who? :eyebrow:

My own take with skimmers has always been laid with doubts as well. I seriously do not know what's good and what's not good. I believe my current skimmer, a reef octopus one is good. 1 tiny dory with some zoas still manage to draw gunk on the side of the neck. But one drawback I find with that skimmer is that the bubble plate is too small. Should have used a bigger bubble plate (:

Happy Reefing,

Marc J.

[[V]tEc]

its really hard to determine whats good unless you set skimmers side by side running in a "fair" and controlled condition.

i personally have use airstone skimmer ==> venturi weipro ==> marco skimmer ==> beckette 5ft ==> Bubblemaster BM250 ==> Bubblemagus self-import BM460 which is huge and running on 4 needlewheel pumps and finally settled down with a Bubbleking SM300.

my advice is, if u are hardcore enough, got some extra $ to spare and most importanly when always in doubt whether your skimmer is serving you well, go for the top brands, it hardly will go wrong. and save you the $ for keep upgrading to the better range like me.

so far my best skimmers used is Bubbleking SM300 and then BM460.

how much did u pay for ur BM460 giant? i think BM is considered quite a good skimmer for the price......

[LaW]

how much did u pay for ur BM460 giant? i think BM is considered quite a good skimmer for the price......

i got it at about S$1.2k + shipping.

i like their quality on the overall, but i find their needlewheel breaks easily IME. and if you are getting from local agent, be prepared to pay a crazy price and if i am still correct, they dun bring in such a big boy.