How you rate a GOOD skimmer

[JuzzMarine]

Hey Guys,

There are lot of skimmers out there in the market, got cheap and expensive. But how do you rate a skimmer that is good and efficient?

Is it that a skimmer that can produce kopi-O skimmate at the fastest time,

or pay more money sure good one ???

I wonder.........

I have a Turbo brand skimmer that give me kopi-O skimmate, with a price of less than $30, any reason why should i pay a few hundred bucks for a good branded skimmer??

I wonder.........again

Austin

[KapoKidd]

Hey what brand is your skimmer again..?? Really KOPI-O???

[ah^siao]

yes.. the good ones are better at skimming...

wad are your tank specs and wad are the inhabitations inside..

most impt.. which skimmer si that? a air driven one?

[JuzzMarine]

Hi,

It powerhead driven.

Fish I have: 2 fire fish, 1 mandrian, 1 valentini puffer, 1 maroon clown.

Invert: 2 fire shrimp, 1 banded coral shrimp

Coral: 1 hammer, 1 torch, 1 finger leather, 1 toad stool, 5 types of button polyps, 3 types of mushroom, 1 yellow polyps

All in a 3ft tank with a 2ft sump/refugium and a canister filter.

thanks

[JuzzMarine]

My tank

[JuzzMarine]

another view

[bum]

basically what you look for in a skimmer are

fine & thick bubbles, long water column for it to travel,

and no need for constant adjustment.

of course, maintainace plays a part too.

yours looks like its doing a good job

nice setup you have there,

though you might wanna think about improving your lighting

for your LPS and anemone

[JuzzMarine]

Hey bum,

Thanks for the compliment Just to add a little to my lighting spec. I have 4 x 36W 10k PL and a 20W actinic FL over my tank. I think should be enough, though there is no such thing as too much light for Coral. Lastly the thingy you saw is not an anemone, its torch coral

[Tanggy]

The turbo brand skimmer do work. As of all skimmers works, it is how good they work. Fromt the pic, your skimmage looks very wet. I used to use a turbo skimmer for my first 2ft. have since moved on to 2011 then 2013 and now using 2014 for my new tank until I can decide on what skimmer to get.

The thing is not whether it works, it's how well it works. A skimmer remove organics from the water by using bubbles. The organics attach themselve to the surface of the bubbles and is collected at the top of the skimmer. So the whole ideal is to increase the total surface area of the bubbles in the skimmer and also the contact time. The longer the time in contact and the finer the bubbles the more efficent the skimming gets.

For the turbo skimmer, it's a venturi but the skimmer body is around 1ft long inclusive of the collection cup. Thus the time the bubble is in contact with the water is relatively short.

for eg. a weipro 2014 is around 2.5ft inclusive of collection cup and the water is in contact with the bubble 4times linger. The bubbles produced is finer in size. So far for this price range, they are the best value for money.

For skimmers like the aquaC (similar to downdraft except for the inductor), H&S (uses pump to chop up bubbles) euro reef all has one thing in common, they produced very fine bubbles. Which inturn produce very good skimmage.

So it all boils down to how much you are willing to spend and how efficient you want your skimmer to be. As skimmer removes organics before they even break down into armonia & nitrate, they can ensure a very good water quality if efficient.

[Achilles Tang]

A good skimmer and a not so good one would mean the difference between a stable clean tank and one where you have cyano and hair algae outbreaks, poor coral health, being unable to stock more or feed more.

[bwilly]

u should see the thick kopi-O some ppl get every two days..

yours I believe gives u teh-O every one week or so..

that's the different..

u pay for thick aroma fill kopi-O or want tasteless teh-O??

u decide.

I am using a weipro 2012, abt a week or so, I get kopi-O.

Other “branded” skimmer gives their owner, such skim within days.

[sugi]

Bwilly,

My Weipro also take almost a week to make KOPI.

But after I change to Turbo Skimmer from Octopus Bay,

it took only 2-3 days to make KOPI.

Comparing with my previous Weipro and Macro,

this new skimmer has more fine bubble.

So i guess it works better.

Worth the money rather than spending the high side of hundreds of bucks.

[bwilly]

it depends on other factor too..

eg. pump used..

of course more X one will be better, but then you got to ask yourself. u want to pay so much more for a skimmer or a cheaper weipro which gives u half the results. in economical sense, weipro win thumbs up.

the skim from my weipro is alright, but not as thick from some I have seen.