What is the best and worst skimmer you have used over the ye

[Anonymous]

Roadrunner,
Some tanks can run without a skimmer so the fact your tank shows no phosphates and runs well with a Top Fathom proves not much.
Other tanks have constant algae/nutrient problems without the use of a large/efficient skimmer. After you have set up and run 10+ different tanks you begin to see that all systems run differently even if the same guy set them up about the same way.

John

 

[Anonymous]

I have both the Turbo and the Berlin. The Turbo is built cheaper but is quieter, the Berlin is noisyer but built much better. I run the bBerlin with a rio 3100 and it works great. The Turbo came with a German Aqua Bee pump I believe and it works fine. They both work about the same.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a Berlin on my 75. I have always wondered if it is the reason I have always had diatom on the glass that needs to be cleaned every 3 - 5 days. I recently upgraded to a bigger pump (Rio 2500), but it still skims only moderately at best. Thanks to all of you I am focused on a new skimmer. Either the Bullet 2 or a DAS BX-2. Anyone want to buy a used Berlin? (shhh Do not tell the wife!)

Paul

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, just to make sure I understand what you guys are telling me.

If I make a skimmer 5' tall with it being fed by gravity with the water coming in at the top, then have the water exit at the bottom, (both in and out are 2" dia. pvc).
With my air being added by a seperate closed loop (using either a mazzi or beckett) just like the turbofloater does.

I'm going to end up with a 5' pile of pvc junk.

Is that what your telling me?

If so, I'm glad I asked before cutting and glueing.

 

[Anonymous]

Trent Dumas, your design is a kick butt skimmer design, what I'm trying to say is you'll need a huge pressure rated pump to drive it and what FMarini is saying is the Beckett Valve is not meant to have back pressure, that's why most of the skimmmer that uses the Beckett are short.
Keep your design but use a pressure pump driving a mazzi venturi, I've seen some comercial skimmer with a design like yours,dual Mazzi!! very powerful!!!just remember to get a big pressure pump.

P.S
I think 2 inch intake to your skimmer is an over kill, not many pumps have a 2 inch out except those that process tens of thousand GPH, choose your pump first, then get the size of the intake to match your pump,the intake will be at the top , you'll need to run an inner pvc pipe all the way toward the bottom of the skimmer for the bubbles to exit at the bottom and slowly rising up going counter current.
Have fun building this monster and let us know how it work.

Cheers
Wilson

[This message has been edited by Wilson (edited 23 May 2000).]

 

[Anonymous]

John F: You almost got my point.....basically skimmers serve a function of removing DOC's. It appears to me that once your tank becomes established the ability of your skimmer plays less of a role in your tanks overall health. Sandbed takes care of the Nitrates. Phosphates can be removed via phosphate sponge on a monthly basis as necessary. Skimmers serve a valuable function but I am one that believes that a huge skimmer is not the fixall that these threads make it sound like to the newbies......JMO.........RR

 

[Anonymous]

For me the worst skimmer, Seaclone.
The Best ETSS RD2.

Mark

 

[Anonymous]

Roadrunner, I disagree with you regard to skimmer not being an important part of a reef system unless one runs a Algae Scrubbers .

There are reef tanks and there are reef tanks, someone put some mushroom and leather,some softies and possibly some LPS and call it a reef tank, while some others keep all the above plus SPS, so what's the difference between the 2 reef tanks? they are both call reef tank but the one with the diverse corals are what most hobbyist trying to achieve down the road as they get more experence.

With the softies, mushroom etc... the water quality are much more forgiving but once you added SPS into it, keeping both species happy becomes quite challenging, one species needs dirty water the other needs clean water, see my point? so, how do you keep both species satisfied in the same tank? simple, feed like crazy and after their feeding time, skim like crazy.
Now, if all you're planing to have is sofities Etc... then a under power skimmer will work, but once you have the experence to mix with SPS, then you're in a different league.

 

[Anonymous]

Best - Aqua C EV150
Worst - Amiracle counter current internal

Obviously there will be a difference between a $300 dollar high tech model and a $20 beginner model. I think the worst skimmer I used for the amount it cost me was the seaclone. I had to modify it to make it work, that says alot about how badly made it was.

Any high tech (i.e. expensive) skimmer will remove the "dirt", I think the difference between the high end models is the amount of adjusting you have to do to them and the ease of cleaning.

I love my AquaC, but cleaning the reaction chamber is impossible. The Berlin XL I was using before was very easy to clean and never required any adjustment. If I had the cash, I would go for a DAS or Euroreef. Easy to clean and they require very little adjustment.

I think the "downdraft" models are the hardest to clean and the hardest to keep dialed in at the right levels. My AquaC has to be adjusted because I do not have it high enough in my sump (eventually I'll lift it a few more inches). Everytime the water level in the sump drops (which it does at an alarming rate during these So Cal heat waves) I have to retune the skimmer by adjusting the gate valve.

In my opinion, you get what you pay for. Spend the money the first time, not the second time when you have to replace your seaclone.

"There are more things of heaven and earth than are drempt of in our philosophies"
- Shakespeare

 

[Anonymous]

Good point srb.
Its hard to compare a $30 skimmer to a $600 skimmer.
Although skilters & visajets dont skim to well they only cost a few dollars.
Even though my berlin did not skim well [for me ], its less than $200.
A good ETS, Euroreef, Das, HSA or some others I have forgot cost around $500 or more.
Thing is I could have bought one of the top line for what I spent on lower quality ones trying to find a good one for less money. I think a lot of us have been there.

------------------
Doug Lowey

 

[Anonymous]

Wilson: Perhaps you should check out my tank spec's and see what I have in my tank. It might be a little past the "beginner" stage you have me slotted for. I have a wide range of corals in my tank including SPS. Point is there is and always be more than one way to run a reef tank. Not just the "Wilson" way. Believe it or not you can have an adequate skimmer and feed sufficiently and still get corals to grow in a reef tank. You don't have to overfeed & overskim unless you just like to overpay for everything. There is a happy middle ground......RR

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, why are you taking an insult with my post? I did check you tank spec. up till recently prior to May 22 2000, all your tank are softies with one or two LPS, after you edited it on May 22, you added a montipora and a green slimer, both are very hardy SPS,
You tend to disagree with most of the experence reef keepers on this board, people like johnF and Randy Holmes Farley, both I have the pleasure exchanging e-mail with , regarding you disagreeing with Randy on adding calcium and the chemistry in the water, don't know if you notice that Randy is a chemist, and johnF long been keeping lots of SPS along with other corals, if you want to take that as an insult, I'm sorry, no insult intended, just trying to make a point that there are different reef tanks and some are more challenging to keep then others.

I have a wide range of corals in my tank including SPS. Point is there is and always be more than one way to run a reef tank. Not just the "Wilson" way. Believe it or not you can have an adequate skimmer and feed sufficiently and still get corals to grow in a reef tank.

I just quoted you, so what is your point? I have adequate skimmer and I feed sufficiently, and my all my corals grows, sound like you're agreeing with me instead of disagreeing, you need to feed and then skim, so your post about skimmer not being important dosen't stand.

[This message has been edited by Wilson (edited 23 May 2000).]

 

[Anonymous]

Well I don't know what you are referring to with JohnL and Randy was a discussion regarding SeaChem products I believe which we both came to the conclusion that there are different ways that work for different people to keep calcium levels up (SeaChem vs. Kalkwasser if I remember correctly). The fact that I updated my profile yesterday has little to do with anything unless you were trying to insult me. Wasn't that you who suggested to the person who wanted to raise their Calcium quickly by 100 points to drip Kalkwasser........maybe I'm mistaken........your humble know nothing rookier reefer..........RR

8)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Wilson, but I don't think I am explaining myself very well.


The over flow from the tank is the inlet (gravity feed at the top of skimmer) and the exit is the same at the bottom. The reason for the 2" intake and outlet is so I can have a very high tank turnover and push all the water thru the skimmer.

The mazzi is going to be attached on a seperate closed loop at the bottom of the skimmer. Intake from bottom of skimmer, into pump, then out of the pump straight past the mazzi and into the skimmer.

Very similar to the Turbofloater and and the DAS BX2 and I think the Euroreef.

Do you think this will work with say an iwaki 100rlt? Pressure rated and 2000 gl an hour.

Trent Dumas

 

[Anonymous]

Trent, very hard to picture what you're trying to build exactly without seeing a drawling, a iwaki 100 rlt should be more then enough to drive a 8 inch dia colume of water up 5 feet, if not, you have a gate valve on the bottom to adjust the water level.
Good Luck on your project

 

[Anonymous]

Roadrunner, saturated kalkwasser has 900 ppm of Calcium and a PH of 12.45 so if it's done right sure he can raise his calcium level, I believe I told MAtikin that his kalk was under saturated and suggest he dose freshly made kalkwasser and monitor his PH with a eletronic PH monitor,when the PH of Kalk drops to 12.0, the concentration of calcium drops to about 175 ppm, and at PH of 10, it only contains 5 to 6 ppm of calcium, Randy Holmes Farley or Dr. Bingman can correct me if I'm wrong.

You suggest that I look at your tank spec. as I did and post my finding, I keep track of all the "advice givers" here on this board to see how they maintain their tank so I can learn something, your tank is just one of the tank I looked at before you even suggest it on this post, that's why I notice you've added 2 SPS , again, no insult intended

[This message has been edited by Wilson (edited 23 May 2000).]

 

[Anonymous]

Wilson, do you have a home page? You seem knowledgeable and I'm always curious to see how every different person manages to maintain a life support system in so many different ways. I don't have much info on my reef on my home page, I was using it more as a curriculum vitae and other stuff as I was searching for a doctoral degree program. It hasn't been updated in quite some time but I'm proud of the programming work I did on it.
www.arches.uga.edu/~btfreak

Sincerely,
Brian

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Dr. Reef, I'm sorry I don't have a web page, not really good with computers, I am a Dental Tech by trade

The reasone for this board is for hobbyist to share info, how they are keeping those hard to keep species alive, I have a Goniropora that I saved from a LFS,(was going bald and having algae grown on the bald spot) I can't even post about it until I have solid long term sucess with it, most say they won't survive more then 3 months and 18 months tops, mine is been in my tank for only 5 months, the bald spot have regenerated and polyps are spreading onto other part of the coral, but again, this does not mean I'm sucessful at keeping this alive, not until it is in my tank for 3 + years growing and expanding, you learn alot from other hobbyist here, by sharing info, comparing notes etc...
Thus, the fun part of this board, meeting fellow hobbyist, going over to their house and look at their tank and go oooohhh... ahhhhh

 

[Anonymous]

Trent,
What kind of tank setup are you trying to export phosphates/nitrates out of?
An Iwaki 100 is a serious pump and cost serious bucks.
I've built my own HSA skimmer; basically a 4' Aerofoamer that rocks even off a SEN 900. Like FMarini says taller isn't always better (unless you ask the fairer sex).
Anyway, after building my skimmer I must admit that in retrospect I'd have gotten a Sipedon 500 skimmer, a DAS, or maybe even a Euroreef. Skimmer building is a lot of work and 2/3 of the former skimmers include pumps in their cost.
I know firsthand that #1 and #3 are MORE than enuf for a 250 gal tank.
Hair algae is a bear, so get a good skimmer or supplement w/ a refugium to remove DOC's etc.
GL,
Brad

 

[Anonymous]

The best skimmer is one that foams... And the beckett does come of the bullet.Screws on screws off.I would choice a becket skimmer or needle skimmer cuz they have smallest bubbles. becket skimmers are just like downdrafts big powerful pumps but bubbles are smaller.