BEST PROTEIN SKIMMER EVER!

[Anonymous]

Maybe you like the smell of skimmate, I know my wife doesn't. I cleaned my collection cups once a week regardless of the skimmer.

That's the nice thing about the beckets, they are totally sealed, all air leaving the skimmer is carbon filtered by the waste collector, so there is no smell to deal with ever.

I was away from the hobby a few years, between houses, I was really kinda suprised more skimmers have not gone to this setup by now, sure is nicer..

What really suprised me is the hobby is exactly the same as it was when I took a break, no new hardware, the only real cool advancement appears to be reeftec/tunze streams..

 

[Anonymous]

So you have to tear it down once in a while, huh?

Yeah, I usually give my ER a good overall cleaning about once or twice a year, but then again I did that with any skimmer I ever owned. My personal preference is the ER not only on performace, but also based on the long term cost to operate. It requires a much smaller pump than comparable becketts, so you save on energy as well, which somewhat helps to offset the usage costs of the halides. :?

But I agree with you Louey, if you go with almost any of the skimmers mentioned here you can't make a "wrong" decision.

 

[EmilyB]

fwiw-i used the original red sea berlin skimmer(w/the venturi in the skimmer base)-had much less waste water in the skimmate than all the pics i've seen here so far,thicker, and darker too...

i still can't figger out why folks use the amount of skimmate produced as a criteria for judging the skimmer :roll: it's what's IN the skimmate that counts-and water doesn't count :wink:

Well, if you haven't used a higher end skimmer, you probably think the RSB is great.... :lol: I literally gave both of mine away....never could get the skimmate up out of the tube (constant contact with the water) out into the cup...

I've read some thought on the "empty more liquid", or "let the crud build up in the tube"...it's all the same crud..so I keep my skimmer set now so I can empty the HUGE cup once a week or so. Still get so much crud in the tube, but I'm not reliable enough to empty more often.


And yes, I think people do get passionate when they spend big money and see awesome results...I'm thinking I might have to actually skim less than 24/7 on my FOWLR....it is too sterile... 8O

There are some really good skimmers out there for sure.

 

[tonytooth]

Euroreef.

 

[SPC]

Posted by Louey:

The only thing I have ever done is empty the cup, and occasionally adjust the gate valve for wetter or dryer foam.

-So, you get no build up in the riser tube Louey, none?
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

SPC Posted: 28 Dec 2002 07:57 Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Louey:
Quote:
The only thing I have ever done is empty the cup, and occasionally adjust the gate valve for wetter or dryer foam.


-So, you get no build up in the riser tube Louey, none?
Steve

Ah, me forgets. Every once in while I do take a paper towel and clean out the riser tube. What I was getting at was that I never have to take the entire skimmer out of the sump for maintenance.

Louey

 

[golfish]

So you have to tear it down once in a while, huh?

I don't know about you but I have to clean my pumps once in a while. I have a full blown SPS tank. The calcium builds up on all my pumps like crazy. Its also builds up on the outside of the skimmer.

So how long does it take you to remove your pump? :roll:

That's the nice thing about the beckets, they are totally sealed, all air leaving the skimmer is carbon filtered by the waste collector, so there is no smell to deal with ever.

Yeah, I've seen those waste collectors with the carbon filters. They have em for the ETSS skimmer I used to use. They only cost about half what the skimmer did :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

There any other happy RSB owners out there? I have 2 of them, and I still like them, no problems getting them dialed in, I really like the design too, nice long contact time...

 

[Anonymous]

Golfish said:

So how long does it take you to remove your pump?

I dunno. I let you know when the time comes that I have to clean it. I have never removed it since I installed it in april/may of this year.

 

[golfish]

Golfish said:

So how long does it take you to remove your pump?

I dunno. I let you know when the time comes that I have to clean it. I have never removed it since I installed it in april/may of this year.

Man, it must be nice to have a pump that doesn't get calcium build up. What kind of pump is that? Are you just running a FO tank? Maybe a fresh water tank :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Man, it must be nice to have a pump that doesn't get calcium build up. What kind of pump is that? Are you just running a FO tank? May a fresh water tank

:lol: The pump is a RIO 3100. I cringed when Jeff at Lifereef recomended a RIO. He said the bigger RIO's do not fail like the smaller ones. I decided to trust his judgement since his reputation is at stake. No problems so far. With regards to my setup, it is a 75G mostly SPS, LPS and clams. Recently I can't seem to get my calcium of 390ppm inspite of using 1/2 - 3/4 GPD of kalkwater and 90ml of each component of bionic. I am getting fairly good growth, so I assume these levels are ok, though not really optimum.

Louey

 

[golfish]

The Rios have a better track record when used with skimmers or powerheads then they do sump returns. Most likely because of the head pressure. I would still consider swaping it out. I had a 2100 burn up a few years ago. Its not a pretty sight.

I run a 150 gal tank with a 40 gal sump and 25 gal fuge, a Geo dual stage calcium reactor and a MyReef kalk reactor. The Ca levels are well over 500 and I just tested the KH and got a reading of 18 (I like to keep it around 15) I have about 3 Maxi-Jet 1200's, Two Mag 12's, Mag 2, Amp Master 3000, And a Sedra 5000 for the skimmer. These pumps need to be cleaned (ran in Vinegar or Citric acid) about 2-4 times a year. Hence the reason for wanting equipment that's easy to maintain.

The tank has a lot of growing to do as you can see. I weeded out a lot of the bigger colonies for smaller higher grade stuff

 

[Anonymous]

I thought it was the other way around. The bigger RIOs are the ones that fail? How I see it is that they are all high end skimmers and that the major plus to the ER is that it uses less electricity that the others. As far as the skimmate issue, there was someone here who posted the results of which produced the best(nastiest) skimmate. If I remmember correctly ER had the nastiest. I think that it is win win if you pick LR, ER, or the bullet.

 

[golfish]

I thought it was the other way around. The bigger RIOs are the ones that fail? How I see it is that they are all high end skimmers and that the major plus to the ER is that it uses less electricity that the others. As far as the skimmate issue, there was someone here who posted the results of which produced the best(nastiest) skimmate. If I remmember correctly ER had the nastiest. I think that it is win win if you pick LR, ER, or the bullet.

Dan,
Yes, as far as I know the bigger Rios tend to fail more often. That's could also mean that more people use them as sump returns or that when the smaller ones fail we just don't hear about it because its no big deal...

 

[Anonymous]

The only drawback that I know of about the euroreefs is that they use a pump or impeller or something that you can only get from them.

I was going to get an ER until I discovered the impeller issue. Apparently if it breaks, and they say it will, you can only get the part from ER. And I was told that you must return the broken part to them in order to get a new one. If you lost your broken impeller, you are screwed and have a worthless skimmer!

The Lifereef has no such part. The venturi is selfcleaning. The pump is the only thing that can fail, and it can be replaced with any pump you choose (as long as the GPH is within a certain range), and you have the flexiblity of mounting it in the sump or externally. I like that versatility.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, as far as I know the bigger Rios tend to fail more often. That's could also mean that more people use them as sump returns or that when the smaller ones fail we just don't hear about it because its no big deal...

Jeff at Lifereef said he has had more magdrives returned than RIO's. HE gave me specific numbers when I spoke to him, though I can't recall what they were. It was something like one or two Rios over 10 year period of time.

Can some of our sponsor speak up about the amount of defective Rios that your store has had returned?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

All pumps fail, however I have never heard of any pump but a Rio burn up and destroy a whole tank. It appears that it is not just their motors, but the epoxy they use to seal the outer housing.

 

[golfish]

I was going to get an ER unitl I discovered the impeller issue. Apparently if it breaks, and they say it will, you can only get the part from ER. And I was told that you must return the broken part to them in order to get a new one. If you lost your broken impeller, you are screwed and have a worthless skimmer!


Louey

I doubt very much somebody would lose a broken impeller, unless maybe the dog eats it. Now for the good news. All the people that I know of, who has swapped out there needle wheel for a standard Sedra impeller says that the standard impeller works as good or better then the needle wheel. This seems to hold true for the people who are also using the turbofloter (I think that's the other one that uses a needle wheel) Jeff at Exoticfish makes exact copies of the ER skimmers but uses the standard impeller. It almost looks like the needle wheel is a marketing gimmick.

 

[suckair]

I run MTC beckett style skimmers.

True they are expensive but OMG the skimmit they pull out of the water. I have a HSA 1k and 2k on my 105g and 120g reef tanks.

 

[Anonymous]

All pumps on the market fail and I cannot say which die more. However, I haven't heard of any pump but a Rio wipeout a whole tank. If it is not the motor, it is the epoxy that seals the housing.