Skimmer

[BILBO913]

Hey all got a question for you guys about a skimmer. i have a 150 aga rr tank the skimmer i have is the new version coralife 65. it was going to be a fowler but im finding its slowly changing to a mixed reef. do you think this skimmer is acseptable or should i look into something different. btw the 65 is pulling lots of crap out of the water. thanks for the help

 

[AlohaTropics]

I think as you change over to a mixed reef, your gonna need much finer skimming than what a CL can offer. If you wanna stay cost efficient, I'd go with something like a Vertex In skimmer.


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[anthony27]

yeah I had the coralife 65 skimmer and it worked great pulls alot of stuff out of the water. but also as you go into sps and some lps you are going to need a realy good skimmer

 

[jadakiss]

+1

 

[AlohaTropics]

The issue is with dry skimming. For hard corals like SPS and LPS, IMO the CL does not produce a fine bubble and therefore will skim wet and take out large particulates from the water column. What you need is a skimmer that produce very fine bubbles which will pull out more dissolved nutrients and waste from the water in a dry skim fashion.


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[BILBO913]

anyother recomendations besides the vertex?

 

[AlohaTropics]

What's your budget? The best way is to figure out what your willing to spend and then finding the best skimmer in that range.


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[BILBO913]

well as me all know you get what you pay for and most of us want the best for the least amount of cash possible. but i am willing to spend some cash to keep everything happy. somewhere in the 200 250 range, im assuming i cant get something decient in the range?

 

[AlohaTropics]

IMHO, if your spending the money to upgrade, go with a higher end skimmer. Even save up for an extra 2 months so you can get a Cone skimmer for $400-$500. When your in that range, your in the "pretty darn good" class of skimmers. I'm partial towards cone skimmers because I think thy perform better with the elimination of sharp edges in the body. Reef Octopus Super Reef Cones are pretty good. If you don't want to spend more, then a Vertex would be my choice at the $200-$300 range.


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[BILBO913]

well it looks like ill be saving up some more money

 

[seldin]

Without a doubt, some skimmer work better than others. To my surprise, there was an article in Advanced Aquariast and also the author was a lecturer at the MR reef swap. He compared a number of skimmers ( maybe around 7 or so), and the results were surprising. One the most expensive skimmer removed the most bad stuff, while a surprise 2nd place went to a much cheaper cost skimmer.

Probably good to read that article.

PS. In addition, it was highly recommended that Carbon is very good at reducing bad stuff. A phosban reactor with GFO was also recommended.

PSS. When, I talked to the author after the lecture, he strongly recommended Carbon as a big way to reduce the bad stuff.