Skimmer que's

[reefnut]

Hi everyone,

I have been debating what skimmer to go with for my new 125gal reef ( Big wave to AJ and REEFIN GEEK ) :)

REEFIN your new tank looks great, looking forward to more pics:)

Does anyone here use a Turbo Floater 1000/with pump and are you happy with the skimate or does it seem very liquid like and not foamy enough?

How well does the turbo stack up against other skimmers?


Reefnut

[swissgaurd]

Reefnut
Look into the Klaes skimmer line.
they work great a little pricey but no headaches.
I use the klaes ATK junior on my 82 its rated much higher and do agree.

[swissgaurd]

5 days of skimming check skimmer results thread

[ajx22]

Originally posted by swissgaurd
Reefnut
Look into the Klaes skimmer line.
they work great a little pricey but no headaches.
I use the klaes ATK junior on my 82 its rated much higher and do agree.

Phil (reefnut)...

Vic (swissgaurd) is definitely right-on with this suggestion! These Klaes units are a bit more expensive...but they work like there is NO tomorrow! Pronounced "Clay".

Phil...in my new 220GAL StarPhire show tank...I am likely putting a 3' Klaes on it (the next one above the ATK Junior that Vic has). Very high-end skimmers...but a bit more out of the pocket too.

Let me know if you're interensted in one of the Klaes units, and I'll send you the pricing. They will be on the site soon!

Thanks to Vic (swissgaurd) for mentioning this...I had nearly forgotten!

(if you want to see one in action...let me know and I will take some photos for you - or you're if you're going to be in the GTA, I can SHOW you operating units)

HTH...

[Mitchell]

Im loving my aerofoamer. Producing great skimate the collection cup is a must though, as it would not take long to empty a tank if it started to go nuts. The collection cup has a auto shut-off on it.

[reefnut]

Glad you all stopped by:) thanks for the info AJ and Vic

Vic, It's been a while good to hear from you again, consider an e-mail and a pic of the tank in the mail:) need some ideas on some softys to get to :)

AJ do you carry the RE Aerofoamer skimmers?

Hi Reefin,

RE Aerofoamer
( should have typed beside it "This skimmer is not a toy" ) my opinion it beats the bullet 1 hands down at least what I have read.

I like this skimmer the best the 630 model to be exact, I am considering buying one b/c I do not want to have to buy another skimmer again, this will be the last one ever, period, the end, that's it, nada and so on you get the picture no matter what size reef I get down the road hehehe, now Reefin we just have to sell the mrs on the idea hmmm:)

E-mail and Pic will be on the way Reefin:)

Reefnut

Edit for spelling LOL even with the spell check AJ :) just have to remeber to use it :eek2:

[Mitchell]

I have the 830 with a Mag 2400 driving it. Tom and Flav have a used aerofoamer in the store. It is the one up from mine.

[reefnut]

Hi Reefin,
I got an idea, why don't you buy that one and I will buy yours:D

Reefnut

[Mitchell]

sure, im easy

[Mitchell]

hey reefnut, did I scare you off ?:D

Make me an offer:thumbsup:

[reefnut]

lol Reefin, no ya didn't scare me off just cought me off gaurd is more like it, hmm seems like maybe you have been eye'n the one on the shelf:)

You've got mail, in cheezy AOL voice of course:)

Reefnut

[ajx22]

Aerofoamer Skimmers...

As of right now we are NOT dealing with these. They are very good units, but their distributor pricing and dealings are a bit messed up (different prices for different people, etc...). We will consider dealing with them again if they can get a good deal together for distribution.

The unit that Flavio and Tom have is nearly BRAND NEW too. Very nice unit...I was considering it even for my new 220Gal tank.

Phil...I sent you mail to your Hotmail account...did you receive?

Either the Klaes or the RE Aerofoamer would do you for a LONG time! The other option as I mentioned in my last e-mail is to go skimmerless - and implement the EcoSystem sump/filter.

All up to you Buddy! Let me know whatever way you go! :o)

Cheers,

[reefnut]

Hi AJ,

Yes, I recieved your e-mail and thanks for all the effort I do appreciate it:)

The EcoSystem sump/filter sounds interesting but I think the best for me would be a good skimmer and use a refudge, I have the extra sand and 30gal right now with out dropping a dime sort of speak.

I have heard of people going without a skimmer but It has never worked for me :( and $999.99 is a fair chunk to spend on a chance that it may not work:( that is why I was leaning towards using a skimmer.

Is anyone using the Ecosystem, that maybe able to add to the discussion?

or maybe using the mud?

It always comes back to getting the straight up goods on a good skimmer and one that is the most reliable to buy, I have and I am sure others can relate here on the closet full of skimmers and gadgets people sell to reefers,IMO next to lighting the hardest piece of equipment you will buy for a reef is a skimmer, here is an example of what I mean

Letter to reef manufacturer of aquarium products, I have sent off a few e-mails to them here was a response to my que.

I am looking for a skimmer, not sure what style to go with yet?

Any help would be great



Here is the response I got back.

"Stay away from the following: Red Sea, AquaC, Turboflotor, CPR, A.E. Tech (downdraft), HSA, EuroReef, and a few others that I cannot remember at this time. There are reasons all of these are going to give you lots of maintenance. The ones listed are ones that I have replace for customers as they had some difficulty with these skimmers"

Like I say frigin impossible to get the straight up goods on what works the best:( and I am tired of putting stuff in the closet:(


Lost in the skimmer twilight zone, can anyone out there relate?

Reefnut

[Mitchell]

Lost in the skimmer twilight zone, can anyone out there relate?

Lets see ... I have had the following

El Cheapo that came with the old 65 gallon- Drove me nuts in about 1 week.

Knop Hang on- Worked so so didn't like the fact that even with the bubble catcher they were still pouring into the tank and I hated the fact that a Rio was running it.

Berlin Classic- Puchased the turbo upgrade kit for it. Came with a Berlin pump and 12 blade impeller. Money well wasted.
Various reasons.

Aerofoamer 830 with a Mag 2400 driving it. Very Happy :)
Reef Concepts recomended a Mak 4 to drive it but I find the 24 is just fine.

My only complaint so far is if there is a power is turned off, the skimmer goes crazy when it starts back up. I have to re-adjust it every time :(

But with the amount of skimate it produces, I'll live with it.

Good luck in your search

[Oakville Reef Gallery]

hey guys,thought i would get in this skimmer dicussion,the different types of skimmer out there are also for different types of tanks,if you have a 150g with sps and clams then you would want a skimmer that is more aggresive in skimming,eg aero foamer,hsa,aqua c,if the same tank had a more traditional skimmer like a klaes with more contact time,you would have to go to a much largrer model to achieve the same results,if your tank is mainlt softiies then you are better off with a skimmer with more dwell time and a smaller bubble size in the column.the hsa is the best built north american skimmer i have ever seen.and also very agressive in skimming.a veturi skimmer such as the klaes would be another good choice.if your tank or choice of animals and fish bioload change down the road its then a good idea to go for a larger unit now with adjustable air and water.we.just my 2 cents Flavio

[Sparrow]

Originally posted by reefnut


Letter to reef manufacturer of aquarium products, I have sent off a few e-mails to them here was a response to my que.

I am looking for a skimmer, not sure what style to go with yet?

Any help would be great

Here is the response I got back.

"Stay away from the following: Red Sea, AquaC, Turboflotor, CPR, A.E. Tech (downdraft), HSA, EuroReef, and a few others that I cannot remember at this time. There are reasons all of these are going to give you lots of maintenance. The ones listed are ones that I have replace for customers as they had some difficulty with these skimmers"

Reefnut

Woah, I think the worst thing to do is approach manufacturers for their opnions. They seemed extremely biased towards their products. Ie. that response which named almost every skimmer.

I've had two skimmers since I started the hobby. A Bakpak II for my first reef aquarium and a Euroreef for my larger one. The BakPak II was a piece of garbage compared to my Euroreef. The Euroreef is extremely easy to use and the craftmanship is pretty good. From the skimmers I've seen at the LFS, the Red Sea, Turbofloater, and Prizm are not compariable. hth.

You may also want to do a search on reefcentral. Skimmer questions on what to choose pops up like once every week. I would scan in a photo of my euroreef but I haven't seen the pictures I took of it for months.

[ajx22]

Originally posted by ajx22
Aerofoamer Skimmers...

As of right now we are NOT dealing with these. ..

As usuall, I have made a mistake. We do have the RE Aerofoamer skimmers available to us. Sorry for the mistake...too much going on right now! :embarrase

Phil...
Two things you really need to look at.[list=1]
What you will be stocking in the tank
Budget
[/list=1]

If you can let me know the above...I will try to help to direct you out of the Skimmer Jungle.

Let me know!

Regards,

[reefnut]

Hey Reefin good idea posting your take on skimmers, maybe a few more may jump in here to what they have found works and does not :)

Sparrow,

Yes you are right and I would have to agree with you:) posting to a sales rep is not the way to go, there in lies the dilema for someone looking for a skimmer.

option 1

Post to a BB the best choice by far:) the problem is all have a great skimmer, works great, I wouldn't trade it for a 69fastback mustang or a cobra:D

option 2

Send off e-mail to see what you get back from a distributor or alike, bias ya no dought about it.

Here is what I mean, a month ago I was going for a euroreef, heard good things, Doug if you are out there I originally got the idea from your posts way back in the day:) then heard some bad things but on the whole still positive, like so many others.

Then I thought bullet and Aqua C from the west coast bunch, wave to Troy and the gang if you read this far:)

Then there was the klaes ATK junior and so on....

I thought once again it would be interesting to see what people have found works really well and the one they have collecting dust or change if they were to do it all again and be really honest:)

What kind of a car would you trade your skimmer for?

Reefnut

PS Flavio, not sure what (wew) was so not much to say on that :confused: but your other point was good, well can I have softys and sps and still have a good skimmer. that takes care of all, so that I do not have to say down the road hmmm now I need to upgrade my skimmer now:( and spend another wad of $$$$$$

[Andy]

One more to look at is the DAS BX-2 in-sump skimmer. Similar to the EuroReef. Compact design. Includes 2 DAS pumps. Quiet. A well kept secret in my opinion.

Andy

[reefnut]

Hi Andy,

Where did you get that DAS BX-2 skimmer from, I have not seen them here:(

Sparrow,

Where did you get the euro from ? I have checked out all the online companys in Canada, I think and no luck:(


Thanks for any info :)

Reefnut

[Andy]

Reefnut

I believe Incredible Aquarium in London sells them. I got mine from a local pet store that carries Hagen products. Hagen now distributes the DAS skimmer line. Go have a look at one in action in Incredible Aquarium. I was there last fall and saw them running on their system. Do you visit that store ever?

Andy

[Daniel Schubert]

Reefnut

Unfortunately I don't think there is a clear winner in the skimmer market. They all seem to have their ups and downs. Even within the same type some people seem to have better luck then others. I presently use a saline solution skimmer I've actually had good luck with it but It's relative cheap and I didn't know better at the time. I have been looking at eventually upgrading but then there seems to be a controversy on whether to skim at all.

The ones I have been considering are the Klaes Junior, MTC , GEO (seems to getting popular according to reefcentral) but so far I have not found a clear winner. This probably does not help you much expect to know that you’re not the only one confused over this very hot/opinionated topic.

[reefnut]

I guess not enough:( I was their a while ago and grabed some phyto, had a quick look round and left.

I will have to talk to Bill about them, seeing it running would be a bonus.

Thanks for the tip :)

Reefnut

[swissgaurd]

Reefnut
I was going to buy a das skimmer last spring for someone else but i was having trouble getting one.They do work well but it is limited to the sump.Instead i had to settle for a aerofoamer,aerofoamer works well the workmanship is fantastic,but works better on large tanks with very high bioloads and may realease bubbles into tank.

Im really glad i got the klaes skimmer the skimmate is a very dark brown and all i had to do is fill it with water ,hook up pump and plug it in.

Vic


www.aquagenics.com

[reefnut]

Hi Daniel,

Yes, I agree with so many on the market it is not easy picking other than product review by members of a BB and a tip here and there:)

One thing I have seen come up with the high pressure beckett style skimmers like the bullet is the small box (that you inject the water into ) of the skimmer being so closely attached to the outlet, that you can run into a bubble fest, maybe true maybe not, nobody talks about it much.

Still may work well but I would think you would have to either throttle back the water inlet or foam the heck out of the outlet of the skimmer, or use a bunch of baffles.

I do think that if I were looking closely at the bullet or alike style. I would consider the Geo, I have sent a few e-mails off to George and he builds one heck of a good skimmer IMO at alot less the cost and the box appears to be bigger on his set up so he may have solved any bubble problems.


Good luck on your quest:)
Reefnut

[reefnut]

Hi Vic,

Plug and play is a good thing, the skimmer looks a bit like the one on page 259 of The Modern Reef Aquarium minus the air stones, through in a rio move an inlet/outlet and wala.

I would like to see one running at full tilt and check the bubble output, have you seen any returning back to the tank since set up, running full tilt?

Dark skimate, no bubbles, is what we all want:)

Reefnut

[swissgaurd]

Reefnut
to tell the truth i havent seen any bubbles in main tank,and i have no baffles in my sump

vic

[swissgaurd]

8 hours worth of skimmate
kinda gross but what the hell.

Vic

[Mitchell]

sort of reminds me of my cooking. :eek2:

I should have some pics of my skimmer in action in a few days.

[Sparrow]

Originally posted by reefnut

Sparrow,

Where did you get the euro from ? I have checked out all the online companys in Canada, I think and no luck:(

Reefnut

Premium Aquatics. I use to do a lot of ordering from the US. Now I don't, I support our local economy. Don't want to contribute to the deficit in the capital account... plus I got everything I need... (at least I think ;))

pssp... if your in the TO - Richmond Hill area - you can drop by and look at it if you want.

[stephane]

hellow guy this my new clown. I made them because i was tirred of getting toy skimmer at 200 to 400$ and dont want to spend the 1000$ for the skimmer

it very kick ass
I never see any skimmer rock like this

[stephane]

here an other one those photo are 1 houre after I put it on
I get the photo whit my daugther to show you the size of that monster

[stephane]

here an other one by the way I run it with a mag 18 it is the 830
model :bigeek: in my mind beckett is the best skimmer you could buy
if you could afford it or prefer to buy 2 toy and then buy a real one it is up to you

[ajx22]

http://www.aquariumpros.ca/images/welcome.gif

to the forum stephane!!!

Thanks for the pics and contributions! GREAT job on the skimmer too!

Good to have you on-board! Looking forward to hearing/seeing more about your set-up! Hope to see you around often!

Good Luck...

[Mitchell]

welcome stephane

Lets see some more pics of your setup. Mabey in the bragging section

[stephane]

i will love to post photo but they are all over the 102400 bytes
alowed did you have a rapid way of lowers the resolution:help:
or and other way to attach the bigger resolution pics

Stephane

[ajx22]

Originally posted by stephane
i will love to post photo but they are all over the 102400 bytes
alowed did you have a rapid way of lowers the resolution:help:
or and other way to attach the bigger resolution pics

Stephane

Either upload them to your own website (sometimes space is offered by the ISP you use) or to a geocities (or another free website) and then use the IMG button to link directly to the image (not the html page) - for example, if you placed this text http://www.aquariumpros.ca/DSCN0084.JPG in-between [ IMG] [/IMG ] - it would display the actual picture and not the text. Note that I added a space between the first and last [ bracket...DO NOT actually do this if trying to post an image, I did this to show you the format because if I had not placed the space, the code would have tryed to post an image rather then show you the code. Just click the IMG button and enter the images location (as the example in bold above), and it will format it for you.

You can also resize your images using Photoshop or other photo editing programs. I use a 3.34MegaPixel Nikon CoolPix 995 camera, and the images are HUGE...I use Photoshop 6 to resize them to 350 x 263 pixels for web posting - and this is well under the 102400 byte limit.

[stephane]

i dont have any web site and i dont know what is a geosite ?
this are new photo and I take them low resolution

it is the ugliest and blerkk ! ting I ever see get out of a skimmer
I just past a sponge inside the riser of my skimmer this is only after 5 day I even drop more than a liter of brown juice it is incredible what get out of there im pretti amase because my other skimmer was couter current whit 3 wood diffuser and 3 air
pumps I haved put togeter before a turbo flottor and my CC and
it shut off the turbo so it was not a garbage but now i tink it was

[stephane]

dammed the !@$@# :mad: :angry: %$%?%& photo is not clear that photosmart
#$:mad: :angry%?%!! zoom good 1/10 he take good photo only
at 3 or more feet

aniway that ugly mudly,smlely ting was about the size of a ping pong ball if i have more of this in a couple of day I will get other pic because it is in the sink now

hey AJ i tink you have a nikon how much are they and do you like it did they are good for macro photo ?

[ajx22]

Originally posted by stephane
hey AJ i tink you have a nikon how much are they and do you like it did they are good for macro photo ?

Hello Stephane...

I just purchased a Nikon CoolPix 995 last week. All photos on http://www.aquariumpros.ca/photos.html were taken with this camera. I also have a macro lens set from Tiffen (10+ & 7+) arriving from UPS tomorrow morning, so I will be able to do nicer macros - at up to 17x greater magnification!

So far love it. It was a toss up between the Nikon and the new Canon G2 - the G2 was priced at $1,299.00 and I got the Nikon for $900.00 - so I found the Nikon a better value. The Nikon also has the swivel feature...which is very nice when doing macros.

HTH

[savirag]

Hey Reefnut,

Incredible Aquarium has both the Klaes (sp?) and the DAS running, so you can see them both in action. There is a pic of the Klaes up and running on their website.

http://www.incredibleaquarium.com/

It would probably be worth the drive to take a look at it, if I remember right it is the 3' model. The cost was $700 on the Klaes. I truely think the upfrom cost of either the DAS or Klaes is worth it in the end.

Hope this helps
Steve

[reefnut]

Hey Steve,

I am on my way over to check out the skimmers grab some snails and maybe a coral banded while I am their.

My ORP reading dropped to the 285 range then came back up to 390 over the last few weeks so I think I have gone through a small cycle, I will be taking a sample in any way just to see what's going on.

All that has been in the tank the whole time is 5 snails if that and 1 emerald crab (all doing fine) so it was pretty much just the rock curing as far as the waste went.


Maybe will see ya their:)
Reefnut