ETS and ASM Skimmers.

Does anyone know anything about, or have experience with, ETS and/or ASM protein skimmers?

THANKS!!

 

ASM is a basic needlewheel skimmer (uses a needlewheel to mix air and water)
ETSS is a downdraft (injects water into a tube filled with bioballs to create foam)

If I lived in WA I would not hesitate to use an ETSS as you guys don't pay squat for electricity. It skims like crazy but mainenance is a bit more time consuming. It does require a pump where as trhe ASM comes with the pump.

 

The place I'm heading to tonight sells both, and I'm not sure what to pick. I'll ask their opinions too. But are both brands pretty good, but just use different
methods?

Another place here sells Hydor - are those any good? I couldn't find much information online.

 

I wasnt that impressed with the ASM G2 skimmer that I had. It didnt skim as well as the EuroReef that I was using so I went back to my ER RS-80 and sold the ASM. I dont know anything about the ETS skimmers.

 

I know a few people with ETSS. They are cream of the crop for big systems. I am not sure on the smaller ones though. The reason they are so good is the massive column of foam and very long air to water contact time. Depending o what you want to spend, there is a lot of great choices for a 90 gallon tank. You don't have to be stuck on two or three choices.

 

Over the years I've tried euroreef, AquaC, ReefOcto and ASM (plus some other very cheap ones years ago, don't remember the brands). For the price, quality and performance the ASM G2 isn't a bad skimmer for mid size tanks (55-90). I been running one on my 75 for over 3 yrs now, I have the gatevalve mod and I'm impressed with the results thus far. From my experience it's comprable to the euroreef and ReefOcto I had a few yrs back, definitely better than the AquaC I had...the ASM will do the job but you could find skimmers with more efficient pumps these days. I don't have any experience with the ETS. Check out ReefOctopus too.

 

Thanks for all the help.

I ended up buying an ASM skimmer. I had to rush out and buy it, not something like to do, but my tank has been without a skimmer for some time now. My old one broke, I received a replacement part (finally! After they remembered to send it...) and that replacement part broke in a week. Sooo I was done with that skimmer!

I ordered another one from a website, that said "ships in 24 hours!" and well... 2 weeks later and no sign of shipping I emailed and was told the skimmer is backordered and no idea when it will be in....

Well I had a major cleaning done on my tank a week ago, it's cycling and now I have diatoms. So I'm thinking if the tank is cycling a skimmer is really needed. So I ran out and bought one last night.

If I get a year out of this skimmer I'll be happy!

 

Actually you don't need to run a skimmer while the tank cycles. You can, but it isnt necessary. I prefer not to, to allow everything in the tank to spike as high as possible and for it to build a bulletproof biological system on it's own. Once I start adding fish and food/nutrients to the tank is when the skimmer is utilized. And the diatoms you mentioned will clear on their own once all the silicates in your sand are devoured

 

Well, that tank is full of fish (I didn't stick them in there, this is a 2 year old tank that went through a major clean up)...so I really don't want them hurting from the cycle.

Normally I don't use one during a cycle, but for the sake of my fish, I thought it would be a good thing!

 

I have a asm g3 not all that impressed with build quality and pump