ATB or Bubble-Magus???

I've recently been informed these are potenially the same skimmers. What do you guys think? The more I research skimmers the more I'm learning how intertwined a few companies are. Reguardless does anyone have any experience with either manufacturer or prefer one over the other?

 

i have delt with bubble magus and they make a good product i have had and used the nac3 and nac 6 and like them alot

 

They are not the same one bit but do have a common link.

ATB skimmers:
Built in Austria by Anton and are one of the best skimmers on the market.
Like Bubble Kings, they are constructed out of acrylic and PVC.
Like Bubble Kings, joints are hot air welded.
They have primarily used Italian made Askoll and Sicce pumps. (Some of the smaller models came with Eheims when they were first introduced.) They are now moving toward the New Waveline (Chinese) DC pumps.

Bubble Magus skimmers:
Built in China
Constructed out of acrylic only
Joints are glued together like most other skimmers
When they were first introduced they were primarily running the same Aquabee (German) pumps that Deltec was using on their smaller skimmers. Once they caught on in the US, they switched to the Atman (Chinese) Pump which increased profit margins as price remained the same. They are now doing the higher end HERO line that is using Eheim (German) Pumps. They still offer a few skimmers with the Aquabees however they are mostly sold outside the US.

Their common connection is their distributor. Victor Nguyen is the importer and distributor of ATB, he got together with Tom Tran (a now former LFS owner) and started a distribution company called Seaside Aquatics. They are the North American distributors of Bubble Magus.

 

LOL....More than one could ever need to know. Good to know why ATB's are so expensive.

 

Yeah, I kind of had to say it all or the doubters would pop in. If i give the whole story, they can fact check til the cows come home! Just goes to sho that you can't beleive everything you read on them there interwebs.

 

Thank you for your input. I'm glad there's some seriously educated people out there willing to help. Based on your experiences would you pay the extra for Magnus? Do you prefer one over the other?

 

Sorry extra for ATB?

 

I have always said, "get the best you can afford". With this being said, I have a 6 year old octopus that is running just fine and pumping some nastiness out of my tank. (it is an 8 inch diameter skimmer on a 120 though)

 

That all depends on your philosophy and what is truly important to you. To me it would choose the ATB. I appreciate the little nuances that went into building the ATB. The precision engineering, build quality, the hot air welding, combination of acrylic and PVC materials, the cone design, and the pump quality are the big differences to me. Is the difference in price of the ATB proportionate to the increase in skimming ability? No way. It really depends if you want this to be your last skimmer.

I always like to bring cars into the equation. Does a Mercedes Benz owner care about new innovations and performance found in the next Honda Accord? Does he question his purchase? Often times the answer is no. Sometimes when you feel a product, you just feel like you got your money’s worth. That is why I have always felt that it is important to go to the large reef shows such as Reef-A-Palooza, touch and feel the product from varying companies. Many times it answers a lot of questions as to why a product is priced much more or less than it’s competitors.

 

you gave me some info I did not know....thanx