Avast CS1 Pegleg Skimmer Review

Purchased a CS1 directly from Justin at Avast on Friday and built the skimmer over the weekend. First, I would say that Justin is great to work with and answered all of my questions promptly.

The skimmer is being put to work on a 45 gallon cube and is housed in a VERY small Eshopps RS-75 sump. That said, the skimmer has a very small footprint for how 'big' it is (easily handles 250 gallon+ tanks).

With the kit, I purchased a Sicce PSK-1000 pump, which has been matched to the skimmer. So far, the pump is nice and quiet, but not silent. If you order the CS1 kit from the website, they will sell you the pump for a great discount. All together, I paid $264.98 for the kit with the pump - a great deal for a cone skimmer that competes with $500+ models from mainstream manufacturers like Reef Octopus and Seaside Aquatics.

The build was a bit more involved than I expected it to be. The parts are quite 'unfinished' when you get them. They are still wrapped in protective paper from the milling process and covered in shavings. Additionally, many of the holes are not drilled all the way through and need to be 'finished' with either a drill bit or a razor blade. However, I personally think this makes the whole process more fun.

The most challenging part of the build is gluing air/water-tight seams - the cone, the cone/flange joint, and in a few other places. Finding a balance between using enough glue and not using so much that it creates a mess can be tricky. When I first fired up the skimmer in the sink for a test run, I discovered two leaks: one at the top of the cone in the neck, and one in the joint between the cone and the flange. After drying the skimmer off and re-gluing the joints, all was sealed and the skimmer was ready for my sump.

I put it in the sump about an hour ago and it is still breaking in, producing a very wet foam. I will report back tomorrow once it has had some time to rid itself of manufacturing oils (and the grease I used to insert the pump into the uniseals).

All in all, a great kit and a lot of fun for a very reasonable price.

 

Thanks for the write up and please keep us up to date on the break in period and how it does in the future.

 

Quick update - been breaking in for a few hours now and there is already a big difference in foam. Went from extremely wet to quite dry right now - big frothy head of foam. Can't wait to add a bio load and see what this thing produces!

 

Excellent time frame for break in.

 

I've seen that video before, the build looks like a lot of fun!
Interested to hear your review shortly.

 

Quick update on the Avast skimmer. After a good week of break-in, it's producing a very frothy and dry foam. And that is in a tank with virtually no bio-load. Can't wait to add fish and coral to see what this thing can do.

I must say, though, that this skimmer does NOT like carbon reactors. I added mine to the tank and the next two days the skimmer was an overflowing volcano. Nothing I could do to stop it. Gate valve wide open, and still filling the cup in 2 minutes. So i pulled the carbon reactor and it's back to normal. I guess I'll just run GFO - not like carbon does much anyway.

 

Weird, with carbon you should see a reduce in collection and not a random overflow.

 

My understanding was that the overflow is quite common with carbon