Piecing together my tank, need help on a skimmer

Hey all,

You may have seen my other threads as I am piecing together what I believe will be a 180g dual overflow all glass reef tank. I've read alot of posts, and am trying to nail down the right protein skimmer. Any suggestions? I'm just getting back into a coral tank after about 10ish years and I wasn't very high tech at all back then. Budget isn't a concern really, I just don't want to spend more than I have to. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Scash

 

Tell us if you have any skimmer in mind.

 

I'm assuming your skimmer will be in a sump?
It depends on how much room you have, if it's going to be in a sump under your tank or in a seperate tank room or basement. The Precision Marine Bullet 1 will fit under most stands, the Bullet 2 may be too high to fit under a stand.

 

You can still get old school venturi skimmers. AquaC uses "spray injection". I liked mine, but it isn't very "new".

New would be Becket skimmers. They use Becket injection, a type of venturi. They draw large amounts of air, but need a powerful pump.

The other latest tech is needle wheel skimmers. Instead of a standard impeller, they use a wheel with "pegs". A air line is run to the pump inlet, and the air/water intake is chopped into fine bubbles. Needs a much less powerful pump.

Both draw large amounts of air. I think the needle wheel wins out in fineness. (barely) Becketts can process more. Needle wheels use less power.

MRC and Precision Marine make Becketts. Very good quality and their customers love them. There are a ton of needle wheel makers. Euro Reef, Octopus, ATB, even Precision Marine and MRC. From inexpensive up to $1500 Bubble King for your size.

Just search on line for some of the stuff I talked about and you will find tons of info on all of it. I was happy with my AquaC EV-120. I was very impressed with Precision Marine. I love my Buble King. Happy hunting.