Skimmer Experience Needed!

I decided the direction to go with my lighting, Thanks to everyones help, now I have a new question. First of all my entire set-up is only about a year old and prior to the ETSS Evolution 500, I had a ASM G1 Skimmer, in my opinion the ASM pulled much more nasty gunk from the water with the needle wheel than the downdraft style skimmer. I am running a Pan World 50pX-X pump on the ETSS currently and I attached pictures of my system so everyone could get a better idea. My question is should I go back to an ASM or should I maybe lean towards an octopus? ETSS builds a quality product but I'm just not so sure it can compete with the needle wheel. Alot of people on the forum seem to have mixed opinions so let me know! My price range is around $400.00, and I want to figure on a med-heavy bio-load. Thanks!

 

Internal or external?

 

Either or, I'm not biased.

 

Ok cool... there should be quite a few members to chime in.

Ill go with the one that I have. Super Reef Octopus XP2000

Has done well for me. Also right at $400 mark

 

So what makes you think the ETSS pulls less out of the water? Not necessarily a fan of either. The "G"s are overrated and the ETSS is dated and uses way to much pump for what you need. A Octo would use much much less power for the same job.

But I ask the question because their is really no way to judge skimmate. It depends how dry it is and how much water condenses in the cup..... If you are just going by liquid volume then they are not necessarily equal. I would actually guess the ETSS would perform better.

 

I have to say I have no knowledge of the octopus but my experience with my needle wheel skimmer (coralife) has been very good. It just sits there and does it's job as advertised. When I first switched to it from an old hand me down skimmer from a friend who was triing to get me hooked I did all kinds of dumb stuff to see how well it would really keep up including pouring skimmate back into the tank (55gallon AGA)

I poured 1/2 cup of skimmate back into the tank and in less than 5 minutes had 1/2 cup of skimmate back in the skimmer cup at which time it stopped making new bubbles until the next time I feed frozen mysis. I give the needle wheels an A+

GreyBeard

 

Powerman, When I originally started researching the idea of downdraft skimming, ETSS was the leader in the technology and I felt like it would remove more waste from the water than the needlewheel especially with the extra power from the pump. I also bought the waste container because otherwise you have to dissassemble the Evolution to empty the contents. In the waste container mostly all I collect is water never any dark waste. It usually doesn't even have a bad smell to the water, whereas with the ASM skimmer I dreaded cleaning the cup. I have played with the gate valve and I can't seem to change my results. It's still only my opinion, like you said its hard to make a side by side comparison.

 

Thanks Greybeard, I appreciate you taking the time to reply!

 

Hydrophobic organics will attch to air bubbles regardless. With skimmers it is a matter of adjusting between wet and dry. No real difference between organics being pulled out, just how much water comes with it. Sounds like the ETSS is really wet.... then again, maybe the G1 just pulled more.

There are other bubble machines out there that can make bubbles and have organics attach to them. Becketts, sprays, downdrafts blah blah.... for the ease of use, the consistency, the performance, the power usage... there is nothing that beats the modern needle wheel skimmer. Period. Low power consumption, set and forget, 100% consistent results, excellent bubble maker, and low cost. They have it all. And no I don't consider ASMs to be in that group although I'm sure there are some fans out there that will disagree.

What Octopus... Super Reef and SWC and the like represent is the best bang for buck around. Solid construction, good pumps, great performance. There are better, and there are cheaper, but Octo holds a solid middle ground. Cones are not a leap forward in technology, they are just a tweak in a design. If you want a number, I would give it a 10% advantage in performance over a cylinder. However, they do reduce turbulence and really hold a stable foam head. Read very consistent. If you have the money, get one. Either way, a cylinder or cone SRO over what you have is worth it. I like SWC too, pretty much same build, but right now I have to give the edge to SRO just because of the dedicated needle wheel Bubble Blaster pumps that have done really well. The SRO XP 2000 would be a very good place to start.

 

I found out some new information today and want to pass it along. If you are using a downdraft skimmer and the gate valve is most of the way closed when the water level is at the top of the body then your pump needs to be stronger. The stronger the flow forcing the water down the bio ball tube, the more gunk removed from your system. I am only pushing around 590GPH to the skimmer now, so I'm going to upgrade to 1100GPH and see what difference it makes. I will update everyone on the experiment.