Skimmer help! 45 gal reef

Hello Everybody, this is my first post and am hoping for some advice. I came home Monday to find out my HOB Excaliber skimmer was leaking and kinda destroyed part of my tank stand on my 25gal tank. Because of this I need to finally upgrade to the 45 gal oceanic I have had in the garage for the last year. I had started getting things ready long ago and got distracted so I'm back at it.
I have a 15gal high tank(10"x20"X18) for the sump(baffles will be added) so I don't have a lot of space available for the skimmer, size is important.

I have been doing some reading on your site and have found these three as options and wanted to hear what people had to say.

SWC Xtreme 120 Cone Protien Skimmer (seems to have the smallest footprint)

Reef Octopus NWB-110 4" Internal Protein Skimmers--(could be a tight fit)

Bubble-Magus BM99 Skimmer

They are all in about the same price range and I have read great things about all of them. Any help or other recommendations would be appreciated. I really want to get it right the 1st time and not have to replace anything in the near future. Simplicity would be great.

Shawn

 

while I dont have either of them, several in my local club RAVE about the reef octopus skimmers. I have an MRC MR2 on my tank. for my setup, it works wonderfully skimmer about 3 gallons of great skimmate. we have one coming for our swap in jan and the members are already fighting over who is going to win it.

 

Thanks for the response. The reef octopus is definatley one I am considering.

 

How about looking at it from cost? Is it worth the difference in cost to go with the SWC Xtreme 120 Cone vs the Reef Octopus NWB-110 4"?

There is about a $65 price difference between the two. Is either better? I have read through many pages on this forum and can't really find any negatives about either skimmer. I like the SWC for the smaller footprint but its more expensive. I still have to put the sump together so I guess the size difference isn't that important.

Any help would be appreciated. I have been out of the hobby for a while just mantaining my tanks and now due to cirmcumstances need to upgrade.

Shawn