Hang on Back Skimmer Reviews Pros vs Cons vs Price

[happyface888]

Please list the hang on back skimmers you used
What are the pros and cons of it and how much does it cost and is it worth it for the price?
How well is each one built?
What mods have you done to improve it and has it been better, if no mods than you can skip this
Which hang on did you get the most bang out of for the money?
And if you had to start from the begining which skimmer would you buy?

[VengefulNemesis]

I have used a Aqua C Remora w/mj1200 for 2 years, and just got an Octopus HOB 2 days ago. The Remoras, pros no adjustments, just plug and play. The cons, next to impossible to clean, also rather noisy. I paid around 150 for it I think. It was not worth the price. It wasn't the best built skimmer I feel, I believe it developed a crack in the bubble chamber wall and it began spewing LOTS of bubbles into the tank. Also the injector cleanout screw got destroyed the second time I tried to clean the injector.
Now I know "You just got the Octopus!", but it is already pulling out some green stuff. The pros are that it is a simple design, and quiet. The con is that it uses a larger pump than the Remora and it is a longer as well. I paid 89.99 for it, and seems well built. I think this will be better than my Remora, I am already happier about the bubbles in the tank problem I had. Even if it doesn't perform any better I paid almost half of what I paid for the Remora. In the end I would have rather had the Octopus. Hope this answers your questions ok.

[happyface888]

Very Nice review venge thats a pretty informative review on the 2 skimmers. I look forward to others reviews on hob skimmers.

[reef3r]

yeah, i'm interested in reviews, too. so bump.

[happyface888]

Originally posted by VengefulNemesis
The cons, next to impossible to clean

The hang on skimmers I have used
Cpr Bak Pak 2


I have used this unit for about 6 years or so. It has been running on a rio pump 800. Pros easy to clean, plug and play. Comes with a easy adjustable way to set wheather to skim dry or wet. Just set the level for the cup. Another pro you can hide your unsightly heaters in the back, very useful also you have a option of getting a bubble trap/preskim box which can also be used to hide a heather. Con the Pump I used which is a rio 800 sucks its the stock pump, if you plan to get a cpr make sure to switch it out with a maxijet1200 and follow the following mod here
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/...ad.php?t=28372
or someother needlewheel pump.

The Next Unit I have used for a month
D&D Typhoon skimmer


The pros of this skimmer, small compact, built like a tank weighing 7lbs. A good price of 67.99 at drsfs. Does its job really well, quiet. Easy to mod. The cons, no collection cup, its kind of annoying to have to turn off the skimmer to yank of the concentration cap. Also theres a siphoning problem. But theres a solution use a collection cup shown here by percula9

[ledford1]

While I'd much rather have an in-sump skimmer, the 2 HOBs, plus short comments, I have used...

SeaClone
pros: with a few mods (bioball, air stone, etc), it can be at best a decent skimmer
cons: without mods, it's a very bad skimmer

Coralife Super Skimmer
pros: a nice needle-wheel HOB skimmer that comes in good range of sizes
cons: can be touchy, especially during feedings

[sackman]

Did you mod the D&D Typhoon skimmer thanks

[happyface888]

Yes I did mod my typhoon. heres how it was done.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...&pagenumber=14

[kodyboy]

I like the typhoon have used it for a while (over a year)
I do not like remoras, too costly and do not skim well
CPR style backpacks are not very good, better than remoras though
The odyssea ps75 is not too bad, and very good if you factor in the cheap price, but the ps160 is not a good idea to use as an HOB skimmer, to leaky
Coralife skimmers are eh.....not great not horrid
Seaclones are crap
skilters are crap
won brothers are crap
deltecs are good, but are horribly expensive for what you get
The best HOB out there now is probably the Bermuda Aquatics Rouge Wave.......it looks very promissing

[happyface888]

Kodys the typhoon guru
Wow did you really go through that many hobs? whats the pros and cons of each one?

[kodyboy]

Happyface
Yeah, I have had LOTS of skimmers, unfortunately most sucked
I am teacher and my school has a large reef tank and I teach about aquaria in my zoology class so I get LOTS of free equipment given to me, but most of it is this side of useless, skilters, seaclones, basic powerfilters etc. I keep it in case a lab could use it, students could use them in individual projects, for part, and because I can't throw anything away
CPR backpack: not absolute junk but mine never really collected all that much, my typhoon collects more in a day than a backpack collected in a week.
Seaclones: just don't work, very frustrating when trying to set foam levels, junk
Skilter: the bubbles and amount are a joke, there is such a small reaction chamber and such large bubbles that little occurs. Put a wooden airstone at the bottom and it actually skims, just not well.
I forgot the rio nano, basically a better skilter that is very frustrating to set properly. At least it is cheap ($20) and for a tiny tank it might be OK.
Won brothers: these do skim, but a built like crap, leak like a sieve and are very frustrating. If they could be built better they would not be total crap. The pump that comes with them is enormous as well.
I think you and look are exceeding my knowledge on the typhoon these days

[Reef Sponger]

No matter how good a HOB skimmer is, it just doesn't measure up to a good in sump skimmer. If you can install a sump, you have much more choices and better for your tank inhabitants.

[Flint&Eric]

CPR style, skim ok...KO can be had for cheap and easily modified. NW/mesh increased performance, but even without i have had it skim very well once tuned. air must be restricted for best performance. overall reliable and decent performer.

typhoon- IME, the worst skimmer i've worked with (set it up on a friends 30g). honestly, i had a seaclone on a 10g nano that was more effective. not enough air in the chamber, had to raise water level high so high that it was scary when feeding heavily on how it would react/overflow. based on the rave reviews, i'm guessing i got a faulty unit?

Precision Marine HOT style/Excalibur- Worked ok, not enough air the chamber and had some microbubble problems. can skim ok once broken in/tuned. PM unit was made very well, as you would expect from PM.

Deltec MCE600- great skimmer, but expensive (you get what you pay for though) Can easily keep up with well designed in sump skimmers and IMO, the best HOB out there. has overflowed once on me, but was user error...there is a learning curve on this skimmer once you get to know it it's set and forget. can pull out sludge like my old ETSS gemini.



i still am amazed at recomendations for the rogue when a) they've never used it b) it has not been tested by experienced independent users c) the pics have been poor at best.... to each his own i guess.

[Flint&Eric]

bump....

anyone with experience with the current recirc HOB?

[kodyboy]

the pics of the rogue now are not poor at all and independant users are starting to post pictures and experiences. Read them in the rouge wave forums. Some pics are posted at bermudaaquatics.com
You experience with the typhoon is very diffferent than mine. I have had two of them and no problems at all. Both pulled out nasty skimmate, check my gallery or the typhoon thread. Some people are also modding them for very little cash and making them much better in the process.
Deltecs work, but are far too costly for what they, a DAS in-sump would smoke the deltec HOB easily, so would almost any other decent skimmer for the same price. For $500 it is not hard to find a skimmer that would crush the deltec HOB easily. Again not a bad unit but it should cost $250.

[happyface888]

Originally posted by Flint&Eric
bump....

anyone with experience with the current recirc HOB?

Does a recirc hob even exist? I havent seen one

[pIankton]

Yeah, it's out there, looks good, but I haven't seen it in action.

[happyface888]

This is the only recirc hang on I found

[pIankton]

That's the one. I'd like to see that in action or at least hear some reviews on it.

[happyface888]

The fission recirc hang on skimmer I havent heard any reviews on it except for the nano fission skimmer. I havent seen any posts of people actually owning one. This would be interesting if someone posted their review and how well it skimmed etc.

[koraltek]

that current recirc looks like a shoe in for mesh modding, i''l bet it's a real contender in the hang on world after mod.
a little spendy though for how cheap it looks, which is par for current...

that's my maxi-jet mod thread on RF, i've used it on; cpr bakpak, pm hang on skimmer, excaliber hang on skimmer(which is the old knopp hang on), aqua c remora (modded, injector removed), sea clown, basically everything that you can hook a maxi jet up to.
the conclusion that i've come to is that while the mesh mod can usually almost double air imput on these p.o.s. skimmers, and drastically increase their performance, that really they are only appropriate for like 10g-30g tanks, if you want things to stay nice and clean.

the only real good out of the box hang on skimmer i've ever used was the $475 deltec (of coarse), but i would have never got one except for an equipment trade with a rich guy who didnt care about recomping the value of his skimmer. i loved the performance on my 50g reef of this skimmer, it pulled nasty, smelly crap every day, and i had no issues with algae that i did with other skimmers on that tank. granted that was back before mesh mod.

i would love to buy a rouge wave skimmer and hack off that stupid venturi and put on a mesh modded nw pump in a surface skimmer box(like the one for a mag pump on a remora), i think that would be good, but by the time you've spent all that cash, you might as well just buy the damn deltec. although out of the box it appears to perform at least better than the remora pro and bakpak.
another thing i would like to try is mesh modding an octopus hang on nw skimmer, especially the one with the surface skimmer, that looks promising as well. which pump comes with the octo hang on??? it looks like a resun or king but i can never see the gph of the pump.

[VengefulNemesis]

Resun King 225 comes on the Octopus HOB.

[happyface888]

Thats a Resun King 225F, 19W, 225GPH

[Mr James]

I have used, but don't have any pictures, a Excalibur HOB skimmer. It was okay back then. That was 2002'ish, before Deltec, The PM HOB was good. Don't know how well it does today, but worth looking into - the PM HOB skimmer that is. I bought an MR-1 and never looked back. I now have a BM200 for the main and a Remora w/mj1200 for the QT system.

[sjm817]

Since no one has mentioned it yet, there are also the Tunze in tank skimmers. Not technically HOB, but are also for the sumpless systems. After my exp with underperforming and (expensive) overflowing skimmers., I would go that route.