help choosing a skimmer

[tangafish]

I need to order a new skimmer for my reef tank. I have a 135 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. I have a large bioload on my tank, currently i have

• lawnmower blenny
• 2 lemon damsels
• 3 bartlett anthias
• 3"kole tang
• 4"yellow belly blue hippo
• 3"mimic tang

I also have 2 ocellaris clowns and a 3" yellow tang i will be adding from another tank. What skimmer would you recommend? Right now I am using an aqua c urchin that is just not sufficient. It will be in the sump under my tank. Budget around $300. I have been looking at the Octopus models and a Nautilus EX. what is the pro's and con's between the needlewheel and the recirculating?

[rhino509]

needlewheel can be a recirculating skimmer.i have been looking into a new skimmer also,looks like euro reef is the way to go.there is this chart,that says was built by reefcentral users,which shows euro reef and deltec are the only 2(well maybe other than the bubblekings,my guess is they are too much to have all been tested) brands of skimmers that hold their gallonage ratings.just my observation.

[DanInSD]

I got a slightly oversized EuroReef skimmer and never looked back. They are easy to tune, produce vast amounts of dark skimmate, and are trivial to clean (unlike the AquaC). Definitely the way to go.

Worth every penny.

Dan

[dzeadow]

The new xtreme series from octopus is "supposed" to be great. You may want to wait and hear an opinion or two on those when they get shipped out this week or next. For the $, you'll probably be very happy.

[tangafish]

I was looking at the euroreef on drfostersmith but by the time i buy the recommended larger skimmer it is almost $500 a little out of my range right now. I am not trying to be cheap as i know the skimmer is just as critical as the lighting and i have alot of livestock including all my corals and inverts. I just need to get pardon the pun but the most bang for my buck. any idea how much the xtreme series will run for a tank my size?

[dzeadow]

I think th new xtremes are supposed to be more in line w/ their rating now, but you may want to ask someone that knows more and has done more research, but the xtreme160 is $275 on marinesolutionsinc.com and they're powered by a sicce pump which is nice.

[tangafish]

thanks for the replies that sounds good, i checked them out on marinesolutions i just wished it had more details as far as recommended size needed for tank size, i would rather have it oversized though. hopefully the xtreme 200 would be about the size i need as is in my price range.

[dzeadow]

I'd find that thread w/ the discussion on these skimmers, it may help you decide which is better for you if you're leaning in this direction.

[luke33]

I'd imagine the extreme swc 200 skimmer from marinesolutions would work just fine for you, but i'd wait for a review to be out. Should be soon though as they get them in tomorrow and ship them out on thursday. The ER's and Deltec's are nice, just to expensive to me. They are hardly the only decent skimmers out there though, there are many many skimmers that work well out there.

[tangafish]

sounds like a plan luke. I am anxious to see what everyone thinks about the extremes. I really like the smaller footprint and the fact that the pump is underneath. I noticed a lot of the pumps on the other models were partially up the skimmer body. with the way my sump is setup the water level wouldn't be high enough to cover it.

ok now for a stupid question to many, but i am not one for the DIY projects. What is everyone referring too when they talk about mesh-mod and for what reason is the modification being done? I guess my question would be that if all of these skimmers are so great why is everyone modifying them..

[luke33]

The skimmers above, the ER, Deltec, xtreme from swc shouldn't need any modification. The bedget skimmers like the octo's get much better performance from a meshmod and some other mods to it. You can basically take a 180 dollar skimmer and make it hang with most high end skimmers out there for a fraction of the cost. Tomorrow i'm supose to get my old octo 200 delivered here and i'm going to do a step by step mod so people don't have to search through the 400000 pages on the octo mod page. When i get it stock it'll be a nice looking skimmer that pulls 12scfh, 8" diameter and 24" tall and 12scfh! What the hey is that? So i'll do the meshmod, make a different venturi, boar out the elbo and it'll pull 40scfh. I'll then cut a few holes in it and recirc it. So it'll cost me 200bux for an 8" diameter recirc pulling 40scfh, so it should be able to handle a 225-250g tank no problem with those mods.

Sorry about the rant.....i don't think anyone should spend over a couple hundred bux for a nice skimmer. The mesh mod is basically some enkamat pf4, durable plastic mesh and you attach it to the impeller blades tie it on and it'll pull quite a bit more air.

[Saboral]

To do a mesh mod on my Kent Naut TE would that be the equivalent of taking a piece of composite window screen over the input in the cylinder to make the bubbles finer?

[SolidDetail808]

luke33-
I will definately keep an eye out on your step by step.

[tangafish]

so if i go with the xtreme 200 for $325 i can mod it up later if i decide to upgrade to a larger tank..coool. now if you just didn't live so far from me you could do my mod for me well i guess your thread will be the next best thing

[luke33]

The swc xtreme won't need any modding, its a sicce meshwheel pump. Should be able to handle a 200g tank imo fine.

[USC-fan]

You really can't modded the extreme pump even if you wanted to.

[tangafish]

so do you think i would be better off with the 200 xtreme or one i could mod up like the Octopus Recirc Needlewheel 200? I do intend to upgrade to a larger tank in a couple years and would love to just reuse my new skimmer on it.

My current skimmer came with my used system i bought so i haven't had to buy a skimmer before. sorry if am a little newbie when it comes to the specs etc on skimmer. I just need one that will handle my bioload of livestock and the heavy feeding for the anthias and tangs without any problem at all. I have a few sps corals too. thanks for the replies guys!

[GSMguy]

200xtreme from SWC it has a much better cheap to replace sicce pump will be better in the long run than the NW200

[luke33]

Either will be fine for that size system. Its kinda like this. The octo nw 200 for 180bux + time to mod it and another 20bux for parts, so 200+ shipping. The swc extreme 200 for 325 + shipping. The extreme will pull more air at a lower wattage but the other you can turn into a recirc which will allow more dwell time. It all depends on how comfortable you feel about modding. If you drill the hole wrong, you just broke your skimmer.

[luke33]

But like GSM said. The pump's are better on the swc and so is the design. If you have the extra hundred bux i'd get it.

[tangafish]

ok looks like i am going for the xtreme 200 I planned on spending about 325 to get a good one anyway so i am right in range! gonna wait to see what all the reviews have to say too..thanks for the help everyone oh and Happy New Year, may you be blessed with many corals and fish

[kdblove_99]

I would get the DAS EX2

[tangafish]

the DAS EX2 is out of my price range, the ones i have seen are almost $500.