What type of skimmer

JAANDGC · #1 05/30/2007, 03:02 PM

Needlewheel, Becket, Venturi, Air stone, what type of skimmer is the most effective at skimming waste. I'm not talking about watts, or pumps size. If you add 10oz of waste what type will pull it out the fastest.
Jerry

JAANDGC · #2 05/30/2007, 03:04 PM

price is not a factor nor is name brand, just which method

luke33 · #3 05/30/2007, 03:11 PM

All of the above have there purpose and there's many good skimmers of each of the above......besides the air stones.

JAANDGC · #4 05/30/2007, 03:27 PM

What do you mean purpose? When/How would you use each of the above then?

luke33 · #5 05/30/2007, 03:32 PM

If you have a 125g tank for instance, you could run a venturi, beckett or NW and they would all serve there purpose and skim the tank well. They just do it differently. The NW is a low wattage skimmer and very efficient where as the becket is a high wattage skimmer and very powerful, but not so efficient, so if you live in Cali for example, you may want to go with a NW. A venturi skimmer is kind of inbetween but there are some great venturi's like the bermuda's and so on. I prefer the NW's myself because they are beginning to be fairly cheap and you can mod them so easily.

luke33 · #6 05/30/2007, 03:33 PM

Beckett's are great skimmers for large aquariums like public aquariums and so on. But there's also some huuuuge NW's around as well. Its just whatever floats your boat these days.

kodyboy · #7 05/30/2007, 08:41 PM

needlewheels, check out orca skimmers, great stuff, everyone seems to love bubblemasters (ATI), euroreefs, H&S and Deltec, but they seem way overpriced to me check out octopus skimmers and DAS skimmers. In addition I have an aquaeuro classic 400, great unit, lousy pumps when they get the pump problem fixed they will be awesome.
venturi: schuran and bermuda, both get rave reviews
becket: I have a aerofoamer, it works really well, and I have heard good things about MRC, and triggersystems

USC-fan · #8 05/30/2007, 08:48 PM

bubble king has the best skimmer around they only make NW skimers.

http://www.finsreef.com/home.php?cat=262

JAANDGC · #9 05/30/2007, 09:25 PM

Kb, thats what they say, but I will never own one, nor do I want to. As far as I'm concerned they could stop making them. With that kind of money I would set up a whole new system. Beside I said name brand was not a factor. I've seen some of those heated NW skimmer post, kind of reminds me of the ZEO rage. Do you guys remember that ??

USC-fan · #10 05/30/2007, 09:31 PM

i would use NW skimmer for sub 500 gal tanks. I would use a custom built Becket for any tank larger.

sgolden · #11 05/30/2007, 09:46 PM

for all over cost effetiveness go with a recirculating needlewheel type...maybe do a mesh mod.....

joncat24 · #12 05/30/2007, 09:53 PM

I got to vote for the becketts...
I put a clone of an mrc on my 180 and it is a beast. I have been through three skimmers in the past three months and the becketts rule.
I got caught up in the neelewheel rage and I am sorry for that. Now it is back to power skimming for me

JAANDGC · #13 05/30/2007, 10:33 PM

joncat if you don't mind telling me what 3 NW skimmers did you try. I currently have a lifereef vs48 with a 2' extension (6' total) and it has dual venturies. I can get at least a cup of crud every day running it dry. I'm still toying with the idea of adding a NW to the system, just to see what it pulls out. By the way I have about 500 gallons total and around 20 fish.

mavgi · #14 05/30/2007, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JAANDGC
joncat if you don't mind telling me what 3 NW skimmers did you try. I currently have a lifereef vs48 with a 2' extension (6' total) and it has dual venturies. I can get at least a cup of crud every day running it dry. I'm still toying with the idea of adding a NW to the system, just to see what it pulls out. By the way I have about 500 gallons total and around 20 fish.

Hope you don't mind if i ask : if you can get at least a cup of crud every day running it dry why you want to change the skimmer ? you have 20 fish in about 500 gallons it's not alot of bio laod for this volume and i believe you keep all water parameter good in your system .so if the skimmer fill cup every day it's look to me that it's a great performance why to change it ?

JAANDGC · #15 05/30/2007, 11:26 PM

Not a change, I plan on keeping that skimmer. Its more of the "I wonder if its any better" thing. You know have to try the new kid on the block. I've talked myself out of buying a NW skimmer at least ten times. I might just tweak mine out a little bit more.

USC-fan · #16 05/30/2007, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JAANDGC
joncat if you don't mind telling me what 3 NW skimmers did you try. I currently have a lifereef vs48 with a 2' extension (6' total) and it has dual venturies. I can get at least a cup of crud every day running it dry. I'm still toying with the idea of adding a NW to the system, just to see what it pulls out. By the way I have about 500 gallons total and around 20 fish.

a collection cup or just a cup? I get more than that out of my new 90gal tank with no fish with my DAS ex-2. The only thing in the tank is snails/crabs.

You might want to run it more wet. No reason to dry skim....unless you can't control how it skims.

mavgi · #17 05/30/2007, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JAANDGC
Not a change, I plan on keeping that skimmer. Its more of the "I wonder if its any better" thing. You know have to try the new kid on the block. I've talked myself out of buying a NW skimmer at least ten times. I might just tweak mine out a little bit more.

now it's more clear , 1 full dry cup a day it's shown that this skimmer kick .

personal i am waiting to get the ATI BM300 it's new skimmer with controller on the pump i hope to see new performance on it to

joncat24 · #18 05/31/2007, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JAANDGC
joncat if you don't mind telling me what 3 NW skimmers did you try. I currently have a lifereef vs48 with a 2' extension (6' total) and it has dual venturies. I can get at least a cup of crud every day running it dry. I'm still toying with the idea of adding a NW to the system, just to see what it pulls out. By the way I have about 500 gallons total and around 20 fish.

I origianally had a cs220, then I got roped into the octpus recirc then I had a etss reef devil. the reef devil was the best out of the 3. Then I installed a diy beckett and I am officially doen buying and shopping for skimmers.

I hate the fact that almsot all of the needlewheels need mods and mesh a bunch of crap added to them to make them work well.
I really liked the reef devil cause it was "set it and forget it""
The needlewheels are just to delicate and finicky for me. As far as wattage goes I am using 100 watts on my little giant pump and the octo with the dual pumps was using 85 and came nowhere close to the performance of the beckett.
You guys are talking about cups per day....LOL
The one I am using now is pulling about a gallon a day out of my 180 and I actually have it set pretty dry. I cleaned the cup and riser last night, approx 24 hours ago, and right now you abslolutely can not see into the cup. It is filled with the nastiest, thickest sludge I have ever seen.
It took me a long time to go with the beckett, but now that I have I will never consider anything else on my tanks.
I am not syaing that there are not some good needlwheels out there but considering a mrc-mr2 costs around $500 with a great pump, in my mind all of the other companies might as well close down as far as I am concerned
Just my .02

JAANDGC · #19 05/31/2007, 12:15 AM

Kb that is 1 cup, I run the skimmer dry. The crud is black and smells so good that no matter were in the house she is, my wife has a fit when I clean the skimmer. I have thought about running it wet, but with the auto top off its easy to end up with low salinity. As for adjusting my skimmer, I can set it from a layer of gunk on the riser neck (super dry nothing in cup) to filling the cup up in 3 sec. with just a couple of turns.
As for you getting more than a cup with only a clean up crew, you must be running it pretty wet.

JAANDGC · #20 05/31/2007, 12:20 AM

jon the reef devil is a downdraft right?
as for skimate I could get more I just don't want to. A gallon a day would start to drop the salinity of a tank in less than a week. I don't want keep up with it like that.

mavgi · #21 05/31/2007, 12:24 AM

joncat24 :

can you post some picture i am interesting to see it .

hahnmeister · #22 05/31/2007, 02:46 AM

Needlewheel performs better than all the rest from the wattage/lph of air standpoint... except for airstone. Airstone skimmers are the most efficient by far, but the sirstone upkeep is killer. So sometimes the best is simply to use a needlewheel (or better yet, a meshwheel) for the mixer, and force feed it with an air pump.

fishdoc11 · #23 05/31/2007, 08:47 AM

IMO a quality beckett will get you the "best bang for your buck". In other words you can get a beckett for ~ $500 or $600 that will skim the same as a needlewheel priced in the $1000 - $1500 range.
That being said a needlewheel will be more efficient and a good one shouldn't have to be tuned every few days.
The reason I have kept my beckett and not gone with a needlewheel is because you can run an autotopoff container on a beckett and you would have to get a needlewheel custom made to be able to do that.
IME the Lifereefs are outdated technology. Not sure how your 6 footer works but I had a 24" model before I bought my MRC and the difference was unbelieveable.
FWIW, Chris

caseyjones · #24 06/16/2007, 07:52 AM

Joncat...did you follow someones design for your DIY beckett or design yourself? I agree with mavgi, show some pics.

sjm817 · #25 06/16/2007, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by joncat24

I hate the fact that almsot all of the needlewheels need mods and mesh a bunch of crap added to them to make them work well.

That isn't true. The cheap brand skimmers that have become popular around here come with pretty poor pumps that need mods to get them to perform. The better brands work perfectly fine out of the box and dont need any modifications.