Red Sea Prizm Protein Skimmer

[stooge]

Does anyone have any experience with these skimmers ? Are they good or junk ? I want to use a hang on skimmer for a 30 gallon :bigeyes:

[skippy2]

I have 1 on my 20g. I don't like it at all. I cannot get any sludge in the cup. But I do get icky, smelly brown liquid. I only paid $50 so it will do for now. I had to constantly fiddle with it till it even brought up the liquid. At least it is brown, right?:(

[tanku]

SKIPPY, if you are getting brown smelly water from your skimmer it is doing it's job. just remember to clean out the collection cup about twice a week.:bounce1:

[skippy2]

:D That's a relief!!! I thought the collection cup had to have sludge in it. So, I guess the $50 wasn't too bad of an investment.:rolleyes:

[Tomzpc]

I would opt for a BakPak2R instead, or even better, a Remora hang on. I have a Prizm and it currently sits dry in my basement.

[reddogjcm]

I've had very good results with the prizm.

[zboy34]

Its easy to see that it all boils down to a personal preference. My first skimmer was the Red Sea Prism.....quite frankly I was constantly turning it up and down. It was miserable to get it adjusted properly. When it worked..it worked ok, but when it didnt you could sure tell. If I had it to do all over again I would spend a little more $ and get better.:mixed:

[stooge]

Thanks All for the input:rollface:

[msb27]

I too own a prizm, and after running it an adjusting it quite frequently I searched for ideas to make it better. Somewhere I ran across a post from a guy that was also having to adjust his all the time. He suggested that if if you hook the air line up to a gang valve that you can have better control of the water level as well as the bubbles. After putting a gang valve on mine and fiddling with it I have found that it does seem to offer you more "control". You can run it with the water level in the chamber just about anywhere you want and adjust the gang valve to get the kind of foam that you want. I recently have tried to put mine down in my sump but the I cant seem to keep the water level in the sump high enough to keep the skimmer running consistant. So today I hooked up an agua clear powerhead with a hose attached to to outlet. I took off the strainer on the skimmer tube and ran the other end of the hose (from the powerhead) up into the skimmer tube. Im thinking the pump for the skimmer is not quite strong enough to use in my sump. I dont think that it can consistently pull water into the skimmer because I have to keep the sump water level lower (in relation to the skimmer) than it would be if the skimmer was on my main tank. Im hoping by forcing additional water into the skimmer via the extra powerhead, that the skimmer will work better.

Scott

[barebottoms]

Originally posted by msb27
Somewhere I ran across a post from a guy that was also having to adjust his all the time. He suggested that if if you hook the air line up to a gang valve that you can have better control of the water level as well as the bubbles.

I know that guy :D

[liquidfluidity]

i have tried a couple of different skimmers and am in love with my remora. i have the maxi-jet upgrade and the surface skimmer cup. this skimmer would definitely do a great job on a 30 gal but get the powerhead upgrade otherwise i think it comes with a junk rio pump. the surface skimmer cup is rather large though but it is divided into 2 chambers so you can put a small amount of media in the out chamber. i thought about getting one of the surface skimmers made by "Tom". it is very small and self adjusts with the level of the water. i have also played with the gang valve idea on one of my other skimmers. i think it just defeats the purpose of the skimmer. sure, you can have better control over the skimmer column but i thought that more air and contact time was better. by using the gang valve, youre slowing down the amount of air going in. i have always just adjusted the output flow for setting up the column. i have even bored some of the venturis out on some venturi style power heads to get more air(bak-pak). this worked great but the rio 600 is pretty small and i would like to see a larger venturi pump bored and fitted on a bak-pak. i used to work in a lfs and was able to use quite a few different skimmers and if i didn't have a remora, i would definitely gat a bak-pak and do a few mods. they are amazing skimmers when set-up properly, but i thought that the cup was small and they needed some tweeking regularly to keep their performance up.

[absolut]

Just wondering,

Quote: i thought about getting one of the surface skimmers made by "Tom". it is very small and self adjusts with the level of the water.

Where can you get these from? IS this someone on RC?
I'd kinda like to make something myself if possible, wonder if anyones tried this before?

[liquidfluidity]

this was a brand that the lfs here had. i will see if i can find out what the actual manufacturer is as i will be seeing my friend tonight that has one.

[msb27]

With the Prizm I believe with the gang valve I believe you actually let more air in with the way it is designed. The air line hooks up to the collection cup. Seems to me that soon after you prime it and get it going it sucks all the air out of the cup and quits producing foam.

Scott

[IBASSFSH]

look into other brands, spend a littlle more now to save down the road. I did the same thing at first. I set my 75 up to close to the wall. All I could fit in there was the prizm. I bought it and tried it. Its noisy and does not work that well. IMO. I drained the tank down half way and slide it out from the wall some more. Put on a overflow and a sump in my cabinet. I went with Aqua-C EV 120.. I love it so far. I have heard alot of good stuff about the Remora also. I would stay away from Prizm though. IMO