fathom skimmer

[woowoodengy]

hey guys always love your imput.
i have a fathom skimmer i believe its a 200a what do you guys think about these skimmers are they any good i got it a long time ago for $100 newsd (used only a lil) it seams to skim ok but would anybody recomend changing it to somethimg else.
does anybody got expirience with these good or bad.
it seems that i need a very strong pump for it i am currently using a mag 9.5 seems ok would i get much better results with a new skimmer

[woowoodengy]

anybody there

[woowoodengy]

^

[joshuaroot]

hey i just got the 100a for my 55 works better then my old one did, i posted a thread about the skimmer and no one would write back. i wonder why no one wants to talk about these skimmers. its weird

[phishlet]

I don't think its an issue of people not wanting to talk about these skimmers. I think there just aren't that many of them out there. I have a 200a5 that I've been running on a 125 and it works great. It works much better than an old Red Sea Berlin skimmer I had. The top fathom skimmers are super easy to set up and then you can pretty much forget about it except for cleaning out the venturi hole.

[anthworks]

They were big when I first got into reefing in 94. I had my first tank and used a 200a on my 90 gallon. It worked fine.. Ran it with a Rio 2500. ARound 2000 lost the tank to a power outage and last year set up my new 150. I started with the TF but it didn't seem to skim as well I needed so I purchased a MRC. Searched RC last year for info on Top Fathom and got just a little info? That company really fell of the map. They were a major player back in the mid 90's. The high end was the Tunze skimmer back in 94.

[woowoodengy]

bump

[D-Nak]

I had a Top Fathom skimmer quite a few years ago as well. I think the reason why you're not getting many responses is because people aren't familiar with the skimmer (plus your title is "fathom" and I think you're referring to Top Fathom).

It seems that most reefers are now using more "modern" skimmers since they got into the hobby later. Those have been in the hobby long enough to remember Top Fathom have probably moved on to other skimmers. In this hobby, as you know, skimmers go in fads -- there was once Top Fathom and Tunze, then ETSS and other downdraft skimmers, then onto needlewheel skimmers like EuroReef, and now onto recirculating needleswheel skimmers like Deltec, Bubble King, and H&S.

Long story short, I think Top Fathom skimmers are decent, but they can't compete against the skimmers on the market today. Generally speaking, these newer skimmer designs are more efficient, don't require you to periodically clean the venturi (was a pain when I had a Top Fathom since as the venturi gets clogged, the effectiveness of the skimmer diminishes dramatically), are generally more energy efficient, and are also easier to clean.

D-Nak

[woowoodengy]

thanks for the imput guys good to know