Skimmer technical questions

[jjensen6823]

Hey everyone. I've just been looking at the variety of different brands/models/types of skimmer out there, and trying to make sense of it all. I know that some people are big fans of one brand or another, especially Euroreef, but what differentiates one from another? I am not trying to be a pain or start a flame war--I want to understand.

Most seem to be fairly simple and fairly similar: a pump forcing water and air bubbles into a cylindrical reaction chamber, usually about halfway up, a neck and collection cup at the top, and a drain as close to the bottom as possible. I know some use venturis and some use needle wheels, and that many feel that needle wheels are better--hence the Euroreef and ASM products. But aren't the main issues simply the size of the reaction chamber, the flow rate, the volume of air pumped in and the size of the bubbles, and the dwell time? Is there more to it than that? It seems to me that the reasons (functionally--construction quality is a separate issue) that Euroreef is so popular and seeming so superior is simply the larger reaction chambers and the needlewheel pumps. Am I missing something?

I did notice that there seems to be a new design--recirculating skimmers, which look to me as though they simply increase dwell time and mixing by slowing the in/outflow rates while increasing the air/water circulation with a second pump. Seems to me like a great idea--more dwell time and air volume. I even saw that some of the really big skimmers use more than one recirculating pump to further increase airflow/mixing.

The reason I ask--I have a Posiedon II Vortex skimmer--a home-brewed device by a guy named Chris Shea. It's a 6" dia reaction chamber, 18" overall height (12" reaction chamber), and it uses a ViaAqua 3600 pump and a venturi. It looks to me like those are exactly the same dimensions as an Octopus 150. When I first got it, it worked extremely well. However, I recently noticed an increase in algae and diatom growth, and a decrease in skimate ouput, and I finally traced the problem to an air leak around the foam riser neck. (Chris used Uniseals to make his connections rather than gluing them). I plan to replace the seal around the riser neck. But I was wondering if I should just upgrade to a "better" skimmer--and then I got to wondering what makes a "better" skimmer better?

Is it simply construction quality? I will certainly admit that a ViaAqua pump is lesser quality that a Sedra, and that uniseals are not the best solution--but is there an functional difference (assuming the uniseals are sealing tight)? Is there a reason why an Octopus 150 would work better than my identically sized skimmer? If I replaced the pump with a Sedra needle wheel pump, would that make the performance comperable to a similarly sized octopus needlehwheel or ASM skimmer.

Finally, is there any reason I couldn't drill two more holes in the skimmer body with a hole saw (using uniseals again--I don't have the tools/supplies/knowledge to do acrylic gluing), and turn my skimmer into a recirculating skimmer simply by replumbing it that way? Wouldn't a Sedra 3500 Needlewheel pump hooked up to reciculate give me roughly the same performance?

Like I said, I am not trying to be difficult. Since my career change I have had to learn to live on a pretty tight budget, and I am trying to make the best of what I have. If you made it this far, thanks for reading the long post, and for any advice.

Jim