I just realized I never did post what skimmer I ended up getting. I was really torn between the new EuroReef line (Reef Dynamics) or looking elsewhere. Being the price of the Reef Dynamics series I really needed was for a INS180 at $500 for a nice skimmer but with the same pump I ran on my old CS6-1 EuroReef that I just was never happy with due to it continually breaking down. The real joke was my LFS was trying to assure me the INS80 would work on my tank no problems. Ya whatever buddy that is tons smaller than the CS6-1 I ran on my 55 gallon reef. So I did some digging on their site and just downright didn't like how they described their products and their "supposed" capacities and then their actual capacities down lower. Just seemed like outright lying, "liked sized units on the market" they just need to state what their products are actually rated at and let the good product speak for themselves.
I also looked long and hard at the Reef Octopus line as well as the Aqua C line.
In the end I ended up going with the new AquaMaxx ConS C0-3.
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MarineDepot had it on sale for $400 so I bit the bullet and gave it a shot. I spoke with MD and AquaMax regarding the product and liked the idea of the high end Sicce pump they are pairing it with. As soon as I opened the box I was very impressed with the skimmer. The construction was top notch, I like how you can open it all the way up to clean it out if you desire and the extra features it has. The outflow adjustment is pretty simple and I ended up putting a black permanent mark on the top to know where I have it adjusted. The one thing that did give me trouble on setting it up was I had to put it in I think it is 6" of water otherwise it would just overflow the cup at the recommended depth of 8". Upon starting it up though man o live it makes a ton of bubbles and the bubble diffuser really works to align the bubbles to flow vertically vs turbulently; I'm not sure which is better but thought I'd note it.
The AquaMaxx also took a good while to really get going, however that could also be due to the low bioload in my tank at the time for the size of the skimmer. When I first put it in I had a grand total of 8 small fish in the tank, not much coral, and a good sized cleanup crew. Now that I have had it running for two months now and have increased my bioload to 18 fish two of which are tangs it's started to finally settle in. My guess is the newness of the tank and the low bioload as compared to the rated skimmer size 270-450 gallons resulted in the skimmate being all over the place. For the first month it would never pull anything but light tea skimmate out. Then for about the next two weeks it would go back and forth between light tea and a nicer darker skimmate. Finally in the last week or two it's got a good darker skimmate going.
One thing I did do was programmed the skimmer to remain off for all of my feedings for an extra 10 minutes after the main pump turns back on. Otherwise in the early days the collection cup would just overflow like crazy, I've since just kept it on to make sure everything is balanced back out. Gotta love the control you get with an Apex.
I 100% miss some things about just throwing in live rock and seeing what comes out of it. However, I've been slowly seeding various species into the tank. One that I am missing is the little micro brittle stars, always loved them as an easy part of the clean up crew. 
