9020 not enough?

[AquaKnight]

I'm looking to purchase a skimmer for my 125gal tank. It's going to be a predator tank and I plan to keep a variety of corals, even SPS. In my quest for a short enough skimmer (I have a tiny stand, only 23" tall inside), Tunze's kept appearing. So I researched them and everything seemed great till I ran around one post mentioning that the 9020 'might not be aggressive enough for SPS use.' I'm guess here that it might be a bit more of a wet skimmer? I also found the 9420 as well. Would this model be better suited to my needs? I noticed they are both rated for the same tank size, but the 9020 sucks in way more air (1300lph vs. 900lph). Which would you recommend and why? Also, I realize this is unfair to be asking here, but how would they compare to a Bubblemaster 250?

 

[David Grigor]

I've got a 110g heavy fish load and heavy corals load and a 9010 does fine particuallarly if you plan to harvest macro algae too.

My gut feel is 125g to be about the cutoff for a 9010, and would bump up for much more than that.

Your right on the bubble, if the budget allows 9020 would be the safer bet but can also add a second 9010 later if needed.

I'm very confident that 9020 is plenty.

 

[Lutefisk]

AquaKnight,

I've got a 9020 that I recently added and really like.

It does skim pretty wet which I like. I'm sure that if I evaporated some of that water it would be just as sludgy as a drier skimming skimmer. In fact, I also have a Euro-Reef in the same system that I've got skimming drier and if I had to go with just one I'd stay with the Tunze.

(I went to two skimmers to lick a dino outbreak.)

Yes, there evidently are some compounds that require a longer contact time to be skimmed out. But, that longer contact time is not the same as drier. When you watch how the bubbles in the Tunze collection neck keep working their way upward, carrying what they've accumulated on their surface to towards the top, you can see that the successive bubbles working their way up provide a long contact time.

Paul

 

[AquaKnight]

Awesome, thanks for the replies. So definitely the 9020 over the 9420? I know this might be tough, but any comparsion opinions towards the BK250 as well? Even if they are biased.

One more quickie, can the 9020 have a waste collection installed as well, or how does that work? All I found was that 5002.25 could be put in, and all that looks like is a $19 5gal bucket. I'm hoping for something much smaller.

 

[Lutefisk]

Waste collection with the Tunze is very easy. The Tunze 9020 and 9015 both have what Tunze calls "foam extractors." Rather than a collection cup they have a hose that you just hang into a bucket.

Paul

 

[Aquadepot]

The Foam extraction pipe is an optional extra on the 9015 where as the 9020 will not fit skimmer cups so comes with 2 of the foam extraction units 9020.140

Regards
Graeme

 

[Emster]

I just got a 9020 and love it.I had a ER cs8-2 and this tunze is better IMO. Very easy to dial in just plug and play. This is a pic of mine after exactly three days of skimming and yes that is a temp gallon jug until I can make one out of acrylic....