Alpha 170 vs mini bubble king for 70 gal tank?

[RobertK]

Hi,

I have a 70 gal reef tank w/ 10 gallon sump and 10 gallon refugium. It is heavily stocked and I need to maximize the skimming power. I want to replace my old Euroreef with a Bubble King. I have room in the sump for either an Alpha 170 or any one of the mini BK models. If I go with the Alpha 170 it would be in the same sump chamber that contains the line in from the aquarium's overflow, but if I went with a mini BK I could build it its own dedicated sump chamber. I can add baffles to make the sump depth whatever is required for either skimmer. Which would you recommend for maximum skimming power on my tank? Overskimming is OK with me as I may use the skimmer on a larger tank some day, but for the forseeable future it will be on this system.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[Jeremy B.]

I use an Alpha 170 on a very similar sized setup with no problems at all. I thinkl you would be just fine with that, or a Mini 160, if you're heavily stocked. I would base it on your sump space (Alpha 170 might not fit a 10gal sump), plus how much money you want to spend.

 

[RobertK]

I have room for up to a 12x16" footprint in the sump, but it would have the overflow dumping into that chamber so there could be some bubbles. I might be willing to spend more if the more expensive skimmer pulled more DOC out of the water than the Alpha 170 (have room for the Mini 180 or 200 even if there would be an advantage to overskimming). Do you have spes on the new Double Cone 180 (or an ETA on it) yet?

 

[Jeremy B.]

There is no new double cone. There is a new cone coming from Royal-Exclusiv, but it is not a double cone. I think Rbuilders.com misstated that it was a double cone, when it's actually not. The new skimmer will have less air draw and a smaller neck, at a more expensive price versus the Alpha.

If you're wanting a Royal Exclusiv skimmer then I would recommend the following three...

- Mini 160
- Mini 180
- Alpha 170

I don't think there is any need to go any bigger at all.

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[RobertK]

Thank you for the advice.

A few more questions about the 3 skimmers you recommended above:

Which one will pull the most dissolved crap out of the water?
What are the differences in the size of the skimmate cup among the 3?
Is maintenance (pump cleaning, etc) on the mini-BKs more of a hassle that w/ the Alpha (or vice versa)?

 

[pencil3]

BK Mini 160 & Alpha 170 along with a few others were tested:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/1/aafeature

 

[RobertK]

Great article, thanks for the link pencil3. I can't say I understand all the math, but I don't see how they concluded that all the skimmers were pretty much the same when it says in table 1 that the Alpha 170 decreased TOC by 24% and the Mini BK 160 decreased it by 37%.