Hang-On Skimmer 55 gal
- Thread starter PhatCam
- Start date
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>
Now theres a controversial topic. There are plenty of recommendations that can be made. I am no expert but from the reading that I've done here on RC on the subject I've found the following advice to be common:
Whichever brand/type you choose, make sure that it is rated in excess of you're overall tank capacity. Ie - For your 55 gallon tank (with no sump/refugium?) you might want to find a skimmer that is rated for a 200-250 gallon tank.
For my 10 gallon reef tank I have an Aquarium Systems SeaClone 100 skimmer (rated for 100 gallons). This particular skimmer is not the most efficient but it fits my budget for the moment. It is a 'counter-current' type skimmer.
I had it on my 55 gallon tank for a couple of months and while it pulled cup after cup of the vilest sludge out of the tank it was not powerful enough for that sized tank. Plus it has a micro-bubble issue. I would not necessarily recommend this one.
You might want to check out either the DIY forum or the Equipment/Lighting Forum for better suggestions.
My advice is to read up on whatever model you think about purchasing and ask questions to about that model to get comparisons.
Good Luck, and Happy Reefing!
Now theres a controversial topic. There are plenty of recommendations that can be made. I am no expert but from the reading that I've done here on RC on the subject I've found the following advice to be common:
Whichever brand/type you choose, make sure that it is rated in excess of you're overall tank capacity. Ie - For your 55 gallon tank (with no sump/refugium?) you might want to find a skimmer that is rated for a 200-250 gallon tank.
For my 10 gallon reef tank I have an Aquarium Systems SeaClone 100 skimmer (rated for 100 gallons). This particular skimmer is not the most efficient but it fits my budget for the moment. It is a 'counter-current' type skimmer.
I had it on my 55 gallon tank for a couple of months and while it pulled cup after cup of the vilest sludge out of the tank it was not powerful enough for that sized tank. Plus it has a micro-bubble issue. I would not necessarily recommend this one.
You might want to check out either the DIY forum or the Equipment/Lighting Forum for better suggestions.
My advice is to read up on whatever model you think about purchasing and ask questions to about that model to get comparisons.
Good Luck, and Happy Reefing!
I've used... well, almost all of them. On my 29 gallon SPS tank I went from a bakpak, to a remora, to a coralife superskimmer 65, to a coralife superskimmer 125, and finally to a deltec MCE600.
Frankly, if you want a skimmer adequate for more than a 20 gallon tank, forget the prism, bakpak or remora. Yes, some will say they have and love their remora, but mine was absolutely terrible. It pulled out maybe a cup every two weeks even though I cleaned it every two days. I tried upgrading the pump to a hagen 802 and it still didn't help, other than make the tiny bit of skimmate more watery. In fact I started to think there wasnt much in my tank to skim out, until I started developing terrrible algae problems all over the place.
So I replaced it with a coralife 65. This was a good overall skimmer, but I returned it and replaced it with the 125 version, as it was only 20 bucks more, and the valve on the 65 gallon leaked a little on me (this is a known issue with them on reefcentral). The 125 gallon one does have a larger pump, which was a bit of an eyesore, but damn, it skimmed circles around anything previously. Not only did all the algae die off, but get this, I havent had to clean the glass in over a month. No joke. I went from having to clean it once every three days to just watching my algae magnet sit unused in a corner.
So why did I upgrade from it? Simply put, I disliked the look of the large pump in the tank and the microbubbles and salt spray it put out. They have a bubble trap that comes with it, but its pretty huge too. There are mods for it to deal with these issues though, detailed on the coralife superskimmer thread page, but I never got them to work myself.
So I bit the bullet and bought what is generally considered the best HOB bar-none, the deltec mce600. Only one thin tube in the tank, no microbubbles, completely silent and skims a tad bit better than the coralife. But it is 500 bucks or so, so its pretty steep. If you can afford it, its what I would definitely recommend. If not that, then either of the coralife ones (supposedly they fixed the leaking valve problem of late).
Just my opinion though, take it as you will
Frankly, if you want a skimmer adequate for more than a 20 gallon tank, forget the prism, bakpak or remora. Yes, some will say they have and love their remora, but mine was absolutely terrible. It pulled out maybe a cup every two weeks even though I cleaned it every two days. I tried upgrading the pump to a hagen 802 and it still didn't help, other than make the tiny bit of skimmate more watery. In fact I started to think there wasnt much in my tank to skim out, until I started developing terrrible algae problems all over the place.
So I replaced it with a coralife 65. This was a good overall skimmer, but I returned it and replaced it with the 125 version, as it was only 20 bucks more, and the valve on the 65 gallon leaked a little on me (this is a known issue with them on reefcentral). The 125 gallon one does have a larger pump, which was a bit of an eyesore, but damn, it skimmed circles around anything previously. Not only did all the algae die off, but get this, I havent had to clean the glass in over a month. No joke. I went from having to clean it once every three days to just watching my algae magnet sit unused in a corner.
So why did I upgrade from it? Simply put, I disliked the look of the large pump in the tank and the microbubbles and salt spray it put out. They have a bubble trap that comes with it, but its pretty huge too. There are mods for it to deal with these issues though, detailed on the coralife superskimmer thread page, but I never got them to work myself.
So I bit the bullet and bought what is generally considered the best HOB bar-none, the deltec mce600. Only one thin tube in the tank, no microbubbles, completely silent and skims a tad bit better than the coralife. But it is 500 bucks or so, so its pretty steep. If you can afford it, its what I would definitely recommend. If not that, then either of the coralife ones (supposedly they fixed the leaking valve problem of late).
Just my opinion though, take it as you will
kraze3
New member
What is going tobe in the tank? Fo, FOWLR or reef? Its suggested that you use a sump. Right now Im running my 75 gallon with 2 mechanical filters and its doing just fine. I do weekly water changes and clean the filters weekly as well. Im not sure an HOT would do the job, it depends what is going to be in the tank. If you are going for the HOT filter, the bigger the better but dont forget to clean and do your water changes
