SM 200 or 200 Deluxe?

[DanW]

Jeremy,

I posted this on the Proline forum but it appears that the forum has been removed. Anyway, I am considering upgrading my BK Mini 200 (Gen 1) to either the BK Super Marin 200 or the BK 200 Internal Deluxe. (Must stay w/the 200s because of size limitiations.) My tank is 187 gallons with 12 fish (two tangs) and ~70 corals and would like an opinion on which BK would be a better fit and if I would see a big step-up in performance.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Jeremy B.]

Hi Dan,

Premium Aquatics is now doing RC support for Royal-Exclusiv, Vertex, AquaDriver, etc... Basically the products that Proline distributed in North American and supported here on RC.

The two that you are looking at are very similar in performance, it's just going to depend on the approach and theories of skimming you want to go with. The SM 200 is going to offer the latest and greatest in design / technology / theory of protein skimming. In my opinion, the Super Marin skimmers are the most advanced on the market, even more than a regular cone skimmer.

The Deluxe is going to offer a little more volume and reaction space. You also get a telescoping wedge pipe for finer tuning versus what a standard wedge pipe offers.

In the end, I honestly think either way you go is going to be more than capable of handling your system. I would go with what feels more appealing to you, with some input from your wallet as well!

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[jpluna]

DanW:

I do not think BB is the best choice for a skimmer, I bought a BB Supermarine 200, with the belief in a superior performance and an excellent team, but their bombs are the problem, and especially the distributor in the United States (Proline Aquatics .) They say they are warranted for two years, HOWEVER after two years the pumps left to run, look right here and you'll notice.
In my case my pump stopped working one month before the expiry of the warranty, buy the skimmer on December 3, 2008 and November 1, 2010 stopped working and since then until today I have no answer the dealer as to when to apply my warranty.

Obviously I have not the time whitout skimmer, emergency purchase an octopus, the skimmer cost me half a BB and the pump has one more year of warranty (3), and it will make the warranty valid, as is the case of BB , pumps and cost half and I think is even higher performance.

 

[DanW]

Holy resurrected thread! I think you ment "BK" but in any case I decieded to go with the Super Marin and it has worked flawlessly for over a year. Prior to that I had a BK 200 Mini that also worked flawlessly for over 2 years. Sorry that you've had problems.