The Life Reef Skimmer Club
- Thread starter d2mini
- Start date
Me too. Only I am skimmig with a reef dynamics(Euro reef). I agree a pump in body is a pain in the neck to easily access. But , it serves a purpose.... And that is saving space.
The air water mixture is moving up down and aroun cone and cylinder both. Only thing not turbulent is the bubble column above the water column where it rises into foam to be deposited in cup or if very dry skimming, on the neck for some of the skimmate.
azjohnny
Active member
So I got the pump today ( Fluval SP4). Its a lot bigger than I was expecting, I hated the included barb fitting ( caused the loose connection with the vinyl tubing) and noticeable size difference from my Laguna 1500. Took a few pics before it goes in the sump
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mikeatjac
Active member
I am joining the club, time to check out a new skimmer.
About every year or two I try out a new skimmer, I guess it is like searching for the Holy Grail. I have tried most skimmers over the past 20+ years.
If I could rate skimmers I have used.
The best ATB (840 and Elegance 200), Bubble King 250 and MTC (dual). I know Bernie Lyons will croak to see pin wheels in my top picks.
Second group Vertex 170 2nd gen, SRO2000 And 3000, AquaMaxx (not a cone), MSX200 modified, iTech200 and Hurricone.
I have the 24 but based on input from bayoupr I am going to add a 12" extension. One of the things I like about this skimmer is that you can modify it.
About every year or two I try out a new skimmer, I guess it is like searching for the Holy Grail. I have tried most skimmers over the past 20+ years.
If I could rate skimmers I have used.
The best ATB (840 and Elegance 200), Bubble King 250 and MTC (dual). I know Bernie Lyons will croak to see pin wheels in my top picks.
Second group Vertex 170 2nd gen, SRO2000 And 3000, AquaMaxx (not a cone), MSX200 modified, iTech200 and Hurricone.
I have the 24 but based on input from bayoupr I am going to add a 12" extension. One of the things I like about this skimmer is that you can modify it.
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bernie lyons
New member
skimmers
skimmers
Hey despite your personal choices of pinwheels I'm still here and have not "Croaked" ...LOL!!!
I have in the past owned some very top line pinwheel design's from Germany (DELTEC , H&S) and each of these monsters and very costly skimmers performed very well ,so I'm not against the "pinwheel" methode at all ,just the most current design's today have compact them into little sandwiches and then just to "excite" the market for sales, these companies put a cone shape to them ...
Most of these skimmers I have found throw so much air into their little boddies without hardly any water to make contact with, that's not skimming that's frothing at the mouth so to speak , this by the way does not increase contact time whatsoever.
Anyways I do prefer the "classic" design of true counter - current and have owned beckett design's which performed incredibly well.
I don't by into the fact that all bubbles most be "absolutely uniform" because seeing ettss skimmers on some very beautiful tanks disproves that notion altogether ! That design makes multiple bubble sizes and certainly skims despite the "ideal" super uniform bubble size theory...
skimmers
Hey despite your personal choices of pinwheels I'm still here and have not "Croaked" ...LOL!!!
I have in the past owned some very top line pinwheel design's from Germany (DELTEC , H&S) and each of these monsters and very costly skimmers performed very well ,so I'm not against the "pinwheel" methode at all ,just the most current design's today have compact them into little sandwiches and then just to "excite" the market for sales, these companies put a cone shape to them ...
Most of these skimmers I have found throw so much air into their little boddies without hardly any water to make contact with, that's not skimming that's frothing at the mouth so to speak , this by the way does not increase contact time whatsoever.
Anyways I do prefer the "classic" design of true counter - current and have owned beckett design's which performed incredibly well.
I don't by into the fact that all bubbles most be "absolutely uniform" because seeing ettss skimmers on some very beautiful tanks disproves that notion altogether ! That design makes multiple bubble sizes and certainly skims despite the "ideal" super uniform bubble size theory...
wildman926
Active member
Key words, one correctly spelled, is "little bodies". Chamber volume does matter, which increases the probability of achieving doc removal by air surface contact, also incorrectly referred to as "contact time".
However to increase the probability of doc removal with a lack of chamber volume, you increase the air to water ratio. It has the same net affect.
To add to this, chamber volume needs to go up when the skimmer moves more water. Otherwise too much turbulence occurs and the skimming suffers. More air less water means a more economical sized skimmer. Unfortunately people are still trying to size body to their tank where the air draw is the factor. The only reason for a large body is because of the amount of water needed for the pump to move to achieve desired air draw.
bernie lyons
New member
spelled "little bodies"
spelled "little bodies"
Oop's I missed that...however there is only so much air you can put into a small chamber without sacrificing water input, otherwise you will have too much air and not enough water to strip, right ??? This does not make up for the lack of volume and you certainly cannot remove as much DOC's and TOC's by this method.This is the very reason why so many of the manufactures who build these "little bodied" skimmers don't get it, or maybe it's just pure marketing hype to make more money and save on manufacturing costs ?
spelled "little bodies"
Oop's I missed that...however there is only so much air you can put into a small chamber without sacrificing water input, otherwise you will have too much air and not enough water to strip, right ??? This does not make up for the lack of volume and you certainly cannot remove as much DOC's and TOC's by this method.This is the very reason why so many of the manufactures who build these "little bodied" skimmers don't get it, or maybe it's just pure marketing hype to make more money and save on manufacturing costs ?
Spot on. But the thing is more air is not being pushed..... Good companies strive for balance.....Also currently ... Adjustability(dc pumps) is the new goal.
coffeetwitch
Member
the lifereef has been removing more than the rd. fills the cup faster. darker than the rd. the rd shut down when i feed the tank. the lifereef i have will skim through the whole cube of mysis. never stops! the lifereef is more stable, meaning to me. that i could could kill my rd by putting my hand in my tank to adj a power head and it would take an hour or two to come back online. the lifereef doesn't stop. my arm has to be in the water for a short bit before the lifereef shuts down. oh another comment about the foam from lifereef is better. idk how to discribe it. like a staircase of foam once in the cup. the rd would spit foam over the edge of the cup and then it would pop and liquify. i dont know if that was descriptive enough to get the point across.
build quality... rd has some impressive build quality. thick plastics. welded joints. lifereef is solid but utilitarian.
to me, lifereef is an all around better skimmer than the reef dynamics.
i had a mag 9.5 as a return pump once. that could remove the need for my heater. the mag 12 with the lifereef still needs a heater. weird right? same tank same sump.
coffeetwitch
Member
i would like to add that the svs-30 is a giant in size and pump compared to my reef dynamics skimmer. i think i have a picture if you havent seen one from a prior post of mine. if you follow the advertising and the other skimmer threads that means that the bigger skimmer should only skim for a short bit then idle because it removes sooooo much more from the water right? that is simply not true in my case.
people can argue like experts about skimmers and why x works better than y. for me the svs-30 does the job that several others have advertised to do but failed.
people can argue like experts about skimmers and why x works better than y. for me the svs-30 does the job that several others have advertised to do but failed.
Interesting point of view. Thanks for your comments. I think and just IMO the reason your LR is bigger and skims better is because of the small neck size, which allows it to keep a foam head compared to these smaller but larger necks on modern day skimmers. IMO this is where the success of LR lies.
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