The Life Reef Skimmer Club

[ksed]

Should I be skimming a little less wet? This is in 4 days.

That is entirely up to you. It is known that skimming wet will remove slightly more organics. Skimming dark looks better
Which model is that skimmer?

 

[rounder45]

rounder45, my tank was a 180g mixed reef. I have downsized to a 120g. As for my preference IMO, I wouldn't go any smaller than Jeff's 30". I'm not sure how much contact time you would get with the 24" (mind you I never ran the 24") but it would also depend on what pump you ran. I experimented with pumps on mine and found the Panworld 40PX worked better on the 36", 48" and 60" than the Panworld 40PXX (same as the Blueline 40HDX he recommends). The one thing I like about his skimmers is there is no proprietary pump. You can use a wide range of pumps on these as long as you meet the minimal flow range, external, internal, DC.

Ultimately, if it was required of you to have your skimmer under the tank in a mfg. stand, you would opt for a pinwheel skimmer? It is interesting that the bubbles king and life reef both produced the darkest skim. Can't help but wonder why. What specific characteristic is happening in these skimmers to cause the similar outcome. Something suggest it may be linked to the bubble column velocity but I'm not sure.

 

[MikesReef83]

That is entirely up to you. It is known that skimming wet will remove slightly more organics. Skimming dark looks better
Which model is that skimmer?

It's just your good olé svs2-24 with a mag 9.5. I get all kinds of gunk pulled out. I think I may be pushing it with this model though. My total water volume is around 270 gal. My 90 DT only has 3 fish atm.

 

[ken6217]

Ultimately, if it was required of you to have your skimmer under the tank in a mfg. stand, you would opt for a pinwheel skimmer? It is interesting that the bubbles king and life reef both produced the darkest skim. Can't help but wonder why. What specific characteristic is happening in these skimmers to cause the similar outcome. Something suggest it may be linked to the bubble column velocity but I'm not sure.

I don't think that is the case at all. Take a look at pictures in the multitude of skimmer threads and there are many many skimmers that produce dark skimmate. Dark skimmate anyway is more of a function of how dry or wet you skim. Btw, take a look at the picture a few posts up. This is really wet skimming.

 

[d2mini]

I don't think that is the case at all. Take a look at pictures in the multitude of skimmer threads and there are many many skimmers that produce dark skimmate. Dark skimmate anyway is more of a function of how dry or wet you skim. Btw, take a look at the picture a few posts up. This is really wet skimming.

Yeah, looking at the skim in my cup, I've had it look pitch black, light tea, and everything in between, all depending on how I had it adjusted. I prefer a more wet dark tea colored skim, with some little chunks floating in there for good measure.

 

[rEeFnWrX]

I don't think that is the case at all. Take a look at pictures in the multitude of skimmer threads and there are many many skimmers that produce dark skimmate. Dark skimmate anyway is more of a function of how dry or wet you skim. Btw, take a look at the picture a few posts up. This is really wet skimming.

+1

Any skimmer can produce really dark skimmate. But how long does it take to fill the cup? 1 week? 1 month? 2 months? Also this will be drastically impacted by how someone maintains their tank. Do they over feed a ton or not. Regular water changes? Are they dosing supplements, coral food? etc... it is very hard and impractical to compare one skimmers performance in one tank to one skimmer in another tank... proper testing would involve testing skimmers in the same tank with the same bioload while maintaining the exact same husbandry.

 

[rounder45]

I have used Bk's, ATB's RO's, MRC's, ETSS and the list goes on. For my setup, the lifereef has produced the best results of all. The air draw can be from 14scfh to 22scfh depending on the pump you use.


The only skimmer that came close to producing the dark skim as the lifereef was the BK Mini 200.

I think y'all may have missed this part of the conversation.

I believe bayoupr is comparing skimmers run on the same tank. Unfortunately no pinwheel skimmers with 400-600lph air draw were run to give me a good air draw vs air draw same size comparison though.

 

[rounder45]

I don't think that is the case at all. Take a look at pictures in the multitude of skimmer threads and there are many many skimmers that produce dark skimmate. Dark skimmate anyway is more of a function of how dry or wet you skim. Btw, take a look at the picture a few posts up. This is really wet skimming.

is this wet or dry skimming? bubbles combining about 1.5" from top of neck.

 

[bayoupr]

I believe bayoupr is comparing skimmers run on the same tank. Unfortunately no pinwheel skimmers with 400-600lph air draw were run to give me a good air draw vs air draw same size comparison though.

:deadhorse:

 

[rounder45]

:deadhorse:

I cannot help but wonder what skimmate results may have happened if say the bubble king mini160 were run on your tank vs the 200. I just have a curiosity.... In many way it stems from past totm winners having systems 120 gal or more and skimming with small pinwheels pulling 300 lph or so and cycling the water 1-1.5x per hour.

 

[ken6217]

is this wet or dry skimming? bubbles combining about 1.5" from top of neck.

There has to be a balance somewhere. That is definitely darker than the other picture I was referring to. Also the color of the crud lining the neck is somewhat dark.

For me if the bubbles are 1.5" from the top of the neck, that would constitute wet skimming.

 

[mikeatjac]

is this wet or dry skimming? bubbles combining about 1.5" from top of neck.

Wet.

 

[rounder45]

There has to be a balance somewhere. That is definitely darker than the other picture I was referring to. Also the color of the crud lining the neck is somewhat dark.

For me if the bubbles are 1.5" from the top of the neck, that would constitute wet skimming.

So coffee black skimmate is not necessarily a function of wet or dry, skimmer size to organics, or specific organics in the tank... Don't know about you but I'm curious to what is the real reason.

 

[ken6217]

So coffee black skimmate is not necessarily a function of wet or dry, skimmer size to organics, or specific organics in the tank... Don't know about you but I'm curious to what is the real reason.

I would say both. You certainly aren't going to get dark skimmate if you skim very wet. You will get darker skimmate if skimming dry.

However if there are not a lot of DOS in your tank, skimming dry may just get you a dry head of foam and not much skimmate since there isn't much waste to to pull out. Skimming wet may be the only way to get anything substantial out.

 

[wildman926]

Well one of the aspects of his sales pitch is you dont have to constantly tinker with it. This is my first saltwater tank. Never even seen skimmer before. And this thing worked from day one. Never have to screw around with it. It just works. And being new to this jeff went out of his way to answer any questions i had. Sent him an email one day the phone was ringing 5 min later. Hey this is jeff. You dont get that service anywhere today. I got a sump, stand alone fuge, skimmer, pump, return pump, all plumbing, biopellet reactor, 3 media canisters. All custom fit to my stand. Delivered to my door step. Not for much more than if i bought everything seperate.

With an excessive amount of foam peanuts. An with an assurance that he would be there for me at anytime to answer any of my questions. And he delivered. What else could you ask for?

my son love it also

Very nice. :thumbsup:

 

[jerseypete]

Thanks. Im happy the way it turned out.

 

[Blitzie]

I was poking around on Lifereefs website and found the link to this thread.
I have been a Lifereef user since Jan 2014 and all I can say is WOW. This skimmer (VS3-30) is so dependable it puts the others I have used to shame. The initial breakin took about 24 hours for me and after that it has required only 2-3 adjustment to dial in the skimmate consistency I was looking for.

Next I am looking into a calcium reactor by them

 

[EvMiBo]

I have been a Lifereef user since Jan 2014 and all I can say is WOW. This skimmer (VS3-30) is so dependable it puts the others I have used to shame. The initial breakin took about 24 hours for me and after that it has required only 2-3 adjustment to dial in the skimmate consistency I was looking for.

Can you tell me why you went with the VS3-30 instead of the 24? I have a similar volume to yours and was thinking of purchasing the 24".

 

[Blitzie]

I initially was going to go with the 24” model but In my conversations with Jeff he mentioned that if I have the room for the 30” model then I should go with it.
My tank is 150 Gallon, Sump 35 Gallon, and Frag Tank is 30 Gallon
Price wise it was almost the same The SVS3-30 with Mag12 was $599.00 vs the SVS3-24 with Mag9.5, was $544.00.

 

[ClownsRCoo]

I need some advice. I just got my lifereef system last week and hooked it up last weekend. Im having a little difficulty getting the skimmer dialed in. Its either making foam that stays in the neck or spilling over into the cup but looks just like clean water. I would like to think I should be having some really dark, nasty skimmate being produced since I was skimmerless in my tank for about 3 weeks while this one was on order. My 90g has 7 fish and is heavily fed. I know I have to have a lot of crud in there that needs to get skimmed out. I know that skimmers can take a while to build up a slime coating and start functioning properly. Should I just put the skimmer on full blast and skim it super wet to try to build that slime layer or what? I just have the drain valve open and have the water returning right back to the sump because it looks like just clean water. This is day 4 of it running in my system and the foam looks perfectly clean and seems to just overflow clear water.