The Life Reef Skimmer Club

Ending planning phase of my first reef tank and looking at skimmers. I'm very impressed with the recommendations and loyalty Jeff has collected in his years. I appreciate customer service and a quality product...bonus it's made in US and a small company. And I absolutely do not mind paying more for a quality product and I have no questions this will do the job. But i do have to live with it (well my wife has to live with it and i have to live with her) so all that aside....

A few questions for people who've experienced more than just the Lifereef (I really prefer learning from others experience when possible...i'll learn enough on my own).

I'm looking at 120 gal (possible 180 gal which will mean the 30" vice the 24" i believe). No desire to heavily stock so figure light to moderate - I love open spaces in tanks. Starting with soft/lps but want to graduate to SPS at some point (and want to plan ahead). ZEOvit is likely system although still researching.

- What's the relative noise level of the Lifereef (assuming equivalent pumps - understand pumps are major noise component - thinking of Sicce and running in sump right now)
- Does this run best in sump or external (based on thread I assume it can do either equally well)?
- Odor compared to others?

Thanks
 
I've run, RO, SCA, GEO, Tunze, and Skimz skimmers. Out of those, the GEO was my favorite but that was a long time ago and on a much larger tank than I'm running today.

Currently I'm running a SVS3-24 from Lifereef and I love it. To try and answer your questions from my point of view.

- What's the relative noise level of the Lifereef (assuming equivalent pumps -understand pumps are major noise component - thinking of Sicce and running in sump right now)
Pretty quiet. Mine's in my living room and I can 't really hear it with the stand closed. It definitely doesn't interrupt movies or anything like that.
- Does this run best in sump or external (based on thread I assume it can do either equally well)? I run mine in my sump, I think they run very well either way though
- Odor compared to others? NONE! Until you open the collection cup.....then it's a different story. Every other skimmer I've had some some level of odor (the Skimz was the worst though).
 
Thank you for the response. Hearing about no odors just made me very happy. I'll just make sure I clean the cup when the missus is out. Can you tell me how much clearance I need beyond the 24" or 30" to do cleaning?
 
Well, the collection cup sits about 1.5-2 inches into the neck of the skimmer, so I'd say at least 3-4 inches to make it easier.
 
Something to keep in mind when sizing a Lifereef to run in your stand is that Jeff can make a custom collection cup for you. I wanted to run a 30" in sump in my stand, and provided him the distance from the bottom of my sump to the underside of my tank. The cup he made for me is about an inch shorter than a standard cup, and the skimmer fits perfectly in my stand.
 
Yogre said:
Something to keep in mind when sizing a Lifereef to run in your stand is that Jeff can make a custom collection cup for you. I wanted to run a 30" in sump in my stand, and provided him the distance from the bottom of my sump to the underside of my tank. The cup he made for me is about an inch shorter than a standard cup, and the skimmer fits perfectly in my stand.
Click to expand...


Jeff did the same for me. Just tell him how much room you have and he can make it fit.
 
The odor from the skimmer is the worst thing especially if it's in one of your main living spaces. My wife loves my LIFE REEF skimmer so much that when she let me set up my new tank she made sure I kept my LIFEREEF skimmer.

That one feature was enough for her to say "IT's a MUST!"
 
I ended up buying the one where you couldn't remove the flange to clean the unit. I'm in the process of cleaning the skimmer right now and it's taking longer than I had hoped. If you're in the market make sure you get a skimmer with a removable top so you can access the inside to clean well.
 
cpllongjk said:
I ended up buying the one where you couldn't remove the flange to clean the unit. I'm in the process of cleaning the skimmer right now and it's taking longer than I had hoped. If you're in the market make sure you get a skimmer with a removable top so you can access the inside to clean well.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Being able to take the top off the skimmer chamber is nice.
 
While I'm not in he club, yet, I've spoken to Jeff and will be a valid member towards the end of Feb. I see a lot of interesting discussion on pump types. Doing the calculations of cost of electricity (my utility company charges $.18 kwH) the difference on running a DC-9000 v's Mag 18 is about $125 annually. Makes you think about return on investment over time and justification on spending more upfront on a DC pump. Just food for thought...

Looking forward to being a member of the club soon....
 
The Jebao (now Jecod) can be had for the same or cheaper than the Mag equivalent.

Jecod dct8000 = $85 on amazon right now.
Jecod dct12000 = $120 on amazon right now.

Saving money up front and in the long run. I'm pretty confident that they're running cooler than the Mag's, and they're very quiet.
 
EvMiBo said:
The Jebao (now Jecod) can be had for the same or cheaper than the Mag equivalent.

Jecod dct8000 = $85 on amazon right now.
Jecod dct12000 = $120 on amazon right now.

Saving money up front and in the long run. I'm pretty confident that they're running cooler than the Mag's, and they're very quiet.
Click to expand...
But can they handle the pressure as well? What kind of head height can they handle?

If I get a different pump for this skimmer I'd want to also match it with my return pump and a third for a spare. I run a mag18 that is pushing ~750gph with ~12' head for my return.

If a waveline or jecod can handle that I'm all ears.
 
jason2459 said:
But can they handle the pressure as well? What kind of head height can they handle?

If I get a different pump for this skimmer I'd want to also match it with my return pump and a third for a spare. I run a mag18 that is pushing ~750gph with ~12' head for my return.

If a waveline or jecod can handle that I'm all ears.
Click to expand...

I'm very curious about this as well. From the research I've done, DC pumps, short of the Abyzz and RE pumps, don't handle head pressure so well. I was thinking the EcoTech Vectras maybe, but a few small problems have been surfacing as of late with those.
 
hey I have jeff's largest sump that he makes and it has 2 sponges and a blue/white pad does anyone think they are worth it?
 
AZRippster said:
I'm very curious about this as well. From the research I've done, DC pumps, short of the Abyzz and RE pumps, don't handle head pressure so well. I was thinking the EcoTech Vectras maybe, but a few small problems have been surfacing as of late with those.
Click to expand...
If I go DC one of my requirements will be that it can be controlled by my APEX. That excludes the echotechs unfortunately. I do see that Apex is coming out with a return pump at some point.
 
jason2459 said:
If I go DC one of my requirements will be that it can be controlled by my APEX. That excludes the echotechs unfortunately. I do see that Apex is coming out with a return pump at some point.
Click to expand...

Yep, the COR. They suggested it would be out this year.
 
Reef_Paddy said:
While I'm not in he club, yet, I've spoken to Jeff and will be a valid member towards the end of Feb. I see a lot of interesting discussion on pump types. Doing the calculations of cost of electricity (my utility company charges $.18 kwH) the difference on running a DC-9000 v's Mag 18 is about $125 annually. Makes you think about return on investment over time and justification on spending more upfront on a DC pump. Just food for thought...

Looking forward to being a member of the club soon....
Click to expand...
Besides the electric savings. The noise was the biggest motivator for me. Tank is in livingroom. Can't even tell anything is running. Dead silent.
 
We are not members yet, but we will be Tuesday when our VS3-36 (external) skimmer is delivered. We cannot wait! We will be running it with the Vectra M1. Vectra L1 will be our return/feeding our frag tank.

Lots of good reading here, we will be members within a few days!
 
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