Thinking About a Beckett Style Skimmer...

[Kiel'thalin]

Specifically looking at the MRC MR-2 Skimmer. I kinda understand how it works and would like to place it under a 120g in the 36" tall stand that I might be upgrading to. I am not really convinced with it since noise could ease me away from it. Do they really perform as said, any recommendations? Is there a major difference between the recirculating once vs standard? Thanks for the help...

 

[kodyboy]

I have a reefconcepts aerofoamer and it is a beast, but it requires a huge pump and it is noiser than a needlewheel (not a lot mind you, but somewhat). I do no have a meter but this think must suck in some ridiculous amount of air! I collect about 500ml to a liter of medium wet skimmate a day on a 150 heavily stocked reef.
Needlewheels are far more efficient, but an equal needlewheel to a becket will cost more. Orca makes some awesome needlewheels and I like aquaeurousa as well (they have had some pump problems recently so do not buy one without that fixed!).

 

[Kiel'thalin]

I am still debating between the 90 gallon or 120 gallon. Here is the eq I am looking at so far...

Skimmer:
MRC MR-2 Skimmer /w Quick Release Upgrade supplied by a GEN-X PCX55.

Water flow via Closed Loop:
Reeflo Sequence (Debating between Dart or Barracuda) with a Oceans Motion 4-way.

Can the GEN-X be submerged and using these pumps will there be major heat/noise issues, any other recommendations?

 

[kodyboy]

get the 120
the genx pcx55 can not be submerged
I use a genx 8500 on my aerofoamer and it works great (I needed a submersible), but a pressure rated pump would work better
Sequence pumps are supposed to be real quiet.
Check out the used equipment forum, lots of MRC skimmers there.

 

[reef165]

does the cost of running the beckett skimmer outweigh the extra cost of getting a good needlewheel skimmer? sounds like in the longrun the beckett will cost more, and dose it perform that much better than a top of the line needlewheel to justify the running cost?

 

[kodyboy]

Don't know....I guess you would just compare the total watts used by a becket skimmers pump to that of the needlewheels and then determine the cost over a year. Eventually an efficient needlewheel will win out, but the becket I have pulls LOTS fo skimmate! Sicce or other such efficient pumps will use very few watts and are far more efficient that the beckets large pumps.........but they are not cheap.