It is and I have seen that one in person. The design is completely different now. That unit is similar to the H & S or other ineffiecent skimmers out there (no offense). All those pumps suck up a lot of watts, that's why he changed the design and went with a single pump and a handcrafted needlewheel. Which means yes the same guy made it but it's a completely different unit than what he currently produces. If you like those mutliple pump skimmers than that unit is good. Remember the quality and craftsmanship is still there because Spazz built it, so you have that going for it. You have his early cone style neck and his twistlock as well. That also looks like it was built before he did the testing and found out that bigger necks produce better results since you have a normal sized riser cone.
Now he ovesizes the necks coming off the riser cone as well. This keeps the bubbles from contacting a hard surface and popping which re-releases the proteins back into the wate column. With a wider neck the bubbles join together and keep the proteins in suspension until they can be dumped into the collection cup. You would be surprised at how big a difference this little known fact can make.
I need peoples opinions on something. There are these new all cone shaped skimmers called ATB skimmers hitting the market in europe and starting to become popular here as well.
It seems that people don't realize the major flaw in that design. The problem is in the cone.
This is my opinion from what I have seen:
A cone is great,awesome,spectacular when it is placed in the right area of the skimmer. A completely cone shaped design actually decreases eficiency because it increase the speed at which the bubbles rise by directing them upward. This decreases the dwell time or the contact time that the bubbles are able to stay in the main reaction. The bubbles are forced into the collection cup to quickly to pick up the proteins in the water column.
Ideally a skimmer needs a circular reaction chamber with a gentle downward force to keep the bubbles inside the reaction chamber the longest time possible to collect the most proteins. This is called "Dwell Time" and is immensly important to increase the efficiency of a skimmer. The reaction chamber or main body of the skimer needs to be as large around as possible. Ideally you don't want the bubbles touching the sides of the skimmer where they could burst and release the proteins they collected. In a perfect world the bubbles would not encounter any solid surface -only other bubbles. (Skinny, tall skimmers are bad) As the bubbles collect these proteins they rise to the surface. At the top of the skimmer you want a cone shaped neck with no flanges or other solid obstacles that could collect the bubbles, which may make them caveatate or join together into larger bubbles. This makes them lose the proteins they have gathered.
Only at the top of the skimmer do you want a cone shape with as large a neck as possible. This will quickly push the protein enladen bubbles into the collection cup.
