What has happend to the down draft skimmer?

[DeepBlueSea]

I've been lurking for a couple of weeks and am shocked that down draft skimmers seem to have been forgotten... I mean I keep seeing posts for euro-reef, this bubble master, H&S.

I also see, in the same thread, "I mod this, I mod that".

I don't get it... Back in the day and I'm only talking 10 years ago ETS and down draft was all the rage. I purchased one, I plumbed it, I plugged it in and it worked absolutely amazing for years with out the need to mod this, or to replace that "needle wheel" thing-a-ma-jing, or adjust the water column, or "tune it in". I think I tuned it in within the 1st week and never needed to play with a damn thing...

Also, I've noticed a number of posts where people have posted pictures of skimmate.... Personally, most of those photos look like water compared to what my ETSS DD used to be able to pull out not to mention the sludge I could wipe out of the tubes....

So is it that most people just don't have the room to run a larger down draft, is it the noise, is it the power consumption to have to run a larger pump to run it?

or

Are these euro-reefs, bubble master, H&S etc. etc. that I keep reading about that much better?

 

[greiner524]

I bought a Euroreef knock off about three years ago. I get about 2-4 cups of skimmate and sludge a week that is black with almost a pudding consistency and never had to tweak it after the first few days.

 

[carlso63]

Re: What has happend to the down draft skimmer?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9903472#post9903472 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DeepBlueSea
I've been lurking for a couple of weeks and am shocked that down draft skimmers seem to have been forgotten... I mean I keep seeing posts for euro-reef, this bubble master, H&S.

I also see, in the same thread, "I mod this, I mod that".

I don't get it... Back in the day and I'm only talking 10 years ago ETS and down draft was all the rage. I purchased one, I plumbed it, I plugged it in and it worked absolutely amazing for years with out the need to mod this, or to replace that "needle wheel" thing-a-ma-jing, or adjust the water column, or "tune it in". I think I tuned it in within the 1st week and never needed to play with a damn thing...

Also, I've noticed a number of posts where people have posted pictures of skimmate.... Personally, most of those photos look like water compared to what my ETSS DD used to be able to pull out not to mention the sludge I could wipe out of the tubes....

So is it that most people just don't have the room to run a larger down draft, is it the noise, is it the power consumption to have to run a larger pump to run it?

or

Are these euro-reefs, bubble master, H&S etc. etc. that I keep reading about that much better?

For some reason, the current popular bragging point re: skimmers is how many cups of skimmate it "pulls" daily / weekly / etc...

IMO not the best measure of a skimmer as it ignores the fact that for a given aquarium with a given bioload there is only a given amount of organics in the water, period.

For example, if you have a bioload of 50g of organics you can only "pull" 50g of organics max with any skimmer, no matter how good it "pulls"... if you "pull" 500g in your collection cup then the rest is just water ...

I would also agree that most skimmate pics from these "great" skimmers look very watery; probably because they are set with the water level / foam column way up high in the neck of the skimmer, aka skimming "wet"...

I always try to skim "dry"... my current skimmer (a modded CSS220) pulls only about a half cup per day; but it is totally opaque, thick, sludgy - and smells so bad it literally makes me wretch when I empty the cup

 

[greiner524]

pudding baby

pudding baby

Like I said before I get like two cups of pudding and am not sure what kind of bioload my tank may have but it only gets any food type or additive item once in a blue moon just to see the serpent stars come out to play.

 

[Reefjunkee]

I think its all a matter of opinioin.I have a euroreef 8-3.I pretty much stole it for $200 so I couldnt pass it up.Hey carlos63 I replaced the sp3 pump with a sp4 pump and gave a friend the sp3 and put it on his css220 and it smokes now.Made a huge difference.Highly recomend a pump upgrade.I bet it would keep up with any skimmer!

 

[nick18tjetta]

I was considering a downdraft skimmer, they can be had for a song b/c they are not the "IN" skimmer, but people scared me away from them saying that they are noisy. I wan't a quiet skimmer, so if a Downdraft is noisy, I am going to find something else.

 

[bergzy]

i am very happy that i didnt really jump on the needlewheel bandwagon.

though i believe that needles are here to stay...downdrafts, becketts and venturis have been taking a huge backseat lately.

old school will say that after columnar air driven skimmers, venturi's did a big jump to skimmer effectiveness (i didnt say efficiency...very different terms). downdrafts followed by becketts did the next warp to light speed effectiveness...

then comes needlewheels...it was a strange beast...

they have proven to be very efficient at skimmate production 'and' quiet.

these are all my opinions and observations btw...

so, with all this said...

i am going to do one of two things...

i have a 'large'ish' system and i think that needlewheel skimmers price to 'effectiveness' is not equitable.

i currently run a beckett and, while it is a beast at removing junk...it is noisy and is a little finicky that requires adjustment every so often.

so, i am now looking back into venturi's...

not just any venturi's but...a newly patent pending venturi that claims no clogging...the bermuda aquatics skimmer.

i have a very small one hooked up to my 110g and it is doing incredible on a small mag 3...outskimming a similar sized euroreef 3:1.

i am contemplating a large bermuda to replace my large beckett. i'll let you guys know when it happens!

 

[DarG]

Just put the 3C on my 90 two days ago. It started pulling green tea within hours and is now pulling a strong tea. I usually let them skim a little wet for the first week or two then adjust to a drier skimmate. This skimmer looks promising. Already can tell that it will do a better job than the Reef Devil downdraft that it replaced. And the Reef Devil wasn't bad. It just seemed to lose some effectiveness as time went on, a fairly widely reported issue.

 

[skimmy]

"What has happend to the down draft skimmer?"

it's hiding in the corner, shaking, saying "im ready to die"..... :mixed: