Best protein skimmer out there?

[twilliard]

@twilliard This showed up today. Installed it this evening, it hasn't started collecting skimmate yet.

oh ya! shiny and beautiful! Once it gets its slime coat it will surprise you

 

[ifarmer]

Having used several protein skimmers in my 10 yrs in the hobby. Reef octopus, reef dynamic, bubble king and swc and aqua remoraC, coralife.
The bubbke king was the best. The red dragon pump on it was the best.

 

[711reefer]

I recently swapped out my skimmer for a lifereef. wow what a difference. it took me a day to get it dialed in and its pulling out all kinds of gunk already that my other skimmer wasn't. so far I am extremely impressed

 

[Xerxes_Zoanthids444]

I recently swapped out my skimmer for a lifereef. wow what a difference. it took me a day to get it dialed in and its pulling out all kinds of gunk already that my other skimmer wasn't. so far I am extremely impressed

Hey man I just talked with Jeff at Lifereef and his product seems way my legit that the other styles of skimmer! How are you liking it? I'm thinking of purchasing the SV S2-24!

 

[Rick.45cal]

oh ya! shiny and beautiful! Once it gets its slime coat it will surprise you

WE'RE MAKING FOAM NOW!!!!!!

 

[psirex]

RO REGAL 300int or 300ext.....

 

[mazzdaq]

Hey man I just talked with Jeff at Lifereef and his product seems way my legit that the other styles of skimmer! How are you liking it? I'm thinking of purchasing the SV S2-24!

Jeff makes the best equipment! I would go with a lifereef skimmer. I have an entire lifereef set up, sump, skimmer, refugium and they're all amazing.

 

[Xerxes_Zoanthids444]

Jeff makes the best equipment! I would go with a lifereef skimmer. I have an entire lifereef set up, sump, skimmer, refugium and they're all amazing.

Nice he is Quoting me for a complete system! There pretty sweet! Would you post some pics from your skim mate plz?

 

[ebushrow]

I personally am a fan of NYOS skimmers....can't beat that German made stuff....and so quiet you don't even know it is running ....just my 2cents though....

 

[GoVols]

Nothing better than a Royal Exclusiv skimmer. Its what the rest of the industry copies. An why a Vertex looks like a Royal Exclusiv is that a few years ago Royal Exclusiv made their skimmer line. But they do not do that any more.

I run a Royal Exclusiv "Bubble King 160". It's hands down the best skimmer I've ever owned in ALL categories, Except Price but worth every penny.
If you can afford one you will never regret it

 

[GoVols]

@twilliard This showed up today. Installed it this evening, it hasn't started collecting skimmate yet.

Now, That's what I'd call... "Merry Christmas" to myself
Love It for ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[roberthu526]

I have aquamaxx and reef octopus and both perform pretty well. However neither is quiet to my ears.

 

[711reefer]

xerxes lifereef skimmers are proven. they have been around forever. the lifereef I am using was purchased used over 15 years ago and I never used it till now. I got out of the hobby for a bit. I fell into all the hype of needle wheel and cone skimmers. I got tired of fiddling with the fancy one I had and finally decided to take the lifereef off the shelf and fire it up. it is amazing what it pulled out in 2 days. there is another forum that has over 100 pages of praises to lifereef skimmers. its built like a tank to.

 

[GoVols]

I have aquamaxx and reef octopus and both perform pretty well. However neither is quiet to my ears.

If your on a budget it's hard to beat a good Aquamaxx. I've run them and love'm

 

[Rick.45cal]

I'm pretty amazed how quiet the Orphek Helix 5000 is. I can't even hear it over all the other stuff going on in my sump.

Definitely not the case with the becket venturi on the Korallen Zucht skimmer. It was pretty loud. It performed well, I wasn't a fan of the pump, or the complete unaviailability of parts in the US, or the largely non existent warranty service of KZ in the US.

 

[Bluefish9]

I'll add something. While I dont really have brand loyalty, I recently picked up an IceCap k2-160
What I like:
•very stout construction. Built very well
•sicce pump
•Pulls an UNBELIEVABLE amount of crud. The very first day I had the tank running with dry sand, dry rock and fresh SW it was already pulling light tea colored skimmate. From what??? Just amazing

What I dont like:
•a lot of these newer skimmers are made to be "space saving" with the pumps installed in the skimmer body. While this works fine, the output is straight from the skimmers body into the sump water. This adds quite a bit of microbubbles in the sump and Ive had to get creative to combat it. I prefer an outlet pipe so that bubbles are reduced and so you can place a sock over the output if necessary.

This is no fault of the skimmer itself. The thing works phenomenal. I guess its just a recent trend in skimmer production that Im not really crazy about.
Just food for thought.

 

[Adamc13o3]

I've used these in this order

Nautilus (some crap on first summer the LFS setup with my first tank 10 years ago)
ASM G2 (Decent at the time)
ATI (Way too fussy. Got it about 8 years ago used it for 2 weeks)
Deltec (Great skimmer, wasn't built to well though and cracked pretty quickly. I repaired it with weld on. About 6 years ago)
H & S (Extremly good skimmer, built like a tank unfortunately not made anymore) Both this one and Deltec use aquabee pumps at the time

Tank Hiatus

Reef Octopus SRO 5000 (Mehh 3 Years ago)

The one and only skimmer I will ever need. I think ?

Bubble King Super Marin 250 (Super consistent, set it and forget it, very well made and now great customer service too). Look at the pic below. You don'y get such dark thick production with such ease of tuning and no daily tinkering with every skimmer. You may get it from a cheaper skimmer but it won't be as easy.

I will mention that I did use a double cone 130 on a tank similar in size to what you are getting and it was too big for the tank. The tank I tried it on is a tank in my office and I don't feed it like crazy or do anything that pushes the limits in there. My bio load is very light and the skimmer did not produce. I changed it out for an extremely small skimz skimmer.

 

[Travis Stewart]

I love my aquamax.......

 

[GoVols]

I'm pretty amazed how quiet the Orphek Helix 5000 is. I can't even hear it over all the other stuff going on in my sump.

Definitely not the case with the becket venturi on the Korallen Zucht skimmer. It was pretty loud. It performed well, I wasn't a fan of the pump, or the complete unaviailability of parts in the US, or the largely non existent warranty service of KZ in the US.

Good Point: I was soo happy when Royal Exclusiv opened a USA location. Haven't needed them but I know they're here if I do.

 

[GoVols]

I've used these in this order

Nautilus (some crap on first summer the LFS setup with my first tank 10 years ago)
ASM G2 (Decent at the time)
ATI (Way too fussy. Got it about 8 years ago used it for 2 weeks)
Deltec (Great skimmer, wasn't built to well though and cracked pretty quickly. I repaired it with weld on. About 6 years ago)
H & S (Extremly good skimmer, built like a tank unfortunately not made anymore) Both this one and Deltec use aquabee pumps at the time

Tank Hiatus

Reef Octopus SRO 5000 (Mehh 3 Years ago)

The one and only skimmer I will ever need. I think ?

Bubble King Super Marin 250 (Super consistent, set it and forget it, very well made and now great customer service too). Look at the pic below. You don'y get such dark thick production with such ease of tuning and no daily tinkering with every skimmer. You may get it from a cheaper skimmer but it won't be as easy.

I will mention that I did use a double cone 130 on a tank similar in size to what you are getting and it was too big for the tank. The tank I tried it on is a tank in my office and I don't feed it like crazy or do anything that pushes the limits in there. My bio load is very light and the skimmer did not produce. I changed it out for an extremely small skimz skimmer.

Totally Agree! If you've never owned and dialed in a Bubble King you just can't relate