Deltec SC 1660 (AC pump) or Vertex Alpha 170/200

[Fringe09]

Hey Guys. Aquarium on order and trying to finish buying the equipment.

I'm now at the Skimmer stage . I've narrowed down my choices to the following three. Tank is the Reefer 750 XXL. 160 gal. display and 40 gal. sump. I'm looking at a medium to heavy Bio-Load when it's all said and done.

Deltec SC 1660 with AC pump
Vertex Alpha 170
Vertex Alpha 200

All three are around the same price range. I added the Vertex Alpha 170 as some of the posts I'm reading suggest that the Vertex Alpha line are very underrated and bigger is not always better with their skimmers.

Thoughts?

 

[skim]

Hands down either of the Vertex. If you can fit a Skimmer with the pump outside of the body you are way ahead of the game. Just take a good look at the pictures and compare the amount of area in the bodies of the skimmers, this is where all the magic happens. Skimmers with pump inside the body where designed out of need not for better performance. I don't think you can go wrong with either of the Alpha units.

 

[Fringe09]

Since my post, I've discovered another skimmer. NYOS QUANTUM 220. Another German made product. I need to stop looking and just buy something.

 

[skim]

Again where is the pump. If you want something with the pump inside look at the ATI units. I am not saying that units with the pump inside the body do not work but they were made for a growing market towards sumps fitting inside cabinets/stands, hidden from view. Out of the 4 you have mentioned, I still would go with either of the Alpha's. Now there is another one you may want to look at since it seems to be in the price range you are looking at, and that would be the LifeReef. http://www.lifereef.com/venturi.html

 

[vanpire]

I have a Vertex alpha 200 on my 300 gallon tank. It works pretty well. It is solidly made and it can be disassembled so you can clean everything.

I bought mine used 3 years ago, and it is still working well.

The issue with the Vertex is that it has to be set within the right height of water (mine is 10" of water) and you should fine tune the amount of air it gets. Once that is done, it works well.

 

[Fringe09]

Again where is the pump. If you want something with the pump inside look at the ATI units. I am not saying that units with the pump inside the body do not work but they were made for a growing market towards sumps fitting inside cabinets/stands, hidden from view. Out of the 4 you have mentioned, I still would go with either of the Alpha's. Now there is another one you may want to look at since it seems to be in the price range you are looking at, and that would be the LifeReef. http://www.lifereef.com/venturi.html

Besides Bubble King, what other skimmer with pumps on the outside do you suggest?

 

[skim]

What is it you are expecting or wanting from the skimmer you are going to invest in. There are options, do you want a good skimmer that will do its job day in and day out and may not cost as much, maybe save some money for Corals and other things or are funds not so important and you want some bling bling. Skimmers will only remove so much from the water no matter what Skimmer you have, they have a limit. Do you want DC or AC pump, does it have to be extremely quiet?
Skimmers are a lot like Cars, you can get a Fiesta or Escort or Fiat 500 and they will get you from A to B or you can get a Cadillac or Lincoln or Mercedes.
They will all get the job done.

 

[Fringe09]

What is it you are expecting or wanting from the skimmer you are going to invest in. There are options, do you want a good skimmer that will do its job day in and day out and may not cost as much, maybe save some money for Corals and other things or are funds not so important and you want some bling bling. Skimmers will only remove so much from the water no matter what Skimmer you have, they have a limit. Do you want DC or AC pump, does it have to be extremely quiet?
Skimmers are a lot like Cars, you can get a Fiesta or Escort or Fiat 500 and they will get you from A to B or you can get a Cadillac or Lincoln or Mercedes.
They will all get the job done.

Thank you for the feedback. Agree that both a Fiesta and Mercedes will get you from A to B. I'm very new to this hobby and trying to learn as much as I can.

 

[jerburton]

I think any of these skimmers would be more than adequate. Deltec used to be a top of the line product but it charged a premium for it and it lost a lot of customers when other brands and designs started infiltrating the market. That said I think they are trying fit the more boutique aquarium product niche and I believe now work exclusively with Battle Corals in the US. The Vertex skimmers are very good and well machined products. For me they made a lot of very "pretty", as in nice looking, bubbles but their actual skimmate production seemed less than to be desired. Again just personal experience. I have always been fond of "external" skimmers even if they are inside the sump. It does require an additional feed line but I found that the consistency was far superior to internal sump skimmers, even ones that were maintained with ATOs. I do agree that if you are going with an internal design and you have the room, finding a model with a pump outside the body is preferable. Generally this is two-fold. 1. It is a lot easier to access and perform proper maintenance on the pump if necessary. 2. Generally (with the exception of a couple of designs), having the pump inside the chamber body removes a fair amount of volume/time that bubbles could be contacting the water. The reality is (as mentioned above), skimmers are generally quite good these days so I think it is really about what your highest priorities are in terms of cost, noise, size, etc. Cheers!

 

[Mark Gray]

Again where is the pump. If you want something with the pump inside look at the ATI units. I am not saying that units with the pump inside the body do not work but they were made for a growing market towards sumps fitting inside cabinets/stands, hidden from view. Out of the 4 you have mentioned, I still would go with either of the Alpha's. Now there is another one you may want to look at since it seems to be in the price range you are looking at, and that would be the LifeReef. http://www.lifereef.com/venturi.html

I just bought one of these this is the first skimmer I have ever had that started skimming in 2 says very quiet also, so far I really like it

 

[Fringe09]

Never had a skimmer before, but I have to say that the Lifereef Venturi skimmer seems to be the best choice based on what they are claiming. Their skimmers are pretty much going against the design of almost every other skimmer on the market today.

 

[skim]

LifeReef have been around for a long time and the design has not changed. Most of the new Skimmers where like I said designed for market demand. People started to go small tanks and many new comers so stands and sumps became smaller and one of the biggest factors Electricity costs were rising, if there is any skimmer that one could say is a staple in the skimmer market I would have to say the Reef Octopus Classic 150 INT. Back when I started the Coral Life 5500 K bulb was all the rage with the 6500K being waited for with great expectations. Skimmers where large Down Draft monsters, I had one and you would swear it sucked the poop out of the fish before he had a chance to do it for himself, but they required large pumps that used up the Electricity and you add the MH lighting and some had chillers to cool the water because of the lighting the industry had to make something more efficient and that brings us up to modern day reefing in a nutshell. Many quit the hobby and many store closed and manufactures closed also.
The big top skimmers back then where AreoFoamer, HSA, AT Tech ( ETSS ), MTC and let's not forget LifeReef he was mixed in there. You could not go wrong with a LifeReef skimmer. If you would choose them, get the tallest that you can fit. you should check out YouTube you can see many of the skimmers in action. The other thing is a LifeReef will cost you more to run over the years of operation compared to say the Alpha.
You my friend have a big decision to make, I believe you may have narrowed it down to 2 makes and I myself would choose the Alpha 170 as your Total volume is 200 gal and once you add Rock and Substrate and factor in the fact the sump will only be roughly half way you will be at the 140 to 170 gal mark. the biggest thing I have found with the Vertex line of Skimmers is it takes time to fine tune, but when you do they perform. By fine tune I mean the air adjustment/ Flute on pump, probably the most important thing on them and most just don't bother or have the patience to take the time and work with it. The other thing they have going for them is the bubble size, they create some of the smallest bubble's I have seen, right there with BK and the old Turbo Floater skimmers from AquaMedic ( they used a true needle wheel ). Well getting long winded.
Good luck with your choice!
Oh ya, make sure to check and double check to make sure your choice will fit your Sump and Cabinet, it may should oddvious but you would be surprised how many skimmers you see for sale and reason for selling would not fit my sump or Cabinet.
Let us know what you choose.

Skim

 

[Fringe09]

Each day my choices increase and then shrink [emoji3]. Yesterday was Deltec and Vertex. Today I'm adding Lifereef and Simplicity.

 

[Mark Gray]

Never had a skimmer before, but I have to say that the Lifereef Venturi skimmer seems to be the best choice based on what they are claiming. Their skimmers are pretty much going against the design of almost every other skimmer on the market

LifeReef have been around for a long time and the design has not changed. Most of the new Skimmers where like I said designed for market demand. People started to go small tanks and many new comers so stands and sumps became smaller and one of the biggest factors Electricity costs were rising, if there is any skimmer that one could say is a staple in the skimmer market I would have to say the Reef Octopus Classic 150 INT. Back when I started the Coral Life 5500 K bulb was all the rage with the 6500K being waited for with great expectations. Skimmers where large Down Draft monsters, I had one and you would swear it sucked the poop out of the fish before he had a chance to do it for himself, but they required large pumps that used up the Electricity and you add the MH lighting and some had chillers to cool the water because of the lighting the industry had to make something more efficient and that brings us up to modern day reefing in a nutshell. Many quit the hobby and many store closed and manufactures closed also.
The big top skimmers back then where AreoFoamer, HSA, AT Tech ( ETSS ), MTC and let's not forget LifeReef he was mixed in there. You could not go wrong with a LifeReef skimmer. If you would choose them, get the tallest that you can fit. you should check out YouTube you can see many of the skimmers in action. The other thing is a LifeReef will cost you more to run over the years of operation compared to say the Alpha.
You my friend have a big decision to make, I believe you may have narrowed it down to 2 makes and I myself would choose the Alpha 170 as your Total volume is 200 gal and once you add Rock and Substrate and factor in the fact the sump will only be roughly half way you will be at the 140 to 170 gal mark. the biggest thing I have found with the Vertex line of Skimmers is it takes time to fine tune, but when you do they perform. By fine tune I mean the air adjustment/ Flute on pump, probably the most important thing on them and most just don't bother or have the patience to take the time and work with it. The other thing they have going for them is the bubble size, they create some of the smallest bubble's I have seen, right there with BK and the old Turbo Floater skimmers from AquaMedic ( they used a true needle wheel ). Well getting long winded.
Good luck with your choice!
Oh ya, make sure to check and double check to make sure your choice will fit your Sump and Cabinet, it may should oddvious but you would be surprised how many skimmers you see for sale and reason for selling would not fit my sump or Cabinet.
Let us know what you choose.

Skim

Good post you forgot the old Euro Reef they were one of the first needle wheel skimmers, I almost bought a Deltec but then I saw a post about Life Reef and did some research and asked about them a lot. The electricity thing is true to a point and if I can get time ( never have Time ) I am going to try something that I have heard not sure if it is true or not, I hear that the DC pumps end up using more power if you restrict the flow I have 2 DC pumps I will try this some time I have a good amp probe just have to mimic a skimmer. The Life Reef are good sized so if that's what you choose make sure it fits. I had a Reef Octopus it skimed ok but not as well as my very old Euro Reef. I looked a Vertex and decided against them due to reviews. Good Luck