FarmerTy's 215-gallon SPS Tank

FarmerTy · Oct 19, 2021

coral reeftank said:
What can I say, I love my children
Crazy how a piece I got over 10 years ago has gone around the hobby.

How is yours looking now?

Looking dead. Haha. I got a new frag of it last month. Looking to restart the magic.

Why did you make your baby so sensitive.

coral reeftank · Oct 19, 2021

FarmerTy said:
Looking dead. Haha. I got a new frag of it last month. Looking to restart the magic.

Why did you make your baby so sensitive.

What can I say it's more fun that way lol

FarmerTy · Oct 19, 2021

coral reeftank said:
What can I say it's more fun that way lol

FarmerTy · Oct 20, 2021

So I had a reef octopus skimmer neck cleaner for a couple years now. It’s been reliable and always did its job. No issues. Before that I had a Vertex neck cleaner that was awful… they didn’t seal the motor well from the wet parts and over time… it would always fail. Seems just about right for the company and why they probably aren’t in business any more.

But then I got a Aquadriver Helix neck skimmer cleaner and I’ve found the holy grail of neck cleaners. It’s pricey, almost twice as much as others… but I’m sold. I’ve had it for 5 months now. I have not touched it once since installing. The results speak for themselves. 5 months of walk-away and forget about it cleaning. I know it’s hard to see but the inside neck is sparkling… and the main reason I got it… to upgrade the ability to clean the lid top and sides too… as I find that critical. Cleaning the neck but leaving the lid top and sides to collect skimmate is like doing half the job to me. That’s what all the other neck cleaners on the market do. The bubbles still pop prematurely on the lid top and sides even if the neck itself is clean… so with the other neck cleaners, I was still having to pull them out and clean the lid every 2 weeks. At that point, what’s the point really of having something wipe the neck for me was my thought.

Neat feature is there is a pump in the unit and will pull water and lightly spray while wiping as well to be even more effective. They also sell an attachment to spray down the cup as well but I thought that was unnecessary but still a neat feature.

Anyways, just wanted to share my thoughts on it. I combined this with a 10-gallon skimmate reservoir with dedicated pump and float valve and programmed my apex to empty the skimmate reservoir when the float valve is triggered. I plumbed it straight to a drain in my fish room so I literally do nothing anymore with my skimmer/skimmate/reservoir anymore besides maybe semiannual pump maintenance. I love it! Best thing I’ve bought in awhile to remove me from a repetitive maintenance task.