More money, more better?

vertigo01 · Nov 7, 2017

I chose the middle of the orad, with respect to quality.
I use a Reef Octopus VarioS 800 on my 150 as well as a Reef Octopus 150 INT skimmer.
Both are dead silent and will give years of service for less than the cost and practically equal the performance of some of the other higher $$$ return pumps and skimmers.
I could have used my Reeflo but I didn't want the noise nor the power consumption that went along with it. So now the Reeflo will be relegated to my future mixing station duties.

LbulletM · Nov 7, 2017

I don't really hear bad things about the Reef Octopus skimmers. Might go with one of those instead of the Nyos.

BigJohnny · Nov 7, 2017

LbulletM said:
I don't really hear bad things about the Reef Octopus skimmers. Might go with one of those instead of the Nyos.

Reef octopus makes great skimmers, best budget option imo. They also have some fancier ones now

CeeGee · Nov 13, 2017

I have a fancier one. I can’t really say it is worth what it cost. It does a decent job but I think I could have gotten by with a cheaper reef octopus and not seen any difference in performance

Skimmers get dirty. Don’t waste money on one that looks nice get one that performs and call it a day.

I will tell you to stay far away from any skimmer that starts with R and ends with LSS. Worst customer service on planet earth.

LbulletM · Nov 13, 2017

You know, that's an awesome point. Sometimes the extra money IS worth it if the customer service is helpful.

Orcus Varuna · Nov 13, 2017

LbulletM said:
You know, that's an awesome point. Sometimes the extra money IS worth it if the customer service is helpful.

The best price to performance skimmers imo is eshopps. The acrylic work is solid and they use Sicce pumps all for around $200. You really can’t beat the value for what you get and if the skimmer pump goes Sicce ones are easy to get.

CeeGee · Nov 25, 2017

Orcus Varuna said:
The best price to performance skimmers imo is eshopps. The acrylic work is solid and they use Sicce pumps all for around $200. You really can’t beat the value for what you get and if the skimmer pump goes Sicce ones are easy to get.

That is the biggest problem with skimmers period. Pumps always mess up in them and then it is a real pain to get them going again. It is like the skinner pumps aren’t made well. I have never had a normal pump go out on me but skimmer pumps are a different story.

I had to replace my last high dollar skimmer with a new high dollar skimmer because I couldn’t replace a pump on a less than two year old skimmer. Makes no sense.

For a type of product that is so common I simply can’t run down to my LFS and buy a skimmer pump. Not sure if anyone else can do that or not and if I have to order one online it is still not an easy proposition.

I bought a high end reef octopus this go round because I figure they will be around unlike all these other fly by night skimmer companies but if I need a replacement pump I have to order directly through them and I probably should do that before the design changes to have a spare.

The whole situation really sucks in my opinion.

Servillius · Nov 25, 2017

zsuzsu said:
btw, anybody need an apex, i have 3. and how dumb can you get zsu.... an $800 controller that you have to write code to use it . imo ,in the push button world we now inhabit, writing code is a joke, still waiting for somebody to get it right. it will be german so i won't have to worry.

I dumped my Apex for a Digital Aquatics and couldn’t be happier. I got sick of having to learn networking and coding every time they updated.

Orcus Varuna · Nov 25, 2017

CeeGee said:
That is the biggest problem with skimmers period. Pumps always mess up in them and then it is a real pain to get them going again. It is like the skinner pumps aren’t made well. I have never had a normal pump go out on me but skimmer pumps are a different story.

I had to replace my last high dollar skimmer with a new high dollar skimmer because I couldn’t replace a pump on a less than two year old skimmer. Makes no sense.

For a type of product that is so common I simply can’t run down to my LFS and buy a skimmer pump. Not sure if anyone else can do that or not and if I have to order one online it is still not an easy proposition.

I bought a high end reef octopus this go round because I figure they will be around unlike all these other fly by night skimmer companies but if I need a replacement pump I have to order directly through them and I probably should do that before the design changes to have a spare.

The whole situation really sucks in my opinion.

That’s why I switched to a lifereef. Sure the skimmer was $500 and the pump anther $150. But the skimmer body will literally last forever and I can use any water pump that can pump over 600gph and handle about 6’ of Head pressure.