What's a good protien skimmer.

M

Mooch28

AC Members
Dec 24, 2004
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Toronto (Brampton)
I was thinking of getting a Coralife skimmer, but ive been told there are better.

Im willing to pay a little extra, as ive read that a good skimmer is very important. So please suggest a skimmer that is a notch up on the coralife.

Does anyone have any links that compare different skimmers??

Thanks.
 
What is a "notch above a Coralife Super Skimmer" depends on the size of your tank, your budget and the type of skimming you want to do.

You should read this link first before buying anything:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/proskimrart2.htm

Now to help you along with some brand names, your Coralife is a needle-wheel skimmer. The aforementioned AquaC Remora line is a spray injection skimmer. If it's made by AquaC, then chances are it's spray injection.

Most skimmers that are "notches" above the Coralife are either Beckett (downdraft) skimmers or needlewheels. Deltec, Euroreef and Bubble-King are synonymous with high-end needlewheel skimmers. ASM makes a cheaper clone of the Euroreef design. Precision Marine is an example of a Beckett design. This is just a small selection, but don't skimp on your research! Skimmers can be finicky and very expensive pieces of equipment.

Be prepared to spend over 5x the price of a Coralife if you want "the best". (And you still find some people making modifications to a skimmer they just paid $500 for).
 
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Ok, so it seems it doesn't make much sense to go with anything better then the corallife for the difference in price. Expecially 200 extra, which is all im willing to go anyways.

Another question, does having an oversized skimmer help?

For example, the coralife 3002 is good from 30-125 gallons, where as the coralife 3004 is good for 90-220 gallons. Both are great, for lets say a 100 gallon, but would one be better then the other due to higher skimming capabilities like the 3004. It's only like a 30-40 dollar difference between the two.
 
Just a note:

I haven't seen or heard of very many people running Coralife skimmers in the 100+ gallon range. Most Coralife users currently appear to be using the HOB variety on smaller tanks.

I see the reason as twofold: first, Coralife is relatively new to the skimmer market and is not an established name - especially for in-sump skimmers which is the type that's used on the majority of 100+ gallon SW tanks; secondly, if you've spent big $$$$ on your 100+ gallon SPS reef, chances are you're going to spring the cash for a high-end skimmer rather than "skimp" on an unknown quantity.

So if you are planning to go full-blown SPS reef on your 100-gallon, I'd be hesitant to use a Coralife simply because you need the utterly absolutely pristine water quality to house the creatures you've already spent so much on. But if you are going FO or FOWLR, the Coralife does seem like a good deal. And I also agree with Mogurda that skimmer companies are like filter companies: get the next model up.
 
May I say it with all of my might, I will get up on top of my soap box and scream it, "DO NOT GET A SEACLONE."
 
drew2582 said:
May I say it with all of my might, I will get up on top of my soap box and scream it, "DO NOT GET A SEACLONE."
Click to expand...


May I ask why? I'm looking into all this stuff and I'm not sure why you say that. :)
 
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