40w!

Why? Because someone actually disagrees with you? He made a sound decision based on his criteria, not yours. For him, it was a smart choice. I would have made the same choice.
Sure, maybe wealthy tank owners can afford the BK 9000 with chrome trim, but most can't, and there are plenty of great skimmers on the market for way less money. The BK is just bling and provides bragging rights, it's not the best skimmer per dollar spent.

No because it's true, if someone spends $1200 on something, they have yet to even see it, no matter what anyone says they will never agree, it's just fact.


And you said my comment was dumb.
The BK is not just "bling" ask anyone that owes one, best money they ever spent. The amount of effort and energy involved in those skimmers is crazy, and they thought of everything. They even have titanium screws in the base so you can remove it and clean the diffuser plate. Plus you don't have to worry about it cracking, it runs super quiet and is a proven sound product. There's actually a lot more involved in efficient protein skimming than just hocking up a big pump to a large body.

Anyway this has gone too far, I'm sorry I was just trying to help.

Sure doesn't sound like it....sounded condescending and insulting instead...

But yes, this has gone far enough. You like BK, I don't. We won't agree.

Schelps - don't take this debate personally. We are all expressing opinions but don't criticize other's decision based on your opinion. Your comments and opinions should be more subjective IMO and although I appreciate a devil's advocate in a debate, we should exercise caution when making remarks about the other product when you don't have personal knowledge about it. For example to state that the Orca has thin plastic when its made of 1/4" cast is not accurate. Also when air is mixed with water, resistance is lowered and power consumption is lowered so stating that the air/water mixture will result in 150W is also inaccurate.
Fact-based opinions are much more credible than assumption-based opinions. You recently made similar assumption-based opinions on the Bubble Magus and without first-hand knowledge on the products in question, I strongly encourage discussing the product you are knowledgeable on and I do discourage making untrue assumptions on the products you are not as knowledgeable about.
Nevertheless, I love debates and for reasons outlined above in my previous post, I have made a decision of which one should support as a fellow reefkeeper. To bash my decision is neither beneficial nor supportive. I assure you I will be just as happy with the Orca as you and my good friends are with your Bubble Kings.

All skimmers have pros and cons thats why they keep tryin to perfect them.The bubblekings are stupidly priced for what their purpose is.

Skimmers, reactors, everything from acrylic seems overpriced. Heard the argument engineering costs but sure BK had gotten their money back.

As for Reeflo customer support, I'm in agreement it gets a 10 of 10 from me. One thing that does bother me a little bit was when I was talking to them about a pump, they gave me the list of their Canadian distributors, but then offered me the pump for about a 100 less than I could have gotten from a Cdn reseller. Good for me, bad for some of my favorite places that carry Reeflo

I agree about reeflo customer support when i got my reeflo it was shipped with the ao smith motor. I contacted them and let them know and they shipped me a reeflo gold no questions asked. Now i have a second pump for the skimmer as a back up.

The only thing I would caution is make sure you install it in a place where you can see the pump and service it I have 2 reeflo dart one for a closed loop one for my main return on both of them the seals have failed with in the first year in service. The one pump I had to replace as the shaft was so badly corroded I could not reseal it. Dont get me wrong I love these pumps lots of GPH for the buck and they run nice and quiet. I am hopping the Reeflo Gold has the seal problem resolved. It must have something to do with the salt water as I have a Sequence pump on my Koi pond and it has been running for 3 plus years with out a leak.

I wasn't trying to insult anyone or bash a decision although I would agree it defiantly come out that way. My way is to alway state things exactly how I see them or exactly how it is. It seems harsh sometimes but I find it's affective but it's important to realize I'm only here to help. But you're right I don't always make it clear that some of what I said is opinion based.

On another note with a centrifugal style pump less resistance will actually result in more power consumption that's fact not opinion. This is why the pump uses less power as head pressure increases. The different motor was recent upgrade last time I read about this skimmer the motor was the same as the dart.

Also I think 1/4" is thin for something that large, it's good for smaller skimmers but once you get into 12" diameter and almost 3 feet tall I really don't think it cuts it anymore, would you use a tank 3 foot tall or even 2 foot tall with 1/4" acrylic, probably not.

I also like these heated debates as I usually learn more as I find when my tone comes out more assy people go out of there way to prove me wrong, it's actually a very effective research tool :biggrin:

The bottom line here is that these skimmers really aren't in the same league and if your budget allowed for it there's really only one choice. We can all wish and wish for a cheaper version of a BK but after seeing quite a few of these skimmers and being in the manufacturing business myself I really don't see it ever happening.