I run my Omega 150 in about 7 inches of water and with the adjustable venturi out two turns or so. Skims great for me. Lots of dark smelly crap. My daughter commented on the smell as I cleaned out the cup earlier tonight :)

While Vertex recommends that they can be run as deep as 9" my experience is that they do far better in shallower water. That seemed to be the problem with the Omega 130 as well which worked best at about a 6" depth. As I said, they are also quite sensitive to buildup in the volute and venturi too so those should be cleaned regularly. That's easy since the whole thing just twists off the front of the pump.

I own the CSC 450 and have owned the CSC 250. Great skimmers for a great price. You might be able to find a used 250 somewhere. If not I would buy a Skimz. Great skimmers. The thing I like about them is they seem to be a set and forget skimmer which is what I needed when I was skimmer shopping.The Avast marine skimmer that was mentioned earlier would be something to look at as well.

Brad, if you want to look at the SRO 2000 INT, my old one is here if you want to test it and it is for sale. I'm coming down on Tues night for another wife's Dr's appointment so I could drop it off

Sure Dom, bring it down!

I also have an Omega 150, quick question by turning out the venturi, am I right in thinking it speeds up the water and air mixture going into the skimmer by increasing the flow length?

It allows more or less air to mix with the water, which in turn affects the height as the less air the more efficiently the pump will pump water

The csc and skimz have a screw that controls a gate valve. I set mine 6 months ago and haven't had to fiddle with it since

Yes. And I believe screwing it out should draw more air if I remember correctly.

I have a 120G display with about 30G more in sump.
Run both an Omega 150 with a Vertex Vectra neck cleaner and a Skimz SK181

The Skimz has about 9" of water, Vertex is lifted to about 6.5"
Biopellets piped right into Skimz skimmer, it pulls out decent sludge/waste

Vertex is right next to my drain pipe, it pulls out the darkest, nastiest crudd :D venturi is turned in all the way. I found it was a bugger to get figured out but also found that small adjustments over long periods of time was best for getting it going good

I have a Lifereef skimmer and it is great. Had euro reef and swc 160 before that was reasonably happy with them except euro reef was loud and the swc, regardless how adjusted, always gunned up the neck. The Life reef was a big improvement on both counts. And it really pulls the organics out. It has been great.