Best Skimmer...?
 

Hi, everybody.

We have a 28 gallon saltwater reef tank that is pretty much maxed out for livestock as we have five fish together with shrimp, crabs, corals, etc.

I am thinking of buying the significant other a really nice new skimmer for the tank for Christmas. So what should I buy? Pros and cons?

I think I would rather get one on the bigger side just in case we upgrade to a larger reef one day.

Thanks for any opinions!

Do you have a sump?

Sorry I missed this yesterday. No sump. The skimmer we have now is just a small hang on the back variety.

If you have no sump. Then there is not that much choice.
Deltec MCE600 is the best you can get for HOB.
I have one running now but would rather get a sump and put Tunze in there.
or something that would give you a lot of air mixing /hr, low on energy consumption, quiet, NOT water level sensitive and easy to clean
JMO.

Great. Now I know what to go shopping for if I go that route. Thanks!

I would love to get a sump but the stand is not built to take any kind of tank. If we upgrade I am definitely going to get a stand so that we can run a sump as well.

I have the same problem. I have a remora c but it's driving me crazy with noise and constant bubbles in my tank. It look terriable.

I'm giong to go look at those deltec skimmers too

asherah

I have one (thanks Kevin) and it's great. No complaints.

Those microbubbles with the Remora drove me crazy as well until I took a plain old filter sponge, cut a slit in it and slipped it over the outflow lip - no more microbubbles!

lol I am so going to do that =)
thanks alot
asherah

I just set up my remora a couple hours ago and had the same problem. Figured out a similar solution. I cut a piece of filter floss to cover the waterfall section of the output. tied it in place with fishing line. no more microbubbles too.

I agree with the Deltec, although the MCE300 (~$300) would be plenty of skimmer for a 28 gallon aquarium. That's what I'd go for if you want top of the line. Otherwise, the AquaC Remora (~$200) is a good skimmer as welll, but not even comparable to the abilities of the Deltec. Anything less than a Remora is a waste of money IMO.

I can't say I agree on the Tunze idea though! Euroreef or Deltec put out much better skimmers than Tunze. Or a Bubble King if money isn't an issue! I wouldn't waste money on a Tunze skimmer...albeit their pumps and powerheads are unbeatable.

Can't agree with this statement. My old school Tunze skimmer works just as well as my mesh-modded CS6-2 while using less electricity and taking up only about half the space. Tunze uses the same "unbeatable" pumps/powerheads to drive their skimmers. They simply take a different approach than the needlewheels used by ER, Deltec, etc.

Tunze is DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbons) skimmers and the key word here is "Dissolved".
If you want to skim particulate then yes Tunze is not oriented for that.
The thing is that particulate is mostly neutral anyway. You want staff that is the worst out of your system first, which is again “Dissolved” in water column.


Skimmers with power hungry pumps put out a lot of gunk but your tank will not be better.
Well I was wrong before so this is just my opinion, because I ditched ETSS for Tunze and liked it a lot.

Maybe I should have been clearer...my thoughts are that the Tunze skimmers are too expensive when you compare them to simularly priced brands. Tunze would not be in my top 3 skimmers.

Reef Octopus makes some HOB skimmers. I have never researched them but I thought I'd throw it out there. Good luck in your travels.

I have one that I used on my 40. IMO, for the price they can't be beat. There was a decent sized thread on RC that had pictures and a bunch more stories on them.

If I needed another HOB skimmer, that's the brand I'd be going with.

http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=30063

My Tunze review