lots of good reviews and opinions But its going to come down to your decision that you make we can through out them, in the end your money remember.
Im not going to blow my horn here. but i have owned many skimmers $$$$ ones and crappy ones, someone hit it on the head.
How quiet huge
How big is it rated for
Air mixture with the pumps
Oh ya $$$$$$ how much
is your tank going to be drilled if so you have alot of options on what you want.
here is what i can tell you.
Bubble King Mini 200 ya its there didnt impress me much that was the mini 200
quiet, low power, easy to clean, just wasn't that big not enough collection time
Bubble master 250 great loved it, easy to clean set it forget it, pulled alot of crap, and but the pumps were crap ceramic shafts.
Euro reef CS 250 great skimmer pulled easy to clean, need a huge sump for it thou dual pumps. pumps went on them too fast cermaic shafts.
Beckett's LOve them, pulled amazing stuff , $$$ to run them, however you need a degree to set them up always have to tweak them. not good not easy for the wife.
Hang on the backs like the deltec's 300, 600 great but IMO /IME no way that a 600 will do 170 gal no way. to take aprt move this take this off ,push this in and over flowing itsays it wouldn't but it will.
Deltec that is my skimmer that im using. AP851 EXT, quiet, easy to clean, set it forget, however even with this skimmer the pump can run ya. the impeller is $269 alone
i like it due to the ext ,if you run fast water through the skimmer u will cause it to over flow. Murphy's law it;s going to happen.
H&S havent used it to much HIPE, actually Chaloupa sold her's before I could buy it........
HTH
at the end its your Skimmer we can just push you in the right direction all skimmers are great. everone is going to have a opinion and agreements and disagreements.