Vertex Skimmers

[fkshiu]

OK. Had a chance to check out Aquatic Addictions today in Abbotsford (formerly Hidden Reef) and brought along my trusty Kill-a-Watt and Dwyer RMA-22 to test a Vertex IN-250 which they had running on one of their coral tanks.

Results: 900 LPH at 67 watts.

As expected, it's quite a bit less than the listed wattage of the Resun pump as a water pump of 145 watts. However, it does fall short of a few other common needlewheel pumps in terms of air draw vs. electrical draw.

To give you a comparison here are a few examples:

Eheim 1260 - ~950 LPH at 52W (found on bigger Deltecs and ERs)
AquaBee 2001 - ~700-800 LPH at 38W (found on smaller Deltecs and Bubble Magus)
Sicce PSK2500 - ~900 LPH at 25W (found on Bubble Masters, big Tunzes, Octo Pros)
Sedra 5000 - ~700-800 LPH at 35W (found on ERs and ASMs)
Sedra 9000HO - ~1000-1100 LPH at 47W (found on Warner Marines)
Red Dragon1500 - 1600 LPH at 38W (found on Bubble King Mini200)
Gen-X 6000 - 1080 LPH at 60W (found on ERs)

Of course, this measure isn't what solely makes a skimmer. There are many other factors as well. However, it is a good objective measure of performance.

The build quality is not bad at all. Some downsides are that the collection cup connector is pretty precarious, the bubble plate does not look like it is removable for cleaning and the bubble plate itself looks homemade - i.e. it's just some holes drilled into a piece of plastic as opposed to the finely machined convex holes of higher quality plates that will do a better job of controlling and directing bubble flow.

All in all, it is quite good bang for the buck at its price point. The longterm question is whether the Resun pump will hold up over time and how it will react to meshmodding.

PS - thanks for Seahorse_Fanatic for the ride and the bottle of Sprite. And thanks for Aquatic Addictions for letting me crawl around their equipment and giving us free t-shirts to boot!