POLL : Reeflo Orca 250/ BK Super Marine 250 / BK Super Marine 300

[blaster]

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

[mark]

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

[Powertec]

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.

[bullit67]

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.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by blaster

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

There you go Josh is bang on with his statment. IMO. I truely believe that Bubble kings are truely over rated in Price. when you look at the price of a red dragon. its crazy $800-1000 for a small pump I understand that it has its own blue prints that are custom made.

when you look at the price of Acrylic is crazy when you get over the 12" diameter. IMO it comes down to the PUMP pretty much a piece of acrylic isnt going to make the skimmer 1/4" or 3/8" its all the same thin or thick its the pump and the Mesh, Pinwheel, Needle wheel that will drive your skimmer.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

There you go Josh is bang on with his statment. IMO. I truely believe that Bubble kings are truely over rated in Price. when you look at the price of a red dragon. its crazy $800-1000 for a small pump I understand that it has its own blue prints that are custom made.

when you look at the price of Acrylic is crazy when you get over the 12" diameter. IMO it comes down to the PUMP pretty much a piece of acrylic isnt going to make the skimmer 1/4" or 3/8" its all the same thin or thick its the pump and the Mesh, Pinwheel, Needle wheel that will drive your skimmer.

I'm using my post as a quote LOL ITs the pump that makes the skimmer, like Tony has stated. welds dont make the skimmer and the acrylic wont make the skimmer. this discussion will go on forever.

At the end of the day BrAd has his opinions on BK, and Orca's and Steve has his opinions on BK, Orcas
Chin lee will have his opinions on BK and Orca's and everyone will have there Opinions. All I can say is I hav owned pretty much every type of skimmers out there

Venturi
down draft's
Beckett's
Air driven
In sump
external
Mesh wheels
modifed Euro reef's

what I havent owned was Deltec's, which the pumps are super expensive
Bubble King's which i can't afford other then the mini's 160,180 ,200 that i could purchase unless I save up.
euroreef's RC models that are $$$$ but i took my Euroreef CS 250 and modded with the help of Sphelps to make it RC 250.

I 'm currently running a Bubble master 250 with the dual sicce pumps. 80w and I love it its short and compacted and skims my tank for what i want i have bought a second set of Sicce pumps for back up since I like this skimmer alot and want to keep it due to my setup that is very simple.

Another thing too its all what the REEFER wants to spend on a Skimmer. His /Her money at the end of the day. Thier decision

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I own a Deltec, and have loved how it performs. I bought it used and it's a beautiful thing. But then someone told me it's a bit crappy, because it's not a BK. *sigh* What's a guy to do?

Chin, I hope the skimmer makes you happy! Looks pretty solid to me. But then again, what do I know? I only own a Deltec

[Powertec]

All i can say is wow.
Chin lee you bought a great skimmer.

I only hope to be as knowledgeable as sphelps one day.

[blaster]

Just so you i own a bk supermarine250.It is stupidly priced and does everything say a euroreef would do.

[Chin_Lee]

I think this debate should just rest now because there is no right nor wrong and there is really nothing out there to test which skimmer is good, medium or bad.
I am temporarily running a BK180 mini in my sump right now and I will say that the bubbles are consistent without any burps of bubbles. It is built like a tank and I am very impressed with it.
With this debate in the air, I will keep the BK180 in there just for the sake of comparing it to the Orca 250 when I set it up. I'll post pics as soon as I get it and I will take pics of both units.... looking forward to this.
Thank you all.