Rate your skimmer

[stephane]

the main id come from photo and help from a
guy in california for the mesurement
this link could help you to http://reefconcepts.com/products/skimmers/800series/


dont try it if your are not well equipe and have a good skill and a lot of research

it cost me 1000$ to make tree of them and actualy it kick ass to any other skimmer is size I ever see for pure skimming. becket skimmer are the top of the line :D

Canreef made someting similar to but whitout swirldesign so less contact time but I assume that they could be good unit to and very less $ than an original like bullet or hsa or areofoamer
maybe it could be a good improvement to make swirl on canreef skimmer on the futur but Im not shure since i have not see them in action but seem to me good unit to

[ 19 March 2002, 10:55: Message edited by: stephane ]

[titus]

Hello,

1) Thanks for the priase by Stephane.

2) There are many designs out there as a result of different considerations during the design process. The Aerofoamer's swirl design is indeed nice and is relatively easy to build, compared to the Canreef CS-2. However, I chose the existing CS-2 design for primarily 2 reasons:
1) extremely little bubble is returned
2) a fair play of counter current action is involved directly under the riser column
3) injector housing is cemented onto the skimmer housing, forcing it to have the largest skimmer box when compared to a Bullet 3, Aqua C EV-250, ETSS 800, etc.

Yes when I look at the price of the ETSS, and Aerofoamer units, I think I ought to price the CS-2 higher.

[MitchM]

In behind the obviously highly engineered and carefully planned out spagetti hose routing system, there is an Aquamedic T5000, hooked up to my 240g system :D I forget which pump exactly is buried in the sump suppling it, but I think it supplies about 700gph. It's been running steady for almost 3 years now, not one hiccup. Love it.



Mitch

[ 19 March 2002, 18:30: Message edited by: Carpentersreef ]

[Rainman58]

I think all of you guys have done nice work in building your skimmers and most would probably out perform anything on the market. But can`t anyone build a decent skimmer for under $600.00? I mean most of us can`t afford that those kind of $$$ for a skimmer otherwise we would all be running PM Bullet-2`s etc.

[titus]

Hello,

That's what I tried last year with a big failure. I thought by making stuff locally would be cheaper. However, as pretty much all material I use are brought up from the US one way or another, it's not that much cheaper. Besides, it's different when you are running a business because you have to consider brokerage charges, shipping damages, insurance, accounting. I'm not saying it's not possible to build a skimmer dirt cheap but usually that's becasue whoever is doing that is already skilled, have the equipment available, etc. When you consider the time they put in, the number of trials, at the end of the day it's in most cases cheaper to buy one from a store. It's one thing when you drive to Home Depot to pick up personal items but it's a different story when you have to factor in gas cost, auto maintenance, blah blah blah. It may sound too exaggerated but that's how it works.

For example, I can do just about anything but for me to build something like the CPR overflows I won't even bother. After factoring in the time to plan out the cutting, bending, re-cutting, cementing, and trimming, on top of setting up the jigs it's much more worthwhile to buy one.

But if you are retired, have all the time in the world, and have your own shop, then by all means go ahead and experiment.

[ 19 March 2002, 21:47: Message edited by: Titus ]

[Aquattro]

Originally posted by AL:
But can`t anyone build a decent skimmer for under $600.00?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Soon, Al, very soon! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[titus]

Hello,

Sorry forgot this in the earlier post. There was actually a commercial version of the Canreef CS-2 skimmer. It uses a separate detachable injector unit, basically 4 Becketts with its own housing and such going into a whirlpool like box, then into the CS-2 skimmer. But this is for commercial use so it's a different story.