Wife gave me the Ok to buy a new skimmer.....now which on?

[Seriak]

I have the 300 and I love it. It works great. I am sure the 350 would work really good as well but that's 3 pumps you need to maintain.

[frizzo1983]

Love my new ATI Powercone 250is very easy to use nice new pump and there was hardly a break in period. I am running it on a 380 gallon reef, pulls out some nasty stuff.

Remember if you decide to go with bubble king the pumps are very expensive to replace and parts are alot harder to aquire. Just my opinion

[sphelps]

From experience two things I would avoid:
1) Multiple pumps - more issues relating to consitant water level
2) Pumps mounted vertical - start up issues & propeller wear issues.

The diablo looks like the better choice of the three you posted but my advice would be to consider an alpha for you low end and BK double cone DC for your upper.

[globaldesigns]

K, as you know I have had major problems with my ss-333int Reef Octopus, BUT after figuring out the problem was a bad venture, I can honestly say this thing is a BEAST, and I do recommend Reef Octopus.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by Seriak

I have the 300 and I love it. It works great. I am sure the 350 would work really good as well but that's 3 pumps you need to maintain.

Agree with that. from experience the sicci pumps don't really have a good track record.

Originally Posted by frizzo1983

Love my new ATI Powercone 250is very easy to use nice new pump and there was hardly a break in period. I am running it on a 380 gallon reef, pulls out some nasty stuff.

Remember if you decide to go with bubble king the pumps are very expensive to replace and parts are alot harder to aquire. Just my opinion

Frizzo Im not going to argue with you on your skimmer However, a lot of people will say they skimmer is a beast because I can't keep up with the nog it produces. Maybe because the skimmer can't keep up with the tank. Im not bashing your skimmer just making a observation WRT you stating that it pulls out some nasty stuff. Like how much are we talking that it pulls out.

Originally Posted by sphelps

From experience two things I would avoid:
1) Multiple pumps - more issues relating to consitant water level
2) Pumps mounted vertical - start up issues & propeller wear issues.

The diablo looks like the better choice of the three you posted but my advice would be to consider an alpha for you low end and BK double cone DC for your upper.

Steve has pretty much hit the nail on the head WRT the skimmer Sicci, Sedra caused a lot of headaches the ay they mounted there pumps on the skimmer as Sphelps stated. it seems that Ehiem as per the older Deltec's like the 701,702, 902 ,851 have had some great success with their pumps mounting it that way, Now that Deltec has their own line of pumps they continue to run the pumps that way and are having problems with their impeller prematurely wearing out.

I'm with Steve if you are not going to pull the trigger on a BK being a high end skimmer and a Alpha Vertex being the low end but beast of a skimmer. I would go with the DC pump skimmer as Steve pointed out. Im curious to here that how people think that BK parts are hard to get. If I need a piece I can call Jermey on RC and have a pump sent to me with in a week.

With Doug's skimmer the 300 its a beast, if you have seen it maybe take a look why not. Like our discuss last night I have a line on a EXT BK 300 for my 250 gal tank. Personally is that to much of a skimmer for that tank. It might be considering that Jason McK who had the 370 gal tank had one running on his tank.

over all opinion
DELTEC 902, with the self cleaning head. 2 nd hand thou
BK 300 if you can
ALpha 300
diablo with the DC pump.


WRT to the BK line the only thing that is impacting the Skimmer line is the PROLINE is pulling out of Royal Exclusive.

SO these are my opinions and experience that is it. please don't come on here and bask me due to a opinion I have. Remember this is Greg's thread. not a skimmer Bitching session.

Greg you are more then welcome to chat skimmers with me you long hair freak.. love ya bro.

[frizzo1983]

Well if you consider changing your cup once every 2 weeks a lot I guess so but last time I checked that is just regular routine maintenance!!! With the new controllable pump and the simple fact that it is not sicce that is a huge cost saving. I cant even tell you how many sicce pumps have been replaced on skimmers. And im sorry to say this but typically all product that are made in Germany will always stand the test of time. Although BK skimmers are in fact extreamly good skimmers god help your wallet if you ever have to replace any pieces in that pump. If you compare pricepoint to say deltec bk this skimmer will compete and probably out perform.

[sphelps]

I personally hate the SM300, the 250 is a much more stable skimmer. I swear the 300 was originally designed for one pump but later discovered it needed more punch so they threw on a second dinky pump help out. The result seems to be inconsistent water level probably relating to the smaller pump not handling the head pressure from the large skimmer. Three people I know personally with this skimmer had this issue. It's footprint is also pretty ridiculous.

Any skimmer with two or more pumps is simply a shortcut around producing the right pump for the body.

The way the market is trending I personally wouldn't invest in a new skimmer that doesn't use a DC pump.