Is Coralife skimmer a good skimmer?

[ppatrick_reef]

Hi everyone,

I'm gathering equipments to start my 75 gal tank. A week ago, I thought I would buy the ASM skimmer. Then I found the Coralife Super Skimmer Venturi 220gal which is much cheaper than ASM. Is it a good skimmer? Coralife also has needle wheel models with a little higher price. Is needle wheel work better than venturi? Please share your opinions.


Thanks,
Patrick

 

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I'm gathering equipments to start my 75 gal tank. A week ago, I thought I would buy the ASM skimmer. Then I found the Coralife Super Skimmer Venturi 220gal which is much cheaper. Is it a good skimmer? Please share your opinions.


Thanks,
Patrick

Awesome skimmer. I use my as HOB.

I also modded mine to have it overflow via large diameter airline tubing into a 5 gal bucket, because I have been doing more wet skimming, and the collection cup fills too quickly.

DIaling it in took a while to get used to, and was inconsitent at first, but now I got it down.

LFS reccomended to me over his other products, and he uses this in his own tanks at home.

are you going hob or in-sump?

 

[pwj1286]

At my work, we got Corallife and ASM's running on multiple tanks.

Seeing both in action, ASM is the better choice and well worth the money you will pay for it.

The Corallife is OK, better than those silly ViaAqua in-sump skimmers (also on one of our tanks). The problem with Corallife is, they need to be adjusted all the time and the adjustments are touchy.

The ASM is really Plug-and-Play. Set it and forget it. I like the simplicity of it as well.

Usally, the more complicated skimmers do not work well, with some exceptions.

Pay for the ASM and it will pay itself back.
_________________
Honda MT50

 

[Anonymous]

I've got the smaller version, 65 gal, I think, and it's awesome too.
~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

I love my ASM.

 

[ppatrick_reef]

To ctgretzky99, it's going to be HOT because my tank is not reef ready and I don't want to risk drilling. Do you have the needle wheel or venturi model?

Both pwj1286 and ctgretzky99 pointed out that Coralife needs some adjustment. What kind of adjustment is it? How often (like every time you do the water change)? I'm totally new to saltwater tank and never had a skimmer before.

Any advice about should I pick needle wheel or venturi models?


Thanks everyone for your advice/opinions.
Patrick

 

[pwj1286]

Both pwj1286 and ctgretzky99 pointed out that Coralife needs some adjustment. What kind of adjustment is it? How often (like every time you do the water change)? I'm totally new to saltwater tank and never had a skimmer before.

It varies. Organic waste present at a given time, water changes, S.G., ect.

The knob on it, I am just like "ehh" to it. I turn it up to fine tune it and it starts going too high or too low. If you do decide to go with it, get a needle wheel or needle wheel anything for that matter for your applications. They seem to put out a better quality of bubble size.

There are better hang on the tank choices by far, but it is a nice skimmer if you will use it in a sump in the future...but by then, you might want to upgrade your tank size so that cuts it out of the picture.


Remeber, all skimmers are over rated. Its a marketing hitch to get you to buy the skimmer. The moddest ratings on the higher qualitiy (also more expensive) skimmers are usally true.

Thanks to LA-Lawman, we have made a great list of skimmers that we use in our tanks, from there you can make some good choices.

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=78592 <click me.
_________________
Honda NSR250R

 

[Anonymous]

To ctgretzky99, it's going to be HOT because my tank is not reef ready and I don't want to risk drilling. Do you have the needle wheel or venturi model?

Both pwj1286 and ctgretzky99 pointed out that Coralife needs some adjustment. What kind of adjustment is it? How often (like every time you do the water change)? I'm totally new to saltwater tank and never had a skimmer before.

Any advice about should I pick needle wheel or venturi models?


Thanks everyone for your advice/opinions.
Patrick

Adjustments need to be made depending on what is in tha tank...different times of day for me determines a lot of the time, the adjustment.
For example, I adjust it in the a.m. because there doesnt seem to be as much organics vs. the evening when verything is swimming around and things ae stirred up etc...
And yes, after a water change I adjust slightly sometimes.

Needle wheel for sure. Really crates a lot of bubbles which equals a lot of foam which equals it is working well ;-)