Skimmer upgrade, good or bad???

[Kendall]

I'm trying to reduce energy consumption on my tank and decided one thing to do is to change my "old" venturi skimmer to a "new" style.

The old: Reef Concepts Aerofoamer 848 with a 1" venturi. 8" body, 48" tall, powered by an Iwaki 100.

New style: ATI Bubble Master 300, 12" body, 27" tall, 3 sicce mesh wheel pumps, 90 watts total

ATI has been hooked up for almost a day and has built a nice foam head and pulling out crud.

I'm wondering if this was a good move or not. Any opinions??

Here are some pics

 

[NYreefNoob]

definately will save power, and 3 sicce pumps should produce considerably more then the other skimmer, does it have mesh wheels or a nw on the sicce ?

 

[jf2381]

Amazing how much skimmers have advanced.
Look at the size difference and the smaller out performs the larger by a lot.

 

[Kendall]

definately will save power, and 3 sicce pumps should produce considerably more then the other skimmer, does it have mesh wheels or a nw on the sicce ?

Mesh

 

[D1J8Z]

what return pump are you using ?

 

[NYreefNoob]

id look into getting either the small purple pin wheels or the red dragons,

 

[Kendall]

id look into getting either the small purple pin wheels or the red dragons,

Right now the mesh wheels are doing fine. But I have read about their problems. I will say it took me a good 40 min. just to get them to start the 1st time! And after turning them off an on a few times I had to blow air down the tubes to get them to start again! If I paid the $1500.00 retail price I would be pissed!!!

I now have a good 1/4" of good skimate in the 12" collection cup. Might turn out to be a good upgrade!! We'll see how long the pumps hold up.

 

[NYreefNoob]

it isnt just start up issue's you cant completely balance the mesh and it wears the magnets. red demon was the other i meant, i use a small purple pinwheel on mine

 

[waynotcars]

I wouldn't want to be blowing down my pumps every time I shut my skimmer down. Looks to me like the old skimmer was doing a fantastic job. If were me, I would have looked elsewhere to save wattage. I use an ASM G6x with two Sedra 15000's and they start everytime, no problems.

 

[NYPDFrogman]

I upgraded my ASM G4+ with SRO 5000int XRT
uses 50watts( I checked with n ameter) and kicks the ASM AZZ!
I was a big ASM guy too!

that Iwaki you had running the old skimmer probably uses twice the power than your new skimmer

 

[waynotcars]

I don't see how any skimmer could pull more then the asm G6x I'm using right now. It's rated at 1200 gallons and I run it on a 220 with 100 gal sump. It pulls a 1/2 gunk every day and I have a very light bio-load and tank is absolutely cyrstal clear. I do agree I'm using a hell of a lot of electricty though.

 

[dj ze]

i am running a super reef octopuss 5000 exter witch only uses 50 watts on a 550 gallon system u cant beat that i too used to run an asm but the old sedra pumps are dated and are an overkill on wattage.also the best thing for the sicce pumps are the replacement askoll pumps alot more reliable

 

[waynotcars]

So far I've had no problems with the two sedra 15000 pumps. Knock on wood.

 

[dj ze]

the sedra pumps are very reliable they just consume heavy wattage

 

[Kendall]

Skimmer has been running for 3 days now and has pulled out some impressive stuff!

 

[waynotcars]

Nice!

 

[NYreefNoob]

kendall did yu get the skimer new ? looking good so far

 

[Kendall]

kendall did yu get the skimer new ? looking good so far

Yes, I wiped it down with vinegar before installing. I think thats why it built a good head of foam right away.

 

[NYreefNoob]

gie it a good month of runningthen you will really see how well it runs, some site's had really good cleanrance price's on these awaiting the newer models coming out

 

[InfernoST]

Never cared for the sicce pumps, had nothing but problems with them. Looks good though.