Best Protien Skimmer for my 180g tamk?

[TwistedNative]

Hi, I am unsure of the best possible protein skimmer to get for my 180g tank. I have loosely narrowed it down to either the AquaC EV-240 or the Reef Octipus XS 250. My LFS is recommending the AquaC and a few friends of mine are pointing me in the direction of the Reef Octipus. Research on both shows them to be good skimmers, and they are both priced right at the same level. I was hoping for some input on either of these, with opinions and possible other Skimmers in the same catagory. Oh, and I am running a 75g sump as well, so some extra water volume on top of the 180g. Thanks

 

[Bosco83]

Between those two I would go with the Reef Octopus one. I personally would probably get an SWC230 from Reeffiltration it only has one pump and pretty much has the same specs and I think the build quality of SWC skimmers are better than Reef Octopus. SWC usually has nice thick acrylic on their skimmers so you are less likely to break the collection cup when removing it all the time. I haven't seen the exact model Octopus skimmer your looking at but other ones I have seen were much cheaper feeling with thin acrylic. I also don't like Sicce pumps the one on my skimmer sucks and you have to manually start it if it gets shut off, and the Sicce Voyager power heads I bought for my wife's tank are garbage and do the same thing.

 

[senji]

yep i have an swc they r the best.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

At the risk of offending the stores, if budgeting is any issue, there are many quality used skimmers available with a little patience. Can be had for close to 50 cents on the dollar. I am fond of the SWCs and Reef octopus skimmers, and also like to put better pumps on them. I currently am running a SWC 250 with a Bubbleblaster 3000. Really does a great job on my totally overstocked 180

 

[Skimmy]

dear god, DO NOT BUY the aqua C ev-240... a very mediocre skimmer not worth the money, imo.
and the octo 250 doesnt have sicce psk 2500 pumps that are problematic anymore,
they have the newer sicce psk 1000 pumps that were (unlike the psk2500) designed with protein skimmers in mind...
they have a digitally controlled start up and only go one direction. so no start up issues like the psk 2500.
so the octo extreme 250 is a good choice, with no need to upgrade the pump. as well as the mentioned SWC 230 cone skimmer.

 

[hellotreetops]

I have a SWC, and I love it. You can purchase a mod (I think it's like $30?) and overpower them if you want too.

 

[TJL]

Another +1 on SWC Skimmers, I have the SWC Extreme 200 on my very high bio-load system and works flawlessly. Best Skimmer I've used to date and have had many over the years.

Cheers, Todd

 

[SWCC]

Reef dynamics INS 180E Or the next size up IMO. Outstanding skimmers.

 

[1guydude]

for my next upgrade which will hopefully be a 150gal. Ill be looking at etss skimmers and of course the swc. I currently own 2 swc's the 150 and the 120 and i can tell u they are the current champs when it comes to decent priced/good quality skimmers.