Lets talk skimmers

[luke33]

Luke where can I find the prices on the laguna? What numbers did you get with the Laguna pump with a pinwheel?

Adam, i bought my max flow 1500 from ebay for 94bux, then got a volute cover and pw set from cncmarinesupply.com It pulls 75scfh at 57w hooked up to my skimmer. Its amazing. Here's a couple pics and a pic when it finally broke in. It nearly filled my sump with foam

 

[Adam Black]

Luke post some pics of your pump! That thing is crazy. Did you recirc your skimmer and use the max flow 1500?

 

[masterkush]

Luke, so you think that the extreme is a better skimmer then the RC135?Here is a pic of my RC135 sucking.Luke post a pic of your tank.With such a great skimmer the tank should look great.Here is the RC135 on my 75.

 

[luke33]

Masterkush for a 75g tank the rc135 looks just fine and should be plenty. If you run a nw on a msx200 your going to get around the same performance, if you have it fully meshed out then your going to get better performance, but your skimmer can only skim whats in your tank. If your parameters are fine i'd save the money. Tank looks nice.

Adam, here's a vid of my tank. I had a bad po4 outbreak and ha outbreak about 2mths ago so i'm recovering. I lost about 4 sps colonies. And a few others are recovering still. Its coming along slowly as anything good in this hobby takes time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC-FaWzQ-z8

 

[luke33]

Adam, no recirc, its not needed. Here's the pump and pw.

 

[Adam Black]

Masterkush for a 75g tank the rc135 looks just fine and should be plenty. If you run a nw on a msx200 your going to get around the same performance, if you have it fully meshed out then your going to get better performance, but your skimmer can only skim whats in your tank. If your parameters are fine i'd save the money. Tank looks nice.

Adam, here's a vid of my tank. I had a bad po4 outbreak and ha outbreak about 2mths ago so i'm recovering. I lost about 4 sps colonies. And a few others are recovering still. Its coming along slowly as anything good in this hobby takes time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC-FaWzQ-z8

Wow Luke, you got a 160 running that tank on U tube? Nice tank!

 

[masterkush]

Luke,I mesh the RC135 and didn't see any increase in air pull.

 

[Adam Black]

Luke,I mesh the RC135 and didn't see any increase in air pull.

How many layers of mesh did you do Kevin?

 

[luke33]

The sedra 5000's aren't much better as meshwheels. I'd rather use them as a pinwheel as you have more reliability.

 

[Skimmy]

yeah, i think it's only a 200 lph gain ,if that, although the mesh would make smaller bubbles...
i usually (if your using pf4a) only do like 2 mabye 3 layers to avoid start up issues. and really, it's more the impellar well size than anything that limits that pump, the er venturi is pretty good. although you could take out the post and replace it with like... a section of bic pen body, or something that measured 1/4" id

 

[masterkush]

I did 3 layers.I'm getting close to 700lph with the new euroreef sch 80 pin wheel.The one that the skimmer came with was black and it pulled about 600lph.Both pin wheels made very small bubbles.

 

[luke33]

You should be getting 700lph stock acording to er but 600 isn't surprising. Yea, with 3 layers mesh you may have startup probs. 100lph extra isn't worth it imo. But thats plenty of air for a 75g.

 

[bbehring]

Luke any mods for the Octo NW 200 Recirc? What are your thoughts on this skimmer as external setup.

 

[luke33]

For your size tank no need, for larger tanks boaring of the elbo, boaring out venturi and meshmod would be the three.

 

[bbehring]

Thanks Luke. Your thoughts on this skimmer for overall performance?

 

[luke33]

Its a nice skimmer and the newer pump version allows for alot more air pull. I'm not a fan of the pump's but you get a warranty with them so not to worry. There one of the inexpensive recirc's out there that will work well. It would be octo, das and bubble magnus that seem like pretty nice inexpensive recirc's.

 

[Skimmy]

i have yet to toy with a bubble magus luke, have you seen/modded any IRL

 

[bbehring]

They seemed difficult to get a hold of, no? I read somewhere that someone had bought one and the pump was shipped with voltage converter that didn't work. Now he's trying to work around, but the person he purchased from (I think it was off ebay?) was out of country and no help.

 

[luke33]

nuocean is selling them in the US. The aquabee versions are nice but i wonder if the neck is to small diamter wise as they take 700lph air and i think the neck is only 2" which is much to small. The one's running on the atman 2500(via aqua 2600) pump's are pure junk and i wouldn't waste my money. The pump's are horrible. I've owned many of the va2300 and 2600's and they just die for no reason. With a heavier impeller like the pw its not going to be a good thing. I think the neck's are 2" because they were originally a 220v 50hz pump so they wouldn't pull as much air, but in the US they are 120v 60hz pump and the airpull is more so 2" there doesn't = 2" here. Just my thoughts. I do know nuocean seems to have good communication and cs.