protein skimmer help

[matty_g]

I was wondering about protein skimmers. Im looking to buy one for a sump tank. I have a 120g tank, and im just not sure which kind to get. Can any one tell me a few pros and cons of different types. Ideally i would like one that is very quiet in the 200-300$ price range. My LFS has the octopus type but is getting rid of them as he has been having problems and bad feed back, is this true?

any help would be great.

[lchaleff]

i have a reef octopus xp2000sss and I think it works great no issues at all....

[GeorgeMonnatJr]

I have a 125 gal tank with a 33 long gal sump, and last week I bought the AqauC EV-180 from Marine Depot (http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaC_EV_180_Protein_Skimmer_In_Sump_Spray_Injection_Protein_Skimmers_For_Tanks_150_to_350_Gallons-AquaC-AC1151-FIPSISSIHT-vi.html). Here's the link to their site. (http://www.proteinskimmer.com/) You might use a smaller or bigger version.

Even though it's on the higher end for price, I chose the AquaC for three reasons:

1) small footprint that fits well inside my stand and still easy to maintain,

2) the support from AquaC was OUTSTANDING. I asked a ton of questions via email, and they always responded quickly, with good info, and always ended with "If you have any more questions, please ask" (even after the stupid ones) and

3) lots of evidence from others about it working well (like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeGCsCSm22Q&feature=relmfu)).

Here's a previous post. (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20059628&postcount=1159)

I've got a 125 gal w/ 33 gal sump that's a few months old with a relatively light bioload, and I added an EV-180 with a Mag 9.5 three days ago. I didn't think I needed it yet, but I wanted to prepare for getting coral in a 3-4 more months. Either I've got the worst nutrient load for a reef tank, or the EV-180 is awesome. I didn't need to do much tweaking other than adding a ball valve to the 9.5, and it's been skimming like crazy.

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb16/GeorgeMon/Pets/AquaC_EV180_49hours_25MAR2012.jpg

My temporary collection "bucket" is 5L, so that's a lot more skimmate than I expected in the first 49 hours of setting up and running the skimmer! Man my tank must have been nasty (although water parameters are good, no algae problems and no deaths, including turbo snails, ornamental shrimp and BTA).

WARNING: Please don't make the same stupid, boneheaded mistake I did. When I added the fittings between the pump (used the Mag 9.5) and the skimmer, I had a brass fitting. I realized the mistake and pulled it out 5 days later, but that night (last night) all of my turbo snails died. I'm guessing it was the copper leaching from the brass. Luckily all my ornamental shrimp and other inverts look ok <fingers crossed>.

[sleepydoc]

Sorry to hear about your snails. I almost made the same mistake when I was looking at fittings. Have you done any water changes? Probably wouldn't hurt to get rid of as much Cu as possible.

Also, if you have dogs/kids be careful with the external collection bucket. The last thing you want is for that to tip over! I've heard stories of dogs getting into them and my dog is always very interested in my skimmer when I have the cabinet open. Why do dogs always sniff nasty-smelling stuff?

[Shoryureppa]

swc 160 or bigger, this thing is a beast!