Skimmer for ~400 gallons of water, heavily stocked and SPS?

[Jeff000]

Seems my Bubble King 200 is too small.

So what is a good skimmer for about 400 gallons of water, heavily stocked and it being a SPS tank?
Tank is very lightly stocked now, but would like it to be a little more lively than not.

[AcroporAddict]

Royal Exclusiv Alpha Vertex Cone 300.

http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-s...X-PS-A300.html

[MathiasM.]

Hello =)

There is a really good German skimmer producer called "Meerwasser Technik"

http://www.shop-meeresaquaristik.de/...oducts_id=9566

This one for example is quite famous here.

Greetings
Mathias

[swcc]

Originally Posted by AcroporAddict

Royal Exclusiv Alpha Vertex Cone 300.

http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-s...X-PS-A300.html

perfect choice IMO..

[Jeff000]

Originally Posted by AcroporAddict

Royal Exclusiv Alpha Vertex Cone 300.

http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-s...X-PS-A300.html

Originally Posted by swcc

perfect choice IMO..

Hmm, and here I thought that was going to be too small for a little heavy stocked.


I was looking at the Deltec 2560, but the vertex cone 300 is much cheaper.

[dsmith3512]

Take a look at the Super Reef Octopus XP5000E. You can pick it up for under $800. It is a beast. Mine can pull out three gallons of dark gunk a week.

[las]

Originally Posted by dsmith3512

Take a look at the Super Reef Octopus XP5000E. You can pick it up for under $800. It is a beast. Mine can pull out three gallons of dark gunk a week.

sounds awesome - will it work with a bunch of messy eaers in a predator tank? What size tank can it handle with a heavy bioload?

[Jeff000]

So what makes the Reef Octopus $650, the alpha vertex 300 $1200 and the deltec almost $1900?

Does the price play any part in this?
Do they all have the self cleaning thing? Does the self cleaning thing make the skimming more efficient, ie better for more load?

[swcc]

Originally Posted by Jeff000

Hmm, and here I thought that was going to be too small for a little heavy stocked.


I was looking at the Deltec 2560, but the vertex cone 300 is much cheaper.

I think the 2560 is about the same as your bubble king skimmer size wise...My belief is you should double+ the air and water flow thorough of your current skimmer ...the 300 vertex will do that.

[swcc]

Originally Posted by Jeff000

So what makes the Reef Octopus $650, the alpha vertex 300 $1200 and the deltec almost $1900?

Does the price play any part in this?
Do they all have the self cleaning thing? Does the self cleaning thing make the skimming more efficient, ie better for more load?

really it is about the build labor(craftsmanship) and pumps... Oh, the sro 5000 is not even close to as powerful a skimmer as the vertex alpha 300... not to mention the build quality is much lower.
The sro would only process your water about 1X an hour and draws like 2100lph air vs the 3600lph on the alpha and something in the neighborhood of processing your water 4x an hour....not even close to the same ballpark...

the big thing is your feed schedule...feeding heavy and a skimmer that is the size of your current one or just a tad bigger just will not keep up. Hence the hair algae dilemma. Feed 1/4 what you do now...and your golden with the current bubble king skimmer... It is all about import and export.

[110galreef]

XP 5000 internal or external. whichever floats your boat. Will compete perfectly with the $1200 & $1900 skimmers and save you $400-$1100!!

Oh and build Quality is excellent! Not sure how one can say it's bad. Glue seams and all are awesome and the materials ar nice quality and thick and solid. Does suck if you need to plumb it that the fittings are metric. But they are plug and play and even the externals really don't need any rigid plumbing added. The tube for the feed line takes standard flex hose.

Love my XP 3000E on about 325 net gallons & SPS with medium load

[dsmith3512]

The SRO XP5000E will work better with a heavy bioload, its a huge recirculating cone skimmer with a 6" neck. A heavy bioload will hold the foam column at the top better. It's been running for three years, with no problems. I can see no issues with build quality. There are skimmers that cost a lot more, and may or may not work better, you will have to decide how to spend your money. I'm sure glad I found this one on ebay for $500, because someone thought it was too big.

[Jeff000]

Ok, I am going to order up the Alpha Vertex 300, I hope it'll be large enough for what I need.

Thanks,

[azjohnny]

you could save your self a a few hundred and go with a SRO XP8000I...4000lph of air
http://coralvue.com/xp8000i/