Reeflo Mako skimmer

[46bfinGA]

The Mako skimmer has both a drain and a Gate valve. These skimmers may be so called "Imitators" and your right. I have been on this site long enough to know that Scott started these with his skimmers. But if you dont want to spend 3k on an 18" skimmer and dont like everything about the Reeflo's then what do you do. Well I found a guy who was thinking along the same lines as me and took a chance. Ive been by his shop and have seen these skimmers first hand. I must say these are VERY nice. The flanges are so easy to twist and take off,everything has been either flame polished or polished by hand. No complaints here. You can bash all you want but I will still be happy with the decision I made to buy one of these skimmers.

After seeing the Reeflo Orca skimmer and now seeing these in person,there is no way Reeflo would get my money. The Quality of what you are getting does not even compare.

[46bfinGA]

[QUOTE][i]
Lol thats not innovate,thats imitate.Hell I got the skills and knowledge to take someone else's design and market it.Would I?Heck no I have to much self-respect.[Quote]

Hmmm well Reeflo did that with Spazz NW idea. I can think of others hmmm Shan at Protein-skimmer.com maybe? This is a non point. Mako skimmers are a copy and with better options so whats your point? So are ASM's to Euroreef blah,blah,blah..........

[quote]
Whats really bad about the whole thing is that skriz
is saying that the orca is probaly made in China.Sweet jesus if your going to talk down about something at least know the facts about it.[quote]

Are the Reeflo's not Made in China? Sounds like you should take your own advice.

[quote]These 2 guys also act like there the ones that developed the needle wheel dart and added the alita for extra performance.Sequence didnt even have the imagination to come up with that one.The whole development of the needle wheel darts comes courtesy of Spazz here on RC. [quote]

Who claimed this?

[quote]Also this Mako manufacturer certainly shouldnt be called a manufacturer.Have you seen the pics of these skimmers.Looks like there being built in a car garage.

To be honest these guys seem like there trying to slip a commercial post here on RC.[QUOTE]

Who are you referring to "these guys". If you are talking about me and Skriz,then you should keep your comments to yourself. As far as I know we are the only two guys that own these skimmers. Mine is not even done so Im not sure why you would think this is commercial posts? I dont sale skimmers and could care less if you buy one. The point of my post is to let people know my experiences with these skimmers and that is all. Maybe if you have seen these in person you could make logical comments based on your experiences with them. But since you have not Im not even sure why you are posting in this thread?

[tgreene]

Having purchased and used both the top 2 skimmers for each of ReefFlo and Octopus, I feel I'm pretty qualified to be critical of design aspects, and I'm quite impressed with what I see in regards to the Mako.

To the rest of you guys that want to bash on innovative copying, you may want to start with the automotive industry, because if it were not for innovative copying, you would still be traveling on horseback and with covered wagons!

46bfinGA: If you would be so kind, could you please PM me with the contact info for the guy making the Mako's..?

-Tim

[46bfinGA]

FWIW, heres is the latest Pic that was sent to me. He got the Wasdown system installed,the drain for the box,the gate valve,and the hole for the 1" feed.

I may switch the intake and the Gate valve around to see which one works better. Im not sure if it matters.

[46bfinGA]

Originally posted by tgreene
Having purchased and used both the top 2 skimmers for each of ReefFlo and Octopus, I feel I'm pretty qualified to be critical of design aspects, and I'm quite impressed with what I see in regards to the Mako.

To the rest of you guys that want to bash on innovative copying, you may want to start with the automotive industry, because if it were not for innovative copying, you would still be traveling on horseback and with covered wagons!

46bfinGA: If you would be so kind, could you please PM me with the contact info for the guy making the Mako's..?

-Tim

No problem.

[skriz]

Originally posted by alpine
GSMGUY

Lol thats not innovate,thats imitate.Hell I got the skills and knowledge to take someone else's design and market it.Would I?Heck no I have to much self-respect.

Whats really bad about the whole thing is that skriz
is saying that the orca is probaly made in China.Sweet jesus if your going to talk down about something at least know the facts about it.

These 2 guys also act like there the ones that developed the needle wheel dart and added the alita for extra performance.Sequence didnt even have the imagination to come up with that one.The whole development of the needle wheel darts comes courtesy of Spazz here on RC.

Also this Mako manufacturer certainly shouldnt be called a manufacturer.Have you seen the pics of these skimmers.Looks like there being built in a car garage.

To be honest these guys seem like there trying to slip a commercial post here on RC.

Ha! looks like you probably don't have the skills and that's why you're so sour about this skimmer.

I just bought the thing; I don't sell them and I could care less if you were to buy one. I just know what is out there and how much they cost. I happened to find something that is better and less expensive.

The manufacturer of the Mako is an engineer; this is what he does. Can you say that your skimmer was actually made by an engineer? Doubt it. I have seen the Mako in person and it is a beast of a skimmer.

Being in the automotive industry I find it hard to believe that you would actually knock improving on someone elses design. All products are improved on and that's what we've posted here; about an improved design. Tim hates a few things about the Orca; these issues have been resolved with the Mako.

btw, the Reeflo dimensions are in metric, so it's obvious that they're not built in the U.S. Jorge, since you know so much, where are they made?

[tgreene]

Well, I just got off the phone w/ the gentleman that makes them, and because he has addressed the issues that I mentioned in regards to the ReefFlo's (and Octo's for that matter), I desperately want one, and one way or another, I will see to it that a Mako is my next skimmer!

Again, I can judge them all fairly, because I use the Octo-Quad and the ReefFlo Orca-250 on my own systems.

-Tim

[JRaquatics]

Originally posted by tgreene
I should also add that there are a couple of things that I absolutely hate about the new Orca skimmers...

Orca-250: No bottom drain & the stupid standpipe twist adjuster. My 1.5" gate valves are on order.

Orca-200: The new neck flange is very difficult to work with when the skimmer is in a stand, because it just takes too much twisting and pressing. It also uses the same stupid twist adjuster standpipe as the Orca-250, and it too is getting a gate valve. The cup drain for the Orca-200 is an accident waiting to happen, while the Orca-250 drain is the same heavy duty fitting as on the Octo's.

I do like that the skimmers have tapered adapters which allow for the conversion to standard PVC fittings. The Orca-200 even ships with a fitting to convert the intake, while the Orca-250 doesn't include this piece. These fittings need to be made available to allow for the easier conversion of the Octo's that are out there.

-Tim

I am not a fan of the gatevalve. Too restrictive and difficult to get back to your original setting after cleaning the skimmer. I find the wedge valve easier to fine toon. The cup on the 200 is easy as it gets to come off. Have you ever owned a H&S or any other skimmer with this style cup? If not use silicone gasket greese to keep it lubed and it will come off like a dream. As you can see I have my 200 in a cabinet and I clean my cup out every two days. I have not one gripe yet with the Reeflo 200 skimmer. The only thing I would like to see on the 200 is a wetneck.

[46bfinGA]

That quite an Impressive setup you got there Tim. Man you got alot of room to play in. Looks like you took up your whole basement.

[46bfinGA]

Originally posted by JRaquatics
I am not a fan of the gatevalve. Too restrictive and difficult to get back to your original setting after cleaning the skimmer. I find the wedge valve easier to fine toon. The cup on the 200 is easy as it gets to come off. Have you ever owned a H&S or any other skimmer with this style cup? If not use silicone gasket greese to keep it lubed and it will come off like a dream. As you can see I have my 200 in a cabinet and I clean my cup out every two days. I have not one gripe yet with the Reeflo 200 skimmer. The only thing I would like to see on the 200 is a wetneck.

Ive yet to have a problem with a gate valve. How can they be to restrictive? What exactly are they restricting? Only thing closing the gate valve would do is slow the water exiting the skimmer which would inturn increase contact time and raise the water level, Right?

Now when I clean my ASM skimmer I do have to fiddle with the Gate valve a bit until the skimmer breaks in,but I have never found it to be difficult. The bubbles are normally lower for a couple hours . Only problem I have with my ASM is the damn thing overflows sometimes for no apparent reason. I hope this next skimmer doesnt do that. Or maybe that is a problem with all skimmers??? I hate when I have a couple days of nastiness then WHAM next morning it is all washed back into my system.

[tgreene]

Thank you.

What you're seeing does not show off the Wet Room which houses (2) RO units. One is a 150gpd Typhoon-III Extreme, and the other is a GE Merlin which is capable of up to 1100gpd with warmed water and and good pressure. I also have a regular 75gpd Typhoon-III on the other side of the basement, which is dedicated to my 125g display upstairs. I also have a 90g water holding tank in the wet room.

I'll also soon be adding yet another 300g Rubbermaid tank, and an isolated fish treatment system that will be Cu and Formalin capable for situations that call for extreme measures.

-Tim

[46bfinGA]

Heres a pic of the skimmer during a water test.This is without the Alita air pump running. Getting close to being done

[46bfinGA]

Originally posted by tgreene
Thank you.

What you're seeing does not show off the Wet Room which houses (2) RO units. One is a 150gpd Typhoon-III Extreme, and the other is a GE Merlin which is capable of up to 1100gpd with warmed water and and good pressure. I also have a regular 75gpd Typhoon-III on the other side of the basement, which is dedicated to my 125g display upstairs. I also have a 90g water holding tank in the wet room.

I'll also soon be adding yet another 300g Rubbermaid tank, and an isolated fish treatment system that will be Cu and Formalin capable for situations that call for extreme measures.

-Tim

Sounds like you got it bad,or atleast worse then I do. Addiction is a *****

[tgreene]

Ummmm, I have plans!

[skriz]

WOW! Tim that's a sweet setup, I'm jealous

[Creetin]

They look like a well built skimmer!! I would def buy one if i could fit it in my fish room, Unfortunately the sump is the only room i have left in there. Its not as elaborate as tgreene's is (BTW Very nice system there!!!)But it will do till i can move and support a real fish room.

[hahnmeister]

Originally posted by tgreene
No it isn't... I know this, because I have them both sitting (and running) less than 3 feet away from each other!

About the only thing they have in common, is that they both use large diameter acrylic tubing.

The Orca-250 body is the same diameter (12 inches) as the Octo-TDNW triple recirc skimmer. The FDNW quad body is 18".

I also have the Octo-TDNW and the Orca-200 running on clients' systems, and will more than likely eventually be buying an Orca-200 for my 300g Shark tank.

-Tim

BTW: The other night, I noticed BLUE foam in the collection cup of my Orca-250, and it drove me insane wondering what could possibly have caused that to happen... As it turns out, it was the dye that had been pulled out of the Bio-Blend Herbivore fish food that I use.

Okay... same neck design, same neck flange, same main body, same collection cup. You could saw the bottom off a recirc 400, put a black box with a bubble plate inside it on the bottom, and have a ReefFlo. Perhaps we have different perspectives on how similar two products really are. Im sure they perform very differently, but from the 'skimmer assembly' perspective, they are very similar.

[tgreene]

Except that the FDNW-400 is 18" diameter, and the Reeflo-250 is 12"... Again, I believe you're confusing the FDNW-400 and the TDNW-300.

The Reeflo also has a taller neck, and the obvious bubble plate that the FDNW-400 doesn't have.

Most of ther high end skimmers use a very similar neck flange and collection cup design, so again, the only real similarity is that they both use large diameter acrylic.

As you can see in my pics above, I really do have them sitting next to each other, so I do know of what I speak.

-Tim

[reeflo/sequence]

We made the mistake of selling some of our Dart Needlewheel pumps before we came out with the ORCA skimmers. We no longer do this. While I cannot comment on the MAKO, i can tell you that having inventiry to fill orders, psare parts to handle accidents and prompt customer service to answer questions and treat you like family is more important that thick walls on the skimmer body.
Thank you for the tech comments, we will see what can be done to improve them...the 200's are now available at Premium Aquatics

[46bfinGA]

Originally posted by reeflo/sequence
We made the mistake of selling some of our Dart Needlewheel pumps before we came out with the ORCA skimmers. We no longer do this. While I cannot comment on the MAKO, i can tell you that having inventiry to fill orders, psare parts to handle accidents and prompt customer service to answer questions and treat you like family is more important that thick walls on the skimmer body.
Thank you for the tech comments, we will see what can be done to improve them...the 200's are now available at Premium Aquatics

Kind of odd that you are posting in this thread but thats cool. I just bought my pump from you guys and it works great. Thanks for making great products.

[hahnmeister]

No big deal I think... Laguna needlewheel/threadwheels are coming out now that will be more available and higher performance/better quality/lower wattage anyways compared to the dart. I heard CoralVue might be doing something with the Laguna as well... cant confirm for sure, but then there is always ATB and ORCA for sure.

[cmoresps]

46bfinGA


Cool skimmer, where did you get the gasket material for the flange?

[tgreene]

Originally posted by reeflo/sequence
We made the mistake of selling some of our Dart Needlewheel pumps before we came out with the ORCA skimmers. We no longer do this. While I cannot comment on the MAKO, i can tell you that having inventiry to fill orders, psare parts to handle accidents and prompt customer service to answer questions and treat you like family is more important that thick walls on the skimmer body.
Thank you for the tech comments, we will see what can be done to improve them...the 200's are now available at Premium Aquatics

Chris, your refusal to honor a warranty as I've posted in another thread, completely invalidates this statement!

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...&pagenumber=10

[spshead01]

Can someone please pm me some contact info. I am very intrested in one or 2 of these skimmers.

[photobret]

Me too.... PM please!!!!