ETSS Skimmer Club!

[yasmar01]

i cant tell you how nice it is to finally have a piece of equiptment that is set it and forget it. and also built like a tank. i never thought that i could get this much skimmate out of my tank its amazing.

[diverdick]

I run my 800 with a water level at the top of the skimmer housing where the first riser joins the system box. Where do you all run your water level for maximum efficiency?

Regards,

--Rich

[ostrow]

See Jose's (jdieck) posts here:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...l&pagenumber=2

[HOBrien]

Are these skimmers quite enough to have in the Living Room right next to the coach without being annoying?

[Iostream]

Originally posted by HOBrien
Are these skimmers quite enough to have in the Living Room right next to the coach without being annoying?

They can be made fairly quiet, but there will always be a bit of noise to them. Nothing worse than most return pumps if you add hose to the air intake to silence it.

[jdieck]

Originally posted by HOBrien
Are these skimmers quite enough to have in the Living Room right next to the coach without being annoying?

Depends on the pump but in general no. Besides the pump issue, if you have the air vent there you will have to deal with the smell and with the salty mist that may develop around.

[HOBrien]

So even the Sump Buddy 60 is noisy?

[Iostream]

Originally posted by jdieck
Depends on the pump but in general no. Besides the pump issue, if you have the air vent there you will have to deal with the smell and with the salty mist that may develop around.

You can silence the air intake with a few feet of hose, it does not impact skimmer performance. The pump can be silenced with some sort of sponge or rubber underneath. As for the air vent, you can use the collection container which conveniently adds a carbon filter to the air vent. The only time I smell my tank is when carbon needs to be changed. I sit less than 5 feet from my tank all day and the only noise that gets annoying is when the chiller kicks on. The skimmer itself is fairly quiet.

[jdieck]

Originally posted by Iostream
You can silence the air intake with a few feet of hose, it does not impact skimmer performance. The pump can be silenced with some sort of sponge or rubber underneath. As for the air vent, you can use the collection container which conveniently adds a carbon filter to the air vent. The only time I smell my tank is when carbon needs to be changed. I sit less than 5 feet from my tank all day and the only noise that gets annoying is when the chiller kicks on. The skimmer itself is fairly quiet.

[hottuna]

just received my sump buddy 40 this week...gary's support was A+ so far...cant wait to hook it up...using a mag 9.5
gary said he was experimenting with an ocean runner for the sump buddy...less power consumption ? I assume...

[hottuna]

For thosing using a mag 9.5 to drive this skimmer :
any noise vibration issues ????

[jmsalt1]

Originally posted by hottuna
For thosing using a mag 9.5 to drive this skimmer :
any noise vibration issues ????

Just talked to Gary today regarding the SB 40. I'm running mine on a Mag 9.5 which I just fired up today and there are no vibration issues at all. I was just calling to ask about the size / number of bio-balls and how they impact performance. Gary suggests 4-6 of the 1" bio-balls with the Mag 9.5 and I am starting with 6. The more bio balls the more restricted the airflow. I have fish line on the bottom one in the chamber so I can easily go down to 4-5 if I want to experiment with how that impacts performance. Personally, I can't picture any improved effectiveness of the 1 1/2" bio balls in the SB-40 but Gary said there are some folks that like them.

[saltydog1]

Kudos to Gary at A.E. Tech. Couldn't ask for better customer support ! That goes a long way in my decision on what product to purchase.

[hottuna]

jmsalt 1 : how do you have the mag plumbed to the skimmer?

[quan325i]

I have an ETSS 800 for more than a year on my 100gal tank and I finally gave up last week because I can't dial it in correctly. Yes, I called Gary, yes, I played with the bioballs size and quantity, yes, I played around with the water level. If anybody want to buy it from me, do let me know.

QN

[rigleautomotive]

Originally posted by quan325i
I have an ETSS 800 for more than a year on my 100gal tank and I finally gave up last week because I can't dial it in correctly. Yes, I called Gary, yes, I played with the bioballs size and quantity, yes, I played around with the water level. If anybody want to buy it from me, do let me know.

QN

pm sent

[Bulldogger2008]

Started my 125 tank 3 weeks ago. The Tank will has live rock and live sand and eventually coral. Was told by the LFS that I do not need a Protein Skimmer. They said the Skimmer will just remove all the chemical I'm adding for the live rock/coral. The LFS said as long as I do my monthly 10% water change I will be fine without a Skimmer. I have 2 Magnum 350's filtering, 2 powerheads running low and high, 4 bio wheels on back of tank and a 400 watt heater. Tank stays at around 77 daytime 75 at night. Chemistry is perfect in tank, so I added 4 damsels last night to help with the live bacteria ratio. Any suggestions on the Protein Skimmer issue and any ideas if I need one, which one I should get?

[jmsalt1]

You would probably get more responses to this post in the New to the Hobby forum vs. the AE-Tech skimmer thread. There are many people on this board much more successful in the hobby than myself at this point but I would be pretty comfortable saying you are not getting very good advice from your LFS. If he is saying you don't need a skimmer during initial tank break in, fine I can deal with that although I would not agree myself. If he is saying you don't need a skimmer on a reef tank and that it takes stuff out of the water that you don't want to remove, I would seek out another LFS. If you don't have another LFS you can go to, spend as much time as you can reading on this board and buy online. Join a local club to get advice from others in the hobby. Hope that helps. You should check out the new to the hobby forum as there is tons of advice there.

[jmsalt1]

Originally posted by hottuna
jmsalt 1 : how do you have the mag plumbed to the skimmer?

1" OD / 3/4" ID vinyl tubing from a hardware store. This will fit right onto the fitting supplied by AE Tech with the skimmer. The female adapter that will screw right onto the Mag 9.5 with a barbed end to receive the vinyl tubing can be purchases a number of places but I think I bought mine years ago through Savco. Check their web site then call customer service and they will get you what you need. The same adapter is probably available through a bunch of other places too.

[jmsalt1]

[jmsalt1]

[cnaegler]

Originally posted by Bulldogger2008
Started my 125 tank 3 weeks ago. The Tank will has live rock and live sand and eventually coral. Was told by the LFS that I do not need a Protein Skimmer. They said the Skimmer will just remove all the chemical I'm adding for the live rock/coral. The LFS said as long as I do my monthly 10% water change I will be fine without a Skimmer. I have 2 Magnum 350's filtering, 2 powerheads running low and high, 4 bio wheels on back of tank and a 400 watt heater. Tank stays at around 77 daytime 75 at night. Chemistry is perfect in tank, so I added 4 damsels last night to help with the live bacteria ratio. Any suggestions on the Protein Skimmer issue and any ideas if I need one, which one I should get?

Your LFS is wrong. IMO, you NEED a skimmer on your tank. There are a few people out there who doesn't use a skimmer but they know exactly what their doing and have been doing so, probably, a long time.
Do yourself a favor and get the largest/ best skimmer you can afford the first time. Try to get one that's overrated for your tank.

Check out this link. It may help you understand why you need a skimmer.
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=what+is+a+p...inskimmer1.htm

[hottuna]

JMSALT1 : Thanks ! any pics of where it attaches to the injector assembly ?

[Bulldogger2008]

Once again I asked the Reef Shop and they stated that the power head that I have running high which is agitating the water along with the bio wheels will keep the sludge from building up. They said they have bee running their tanks without protein skimmers for 10 years and their tanks do look awesome. She said that I will need to do a 10-15% water change every 2 weeks.

Question: Can I run the Protein Skimmer along with the Bio Wheels I have spinning on the back of the tank? The Bio Wheels are hooked into the Magnum 350's output hose, I'm running 2 sets of Bio Wheels, 4 total across the back.

Question 2: Can I place the Skimmer in between the Bio Wheels?

[Bulldogger2008]

Ok after reading all your posts I'm convinced that getting a protein skimmer would be a good thing. I think the Reef Shop has some sort of gizmo behind close doors that takes care of the sludge/waste, who knows. But why wouldnt they try and sell me a skimmer if their there to make money?

Ok, I'm looking for a really good Skimmer, one that I can run from under the tank and I'm assuming there will be a hose running to the top of the tank to pull the water in. Or, Should I get a really good hang on the back of the Tank Skimmer? I only have around 5inches of room from the wall to the tank, so it will have to be a lean skimmer. Please attach links to some good sites who offer these skimmers, thanks a bunch to all who are MENTORING THE NEWBIE!