What's Your Favorite Skimmer Shape?

[Forsaken77]

The skimmer is the next thing I'm going to buy for my 180 build. I wanted to get some opinions from people that have used different shapes, i.e. cone, wine bottle, straight, hybrid, ect...

I was planning on going with the AC Deltec 1455 or 1660, but now I see AquaMaxx (whom I've had a terrible experience with their Q2 skimmer) has come out with a new line of cone skimmers that are much taller, offer more features, and are cheaper. They use the same Shark Sicce pumps.

My skimmer experience has been just with the AquaMaxx Q2. So I don't know if other shapes perform better than others.

Also, what would be the optimal air/water draw for a 180?

 

[Diesel]

LOL, that good old question which skimmer is the best.
You will get lots of answers on this but they are all based on their own experiences, which is not a bad thing.
IMO you already picked a great skimmer, the Deltec.
Deltec is proven in this hobby and many ppl who have one can tell you and in most cases they have it for a long time.
I myself run a Lifereef and my tank or future tank won't see another skimmer, no matter what they come up with.
Besides skimmers in funny shapes and hyper modern pumps aren't always the best due to to good of skimming and stripping your tank down on nutrients,

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Well...my favorite skimmer body is the NYOS...but that's cuz I think it's sleek and aesthetically appealing...not sure that's what you were asking for, but I do love me a NYOS skimmer! LOL I'll be putting one of those on my next big reef.

 

[Waters]

I second the NYOS....I replaced my Reef Octopus with one about 3 months ago. No complaints at all.

 

[Forsaken77]

LOL, that good old question which skimmer is the best.
You will get lots of answers on this but they are all based on their own experiences, which is not a bad thing.
IMO you already picked a great skimmer, the Deltec.
Deltec is proven in this hobby and many ppl who have one can tell you and in most cases they have it for a long time.
I myself run a Lifereef and my tank or future tank won't see another skimmer, no matter what they come up with.
Besides skimmers in funny shapes and hyper modern pumps aren't always the best due to to good of skimming and stripping your tank down on nutrients,

Wasn't which skimmer is best, but which shape. I know everybody has their favorite brands and whatnot. I just wanted to know if one particular shape works better than another.

 

[Potatohead]

I think it's typically more about overall volume than the shape. At some point you need to get the diameter of the skimmer body down to the diameter of the neck and they figured out a nicer looking ways to do that with the wine bottle shape. I don't know that it actually performs better than a cone or cylinder shape though.

 

[Daddy-o]

What's Your Favorite Skimmer Shape?

I like mine to have that perfect hour-glass figure;Wacky

 

[Forsaken77]

What's Your Favorite Skimmer Shape?

I like mine to have that perfect hour-glass figure;Wacky

Hour glass is always the goal, lol. But I don't have a favorite shape, per se. I was always been under the impression that a cone skimmer that is tall is the best option because it's a single piece body and I've always hear height is better. The Deltecs aren't very tall. For example, the new AquaMaxx skimmers are tall compared to their Q-series line. It's like they basically took the older CO skimmers and moved the pump inside the body and made them an inch taller.

So is it still preferential to have an exterior pump compared to the space saver design?

I'm probably gonna go with the Deltec because I haven't heard one bad thing, but I just want opinions from folks that have had different shapes and if it made a difference.

 

[Diesel]

Wasn't which skimmer is best, but which shape. I know everybody has their favorite brands and whatnot. I just wanted to know if one particular shape works better than another.

Yes you're right my bad.
Let edit this............ IMO the Lifereef shape works the best, easy to clean if you ever need to clean it, replacing the pump is a no brainer as you not stuck to a special design pump, any pump will work on the Lifereef as long you have the right gallons.
On my Lifereef I test 7 random pumps all worked 100%
Oh here I go again :mad: it's about the shape
Well you get the picture............. best shape that works for a skimmer IMO "Lifereef"

 

[Diesel]

Hour glass is always the goal, lol. But I don't have a favorite shape, per se. I was always been under the impression that a cone skimmer that is tall is the best option because it's a single piece body and I've always hear height is better. The Deltecs aren't very tall. For example, the new AquaMaxx skimmers are tall compared to their Q-series line. It's like they basically took the older CO skimmers and moved the pump inside the body and made them an inch taller.

So is it still preferential to have an exterior pump compared to the space saver design?

I'm probably gonna go with the Deltec because I haven't heard one bad thing, but I just want opinions from folks that have had different shapes and if it made a difference.

What's the most important thing about a skimmer................ not the shape, although a shape can look nice once it's running.
Important factor of a skimmer is "contact time between water and air" if you have a cone shaped skimmer the contact time isn't as much as a regular cylinder shape.
Once contact time is there the proteins will be pushed to the surface by the bubbles and skimmed off.
I can explain more about the bottle shaped skimmer and why they use bubble blaster needle wheel pumps, which in most cases are in backorder if you need one.
But we talking shape here and I bring in the contact time and which shape is the best for a longer contact time.

 

[Cment]

LOL, that good old question which skimmer is the best.
You will get lots of answers on this but they are all based on their own experiences, which is not a bad thing.
IMO you already picked a great skimmer, the Deltec.
Deltec is proven in this hobby and many ppl who have one can tell you and in most cases they have it for a long time.
I myself run a Lifereef and my tank or future tank won't see another skimmer, no matter what they come up with.
Besides skimmers in funny shapes and hyper modern pumps aren't always the best due to to good of skimming and stripping your tank down on nutrients,

Im going to have to agree with the Diesel here...I as well run a LifeReef on my 180 and really love it. Deltec was my other option and has a great reputation as well. Skimming is all about contact time and a properly sized pump so I don't get caught up in all the funny shapes.

 

[madweazl]

Best shape? If the shape mattered all that much, there wouldn't be options.

 

[Diesel]

Best shape? If the shape mattered all that much, there wouldn't be options.

Maybe the question should be "which skimmer has the a almost perfect contact time"

Than again nobody will win this discussion, budget has a lot to do with as well.
And to be honest in the last 5 years the market got flooded with awesome skimmer, a skimmer will skim no matter what shape or design now days.
It's just a piece of mind to know that your skimmer is there for the tank and you don't have to fool around with the settings constant cause you fed a bit more than the other day or a snail died and you got a spike in nutrients.

 

[Forsaken77]

Best shape? If the shape mattered all that much, there wouldn't be options.

I figured there were options because some shapes work better than others. Take Reef Octopus for example. They have their Regal line, which is hybrid, and their top of the line Elite, which is wine bottled. The shape is the only thing that differentiates them because they both use the same pump, the Varios, and have similar build quality.

 

[Potatohead]

I figured there were options because some shapes work better than others. Take Reef Octopus for example. They have their Regal line, which is hybrid, and their top of the line Elite, which is wine bottled. The shape is the only thing that differentiates them because they both use the same pump, the Varios, and have similar build quality.

Wine bottle shape is more expensive to make. The Regal line uses two pieces of acrylic to make the body and it's a lot cheaper that way. The Regal line is really nice.

First decision for a skimmer IMO is deciding if you want AC or DC pump. A good quality AC pump is pretty dead nuts reliable. A DC pump has more features, feed mode is nice, but more points of failure.

At the end of the day a decent skimmer may remove 25% of doc's and a good skimmer 30%. It's not an earth shattering difference.

 

[3mm3]

As tall as I can fit in the sump = favorite

 

[stempy]

It's all marketing, as your local public aquarium what shape skimmers they use. They use skimmers that give them the most contact time which coincidentally from all the behind the scenes systems ive gotten to see (a whole 3 public aquariums lol) they were all tall cylinders. Nothing fancy is needed to properly skim other than the correct air/water mix and contact time. Heck ive seen a couple extremeley ugly diy skimmers that helped keep a couple stunning reef tanks going. One was made of plain ol pvc that was something like 8ft tall and ran a 2700 gallon shark tank.

 

[Forsaken77]

It's all marketing, as your local public aquarium what shape skimmers they use. They use skimmers that give them the most contact time which coincidentally from all the behind the scenes systems ive gotten to see (a whole 3 public aquariums lol) they were all tall cylinders. Nothing fancy is needed to properly skim other than the correct air/water mix and contact time. Heck ive seen a couple extremeley ugly diy skimmers that helped keep a couple stunning reef tanks going. One was made of plain ol pvc that was something like 8ft tall and ran a 2700 gallon shark tank.

See, I thought it was all about contact time too. But then one of the BRS videos Ryan did a while back said that the recirculating skimmer was underwhelming compared to a regular skimmer.

I plan to go AC over DC for a skimmer. There's really not a reason for a DC pump on a skimmer imo. Just something to raise the price and add another check mark on the box.

How do you know what the air water mix should be for your tank? Because most manufacturers will give a tank size based on bioload, but skimmers rated for the same size tank can have different air/water rates.

 

[Diesel]

It's still contact time even with a recirculating pump.
Why not one pump that can do it all?

IMO the pump for the skimmer need to be the same size or bigger as you drain the water from your tank.
In my case I have. 200 gallon tank but I have just about 1000 gallon of flow through my sump and my lifereef has the vectra m1 set around 80% which give me with a flow meter around 1400 gallon per hour.
With the Matzei venture I have lots of bubbles and contact time in the skimmer.