Does anyone use a venturi style skimmer? MTC, Lifereef, etc

I run a 78" tall LifeReef on my 400g. I've only had it around 6 months or so and the tank is nowhere close to stocking capacity but it is quite effective so far.

 

I'm running a RO 1000 HOB skimmer on my 65g and it's doing really well at keeping up with, maybe a light to medium, bioload (4 fish about 3in long for now).

 

RO isn't the traditional style of venturi that I believe got2lb is looking for. RO is the typical needlewheel style you see on the market today where the air is drawn into the pump where it gets chopped up by the needlewheel impeller. The venturi style skimmers rely on a powerful pump which pushes water through a venturi injector (commonly a Mazzei injector). The injector focuses the water through a small hole (1/4 inch) where air is drawn in alongside the high speed water jet.

Might seem like a small detail to some on whether the air is drawn in before or after the pump. The other big upside to the venturi style skimmers is you aren't relying on a special needlewheel impeller paired with a specific pump. I can swap out my pump to pretty much any kind of pump (internal or external doesn't matter) as long as it's powerful enough. The downside is they generally require a more powerful pump than the more efficient DC lineup can currently provide. Although a 36" tall skimmer would probably run well on a Jebao DC pump (the 15,000 LPH one). But on a skimmer that's over 6 feet tall I didn't think it could handle the head pressure well enough.

 

Ah ok. Thanks @Actuary! Sorry about that, disregard my comment @got2lb

 

I had a lifereef 36 inch one and used a waveline dc10000 pump and it worked extremely well.

 

I had no problem at all with skimmer. Real reason for upgrading was it was too tall to fit in my new cabinet so I upgraded to this.
Royal Exclusiv Bubble King Supermarin 200 Internal

 

I'll add that I was also considering MTC vs LifeReef and gave MTC a call and an email prior to trying LifeReef. I liked how it sounded like MTC was a sturdier build. However after talking with Jeff from LifeReef on the phone for around 45 minutes I was sold. A couple weeks later I got a response from MTC at which point I had already ordered my LifeReef. The skimmer is incredibly solid, I see no reason why you would ever need even thicker acrylic.

I would highly recommend giving Jeff at LifeReef a call.. he's been making venturi skimmers since the early 90s and knows his stuff.

 

I have used them in the past, work well. However at that level of price point just about every skimmer is going to perform quite well. As stated there are some advantages and disadvantages, but really if looking at a $500 skimmer (or more) and the real world specs match what you need for the system none of them are going make a measurable difference in the quality of the eventual tank. That is to say a venturi vs needlewheel isn't going to make a real difference in the system. But if you prefer one over the other neither one is bad if can handle the bioload!

 

Venturi is on the left and Beckett feed is on the right. As far as how they differ the venturi has airline before the pump and the becket has a pump force water through the black/clear cylinder chambers you can see on the front of the skimmer to the right. the water being force through there draws in air. I know Spazz started just putting massive air pumps on his venturi skimmers. The beckett is aftermarket mod.

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I talked to the guy who added the beckett feed. He told me that it really increased the performance. Personally I think the venturi with the massive air pump would be just as effective. I wont know till I get them online and compare, but thats going to be awhile yet.

Yeah they're huge, the one on the left is just shy of 5' tall and came off a 1000 gallon system at a fish store.

 

This may seem like semantics.. but technically all of these are really venturi skimmers. The broader venturi context simply refers to the way air gets pulled in alongside a fast moving stream of water. The needle wheel skimmers so common in the market today are technically venturi, they pull air into the feed side of pump and chop the bubbles up even finer with the impeller of the pump. Classic venturi skimmers (which is what got2lb was originally looking for) are ones that utilize a venturi injector which looks like a 'T' where the air is sucked into the high pressured water stream.

A mazzei brand injector:


A beckett skimmer refers to the beckett company which made a device for pond fountains. These fountain attachments do a good job of mixing air and water into a spray which just happens to be what we desire in skimmers. The beckett design that became popularized is some modification of a downdraft skimmer with the fountain attachment (which also relies on the venturi principle).

Both the classic venturi and beckett utilize a high powered pump and an injector to mix up air and water. I can't speak to how the Beckett compares performance wise - I've only used classic venturis and needle wheels.

One other thing that I've heard repeated many times is that needle wheels destroy more of the microfauna and pods in your system than non-needle wheel skimmers. I'm not sure to what extent this is true. Koralin Zucht used to advocate away from needlewheel skimmers for this reason in their Zeovit manual for years (until they started producing a needlewheel skimmer). I can say that I actually get live pods in my skimmate cup.. so I'm sure they are able to survive the ride through the skimmer in my LifeReef.

Not sure if you can make the amphipod out or not.. I don't normally skim super wet like this.