February 19th Skimmer Meeting

i wish i had seen this before now, i would have liked to hear this!

 

Thanks for a great meeting Joel! Very informative and great to see old and new faces.

 

Great meeting... thanks to all for the information.

 

Thanks to everyone! I had a great time and got to learn a little. Hope to see everyone at the next meeting!!

 

Thanks everyone, it was great meeting, seeing you again, very informative meeting, and thanks Joel for hosting it.

 

Good meeting.  Nice to see such a good attendance.  Hopefully we can keep this going!
Just following up on what we talked about yesterday  Last night it was said that the club had a recommendation for the Octopus skimmers - so I did some looking at them today.    I see them classified as 1) Hang-on back; 2) Needle wheel; 3) Re-circulating (I believe needle wheel also), 3) Pro and 4) Extreme.  Which version have club members had experience with?  I'm starting to think about replacing the one I have (Sea Urchin pro - basically the Remora but in the sump).  I'm not looking at hang-on back and the Pro and Extreme are definitely more expensive.  SOr really it comes down to the Needle wheel and re-circulating needle wheel.  Do club members have experience with these versions. 

 

i know i know.. i should have been there lastnight ... and i have not looked for modifications to the remora lately... but what is the best way to get the best bang out of a remora skimmer-leave it alone or mod it; and how? i am going to set up my 29gal tanks again and get my 72 set up this summer. maybe just a link that someone knows of would be a good start for me. i won't be getting to it any time soon... like in a couple months hopefully. Thanks in advance!

 

Posted By beckerj3 on 02/20/2009 02:25 PM
Good meeting.  Nice to see such a good attendance.  Hopefully we can keep this going!
Just following up on what we talked about yesterday  Last night it was said that the club had a recommendation for the Octopus skimmers - so I did some looking at them today.    I see them classified as 1) Hang-on back; 2) Needle wheel; 3) Re-circulating (I believe needle wheel also), 3) Pro and 4) Extreme.  Which version have club members had experience with?  I'm starting to think about replacing the one I have (Sea Urchin pro - basically the Remora but in the sump).  I'm not looking at hang-on back and the Pro and Extreme are definitely more expensive.  SOr really it comes down to the Needle wheel and re-circulating needle wheel.  Do club members have experience with these versions. 
Beckerj3, i don't have any experience with a recirc-octo. as far as mesh wheel or needle wheel this is what i read the needle wheel is a great option for someone one who wants to plug and play as you  don't have to tune them as much,and  supposely they don't pull as much air, the mesh-mod is a little more work because if you put to much mesh on the impeller sometimes you will have startup issues with it and they pull a little more air. There used to be a huge thread on RC comparing them.  One thing about the recirc is you will have to have a feed pump to it , where just a reg. needle wheel you will not.  Keep reading about them.  A few people over in the QC areas have the skimmers i think so you might ask them as well. 
By the way it was nice meeting everybody.....

 

i had a good time. I think i'm going to stick with my skimmer for n now coralife 125 needlewheel. it works well for me and hangs on my sump instead of inside which i like personally. if i go to another one i will prolly go with an octopus. i just listened to LSF and the guy said he had a couple octopus's and they didn't hold up well for him or work well. oh well i learned alot and had a good time, can't wait for a tank tour though /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/wink.gif

 

Posted By mcclandy on 02/20/2009 02:41 PM
i know i know.. i should have been there lastnight ... and i have not looked for modifications to the remora lately... but what is the best way to get the best bang out of a remora skimmer-leave it alone or mod it; and how? i am going to set up my 29gal tanks again and get my 72 set up this summer. maybe just a link that someone knows of would be a good start for me. i won't be getting to it any time soon... like in a couple months hopefully. Thanks in advance!
The only way to modify remora skimmers is to upgrade the pump on them as far as I know, I upgraded my pump to mag 7 on remora pro at one point in time to get more out of it.

 

Cagri, I have heard of putting the larger pump on them.... did it make the upgrade well worth it in your opinion? thanks for the reply

 

Posted By mcclandy on 02/22/2009 01:13 PM
Cagri, I have heard of putting the larger pump on them.... did it make the upgrade well worth it in your opinion? thanks for the reply I think so, it was definately an improvement, but honestly mag 7 was almost too much without a taller neck collection cup, I could only get wet skimmate, perhaps mag 5 would have been better with stock collection cup, also periodic(monthly at least) cleaning of the injectors on these skimmers make a big difference in my experience.

 

Hi everyone!

Beckerj3, I haven't had experience with Octopus line of skimmers, but I can say that ( and this is just my opinion! ) the re-circulating needle wheel is the way to go. It allows you more versatility, with out hindering the skimming proses. You can run a slow gravity feed from your main tank, which allows the water entering the skimmer more time to be processed, thus cleaner when it leaves the skimmer. Or you can run a feed pump and run it that way. You could even use a needle wheel feed pump to double the out put of the skimmer.

Just a thought. Hope my 2 cents helps.  I hope to make it out there for the frag swap, so I can meet the Des Moines crew. See ya guys there!!

 

-Rick-

 

Posted By beckerj3 on 02/20/2009 02:25 PM
Good meeting.  Nice to see such a good attendance.  Hopefully we can keep this going!
Just following up on what we talked about yesterday  Last night it was said that the club had a recommendation for the Octopus skimmers - so I did some looking at them today.    I see them classified as 1) Hang-on back; 2) Needle wheel; 3) Re-circulating (I believe needle wheel also), 3) Pro and 4) Extreme.  Which version have club members had experience with?  I'm starting to think about replacing the one I have (Sea Urchin pro - basically the Remora but in the sump).  I'm not looking at hang-on back and the Pro and Extreme are definitely more expensive.  SOr really it comes down to the Needle wheel and re-circulating needle wheel.  Do club members have experience with these versions. 
I have a needlewheel and it does pretty good. I don't know if the cost of adding a second pump is worth the results for a recirculating skimmer. An alternative is to perform the mesh mod on the needlewheel. The mesh is very cheap and it greatly increased the performance of my skimmer.