Going to buy a new skimmer, Deltec External Protein Skimmer APF600 Possibly

[Noober]

Ok who here has the lowdown on some nice deltecs, I've seen a lot of people that get tank of the month on rc using them. I only have 150 gallons of total water volume including sump, and possibly 180 when I add a fuge in the future. That is not subtracting the lack of volume due to 200 lbs of live rock and 120 lbs of live sand taking up water space. Ok when incometax gets here, I'm going to spend about 1000 USD on a skimmer that will serve this tank for the rest of its life. I need some great solid for sure answers here please lol. If i can get away with spending less that is always awsome. I am wondering if these lower end deltecs are just as good, but made for less water volume as the 1000-7000$ deltecs. Please help me on this one! Thanks~ Matt

[Noober]

I was also wondering, these aquabee pumps that come with the cheaper deltecs, I have hurd bad things about them. If my pump goes out can I just buy any ehiem pump that matches the flow rate of the aquabee? Or does it need to be a special pump? Thanks!

[Texreefer]

Deltecs are great, but they won't get you tank of the month. I got rid of my deltec and got an octopus and love it for 1/3 the cost.. if my octopus is pulling out skimmate and your deltec is pulling out skimmate there is really not a whole lot of difference as long as the job is getting done,, JMO

[Noober]

Kudo's for the info tex. I will definatly look into it. In your opinion the Reef Octopus is definatly as good as the deltec huh. Thanks a lot dude you might have just free'd up some cash. Let me know what you use for a calcium reactor man. thanks again, cant say it enough haha

[Noober]

ooh yeah what series of octopus is it and how many gallons are your running in your new tank dood. thanks!

[Texreefer]

I would say the end result is the same, it skims the water. I think I have the dual 160 with about 300gals of water

[DrMark]

I will agree with Mike.
Another choice I run on both my tanks is the Lifereef VS-2-24 or SVS-2-24.
I run one internally and one externally, but basically same skimmer.
Cost around $400 each. Great skimmers.
mark

[SoLiD]

If you Like Deltec then You'll Love D.A.S. They are Deltec Clones at half the price. They are made near Dallas, TX, too. I run a D.A.S. EX-2 and I love its performance. Check them out.

DAS Skimmers Link (http://stores.petorama.net/Categories.bok?category=Aquarium+Supplies%3APumps% 2FFilters%3AFilters)

[fishypets]

If you have the coin to spend on a Deltec why not get a Bubble King? Having both at some point in time I'd say the B.K. is a superior skimmer to the Deletc and requires less maint (e.g. cleaning salt deposits from the small air intake tubing) Just my .02

[Noober]

i was thinking about that and talking to some guys on reef central about it, but in the end i think im gonna get a Reef Octopus PRO 250 Needle
Wheel Protein Skimmer. its five hundred bucks. If i skip out on all the name brand stuff and go with all more bang for the buck stuff I'm getting further fast. for instance instead of just getting a skimmer, calc reactor, and a kalk stirrer. I'm getting all that plus an aqua controller III pro with hopefully some tunze powerheads and all my co2 equipment, ooh yeah and some test kits. I reall wish the tunze's wernt so expensive because I need to get a refuge custom built to fit under my stand after i get all this packed into it, if it even will, it will be close, i just might have to put another cabinet next to it all for some of the exterior stuff to go into. and I also need a phosban reactor. shoot. lol ooh well im getting close then i can start getting frags and seeing if they are taking off once i get it dialed in. thanks for all the comments

[stoneroller]

I'm in the DAS (smells like Deltec) club. I run a one pump unit with about 80 gallons system volume. Love it.

PS. I don't think you can just swap out Aquabee pumps for the Eheims. FYI, I haven't had any issues with the pump or the impellers.

[Bill S]

I will echo Mike's comment, with a bit of clarification:

Getting RC's TOM will take a lot more than a Deltec skimmer. Just ask Brian ;-) (aka Greenmako - a Maastard with a former RC TOM).

Unless you have unlimited funds, there are a lot of things I can think of that will better contribute to your tank, than a Deltec sikimmer. Doin't get me wrong - they are the best money can buy. I've spent in the 5 figures on my tank over the last 3 years, and I can't see spending on a Deltec...

[Noober]

hahah sorry that was a misunderstanding, I was just browsing through the rc totm's and i was noting what all thoes guys were using. Not that i wouldnt want a totm though haha. anyway I'm going with the octopus, i have a friend that used thoes and he says they were good and texreefer seconded it so i'm gonna give it a shot for the 500 bucks it seems like a good deal. Thanks a lot everyone!

[DrMark]

As far as a media reactor goes, I run one on each of the tanks also:
I have a deltec with rowaphos in it and I have a Next Reef MR1 with rowaphos in it.
Both with MJ600's. Both work great at fliudising the rowaphos. The Next Reef is only about $70. I run the deltec in sump and Next Reef externally.
mark

[Noober]

Thanks for the good info dr. mark. It's much appricated. I think I'm gonna go with a geo to save some money. I also have read good things about the octopus pro 300 but i cant fit that in my sump. I have read bad things about the motor in the 250's pump though, so I think i'm gonna choose another skimmer than the reef octo pro 250. I've been looking at several but Have not made a choice, when I do i'll post on here for you guys to comment on. Thanks a lot! :)

[greenmako]

I use a Deltec AP902 and love it, if you got the money to blow go for it. If not then you will be happy with most of the skimmers that where mentioned.
I've used some of them, past skimmers include Life Reef VS24, Euro Reef RC500, and a couple of Euro Reef knockoffs. If I had to do it all over again I would still buy my Deltec b/c it out produces the others.

[Noober]

Hey mako, can you make a solid decison on any of these skimmers in my new list:
(i need to spend money on some other stuff too like the aqua controller, calc reactor, kalk stirrer and some tunzes)
Xtreme Cone 250A
ATB Small
ATB Econo
MSX 250
MSX 200
MSX Extreme 250
CAT-2 internal
Hurricone Cat 1
Bubble King 180


Thanks dude I really wanna get the most skimmage for the buck.

[greenmako]

the only one I've seen in action out of that list is the bubble king and it is a very good producer. I've also seen some nice tanks that run two medium size skimmers that really pull some skimate. It will be more work for you thou as far as cleaning and maintaining.

[thedude]

I'll give ya'll my opinion since I retail a lot of the skimmers mentioned. First off, no skimmer brand is perfect and certain models do better than others. As Brian mentioned, the AP902 is the workhorse of the Deltec brand. The pumps are sized appropriately to the body, you can find an eheim to easily feed it, and it just works. I also believe that a Deltec modded Eheim is different than an Euroreef modded Eheim for the better. It helps when you have the tech support of Marvin to back you up. Deltec did go through some major changes however and isn't the rock solid experience it once was. I like the smaller Deltec model skimmers, they work and are external, BUT the aquabee pump is the weak link. Marvin has made replacement parts much more affordable but I wouldn't expect an Aquabee to last over 5 years.

Bubbleking is another great brand but has its fair share of problems. First, the distributor will try to help you but does not know much about the product, and is dealing directly with a foreign country. Everything takes unnecessary time. The BK mini and SuperMarin's also are entirely dependant on a constant water level. They flat will not work with an ATO plain and simple. The red dragon pump on a bubbleking is a superior pump IMO to an eheim but also harder to dial in, and harder to service. External bubbleking models are governed by the same problems as Deltecs and the 300 and 500 models seem to be their workhorses.

When I sell AGE tanks to people that I don't service I ask them a couple questions. Do you like tinkering, have you owned a reef tank before? The Deltec is solid, easy to tune and works. It also is backed up by a really nice guy and is pretty easy to get replacement parts for. I do believe that a Bubbleking has the potential to do a better job skimming but only with proper adjustment.

Of the other skimmers you mentioned, I'd look entirely at the pump. Eheims are rock solid, RD's are great, I think ATB's new pump is supposed to be great. I tend to stay away from Sicce pumps as they don't have a great reputation.

Hope that helps,

John

[sharkboy]

i've read some good things on the ATBs...

[Noober]

I think i'm going to try the new hurricone CAT 1. It has an Askoll model 1500 on it and I've read some really good things about that model # of askoll pumps. Octopus suppsidly redid the pumps and they have great motors supposidly and people that have used these skimmers said it works good. Its not a full cone but semi cone, and I cant complain its not at the price of a full cone either haha. The size is what im looking for to fit my stand and the price is about right for me at the moment. Hopefully this one willd o good for me. Thanks everyone!

[LoneStar]

I think i'm going to try the new hurricone CAT 1.

Do you have any info on this? I've never heard of it before.

[Noober]

Well lonestar, I can send you to a thread i started on RC, it is where people told me of it. It is new as of this month i think. Basically you have the octopus pro skimmers, most of them had sub par pumps on them, and the 300 did have the askoll 1500 or whatever with the good motor in it. They modded the parts in the pump and made the body a slight cone and probably did a couple other upgrades, but in the end they seem to have made a much better skimmer, its more expensive but I've hurd some good things about it. I googled it and there was some info on it from before they were shipped out. Thanks for the input man!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1577927&perpage=25&pagenumber=2