Are Reef Octopus skimmers still some of the best?

[devildog1986]

Hey y'all,

Its been a minute since i've Posted on here. Funny thing is I renewed my membership to sell my tanks, but in the end decided to keep a 125 fish only and convert it into a "dream reef tank". Im working on getting a new sump, and all the equipment to maintain a sps,lps, and any other coral I can think of in there. My question is about skimmers. I've always used Reef Octopus. Are they still some of the best out there? is there any other Brands that you might suggest worth looking into and compared to the durability of Reef Octopus. Or should I continue using what I consider a great product? Look forward to the responses.

[FarmerTy]

I used a Skimz for awhile and was happy with its construction and design. It was uber quiet and made of thick acrylic. I was pretty happy with its performance as well as I thought it was pulling great skimmate.

That being said, my only complaint for a newer brand that was supposed to be an improvement over older skimmer designs was it really wasn't. It was supposed to be more powerful in a smaller package but really, it was just a smaller skimmer with an over-advertised capacity. When I picked up a Reef Octopus rated at the same capacity as the Skimz unit I had, I realized I bought into marketing hype. Smaller didn't mean more efficient for the newer skimmers, it just means less capacity. The Reef Octopus blew the Skimz away. The only real improvements to tried and true skimmer designs I see these days are putting the pump inside for space saving it throwing a DC pump in it instead of a regular pump. Otherwise, they keep trying to improve on an already maxxed out design.

Keep the Reef Octopus I say.

[Who Am I ?]

I used a Reef Octopus for a while and then changed to an AquaMaxx.
I would say that the construction quality is comparable on both, meaning not built with super thick acrylic but still constructed very well.
For me and my system, the AM has proven to be more consistent although there are plenty of people out there using RO with fantastic results.

Much like everything else in this hobby, YMMV.

[devildog1986]

I have the older version of the reef octopus. sounds like its best just to stay with what I have

[JimH]

I really like my RO 110-int skimmer, it's been solid for two years so far ...