What Skimmer?

That's good to hear Jacques its a very good skimmer, which one are you getting?
Armik some very good advice offered, as far as halving the skimmer rating i think that will stay the norm as we as aquarists keep demanding more and more from our skimmers and yes they have changed over the past few years and we are glad to say that many if the skimmers are now available locally. The type of skimmer you get depends on your budget, but having said that there are skimmers that are very reasonable and extremely good value for money, namely the reeftek and octo ranges. You then move into the Deltecs, ATI, New Tunze skimmers and H&S, these being the more expensive German skimmers.
Milli i must apologize, did not mean to open the debate again, am having browser problems at the moment and wrote my post out and did not read it before posting and then lost connection. :flowers:
 
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Hi Alan - many thanks. Yeah, Liaquat offered me a REALLY good deal on a very slightly used RO - not exact sure which model, but I know it's one of the smallest... BUT, good news though, it is a RECIRC model, which according to him, would suite my tank volume fine, especially if I supplement with my existing skimmers.... So, I am biting the bullet, and ONCE again spending more than a R1000 on my tank (this past month was a few $$$$ already :-( BUT, I am actually getting excited now about the new skimmer.... perhaps my tank will improve a 1000x??? (if I can believe what everyone else says about the ReefOcto's)....
 
I am sure you will see a difference in a few weeks with improved skimming, it will certainly help with the algae problem and you may be able to go back to feeding your fish normally.
 
No problem at all Alan. ;)
Thalion, yes we are trying to get the ball valves changes to gate valves, if it’s not possible we hope to get the Gate valves in separately. Will let everyone know if we are successful.
 
I have been doing some research and am down to a choice of 2, the Octo or the ATI both have very good reviews on Reef Central. They both seem like good skimmers was quite surprised at the price difference when i phoned some of the pet shops yesterday.
There also seems to be a fairly new trend recently and that is the deep sand bed. Do they work aswell as everybody says they do? I was going to look at a denitrator, would rather go the deep sand bed, refugium route if they work and save some money.
 
Hi Armik - yeah - ATI is MUCH more expensive. ReefOctopus does seem VERY good. BUT, try and find out more about the ReefTek as well. As it has been said - they are both manufactured at the same plant. BUT, I think that the ReefTek could be had for a bit cheaper than the ReefOctopus (for comparable models)... (Ask Andrew/Millepora/Eco Aquatics for this)....

Deep Sand Bed - DSB - yeah - VERY popular.... BUT, do a bit of reading on it, as the actual depth is indeed important - many people only put DSB's in their sump, others in their main display tank, and others in both their sumps and tanks (I have mine in both - my DSB is about 15cm deep).... I am not too sure if it IS working or not (my nitrate levels ALLWAYS show below 2 on my Salifert test kit - which seems to be good to me - I don't have ammonia levels show at all, and neither any nitrites)...
I see tiny bubbles sometimes escape from my DSB, which I can only presume is either the oxygen, or nitrogen gas being produced by the an-aerobic bacteria converting the nitrates into nitrogen and oxygen....
I do have a LOT of worms creating "worm-tracks" which assist in the gas bubbles escaping to the surface of the DSB....
 
Hey Armik, I use both those skimmers and both sre very good performers, if you enjoy a bit of DIY then the octo is a really fun skimmer with all the mods available for it. Not much you can do to the ATI as it runs like a beast just as is.
 
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