Protein Skimmer?

[RyanG]

You should look into a DIY Beckett style skimmer but keep in mind. Everything to build it is EXPENSIVE! Acrylic valves pumps injectors etc. You would probably be better off buying a needlewheels skimmer. For about 200 bucks you can get a decent Octopus or ASM g series skimmer and save yourself a headache and some money!

[ronboy]

i have a berlin triple pass venturi skimmer but it dosent work worth %$@.I had a seaclone that produced more skimmate than this berlin. i have been on rc and that were i got the idea of building my own.i want a etss 600 or barr skimmer style.thanks for your input i appreciate it

[ronboy]

i just spent 200 on this damn berlin i hate so much.....

[d.french]

how deep of water is it in, i had a classic berlin that did awesome but it was in 8 inches of water, in sump not hang on.

[ronboy]

its in the sump...its under about a foot of water.

[RyanG]

Have you adjusted the water depth? I would play with it a bunch before I gave up on a 200 investment.

[ronboy]

ya know i have done evrything i could think of. when you first plug it in it works sweet, massive bubblesand a lot of skimmate for only around an hour.then the bubbles start to dissapear then eventually nothing.its brand spankin new w/mag 7.i have read the instruction 100 times and nothing changes.could it just be defective in some way.or i just have bad luck.

[d.french]

i don't know about a foot of water, i had mine in 8 inches and the guy i got it from had it in 9 inches. So far i have read in sump skimmer being in 6 to 10 inches of water never a foot, can you put something under it to raise it up higher. plus make sure your air line is out of water and clean. Salt creep will build up in air line so dump hot ro water in air tube to dissolve build up every so often.

[McCrary]

I would go out and get a MSX-200, that should be able to handle your tank pretty well. They run around $350, which is definitely some coin, but it should be able to handle your tank and you won't have to keep shelling out cash to replace skimmers that don't cut it.

[fatman]

The Corallife skimmer is about the best bang for your buck. An octopus needle wheel is better made but more expensive. A Turboflotor has the best pump between an Octopus and the Turboflotor but the Turboflotor is made of cheaper plastic just like the Corallife. An ASM also is made of cheap extruded plastic. The above skimmers all pretty much perform close to each other. The technology is the same and the pump capacities are pretty near the same. Adjustments are made differently with each skimmer other than taht the only differ in their materials and pump qualities. A really good needle wheel could be made using good cell cast acyrlic tubing and a replacement pump sold for a Turboflotor, but it would cost as much or more than any of the before mentioned skimmers not including any tools you might need to buy to make the skimmer. Some people are still making homemade skimmers out of PVC pipe and fittings with Becketts (fountain foam jets), but it is hard enough to run a skimmer well when you cn see inside it and you can not see inside a PVC skimmer. A Beckett is also noisy and inefficient, but cheap for the large capacities they can handle. However, operation costs for Beckett type skimmers are higher than for any comparable capacity needlewheel skimmer.