Is lifereef really the best skimmer?

[ChrisQ0904]

If it's just RO water, no skimmer will work. It needs to be salt water for any skimmer to perform properly.

That I know, but if I add salt will it be ok? I don't want to add ~180g of salt to find out the water is no good.

 

[Water Dog]

How long has it been stagnant?

 

[ChrisQ0904]

Since tuesday

 

[ChrisQ0904]

Well, filling since Tuesday and maybe no added water since Thursday

 

[Water Dog]

I think you should be fine. In fact, once you add salt, I wouldn't even run the skimmer until the tank cycles.

 

[ChrisQ0904]

Pardon the post hurricane mess

[emoji7]

 

[jason2459]

That skimmer will be great. Which pump is that?

Couple things, is there an intake strainer for the pump? I would use it to remove the chance of a small snail or larger getting sucked up and jammed in the venturi.

If you're going to use a barb make sure to secure it on with some kind of clamp. There are nylon ones. I don't really even like seeing zip ties. Also, if you are going to go with a barb connection and a clamp to secure it I would use a barb on the pump and not the pvc pipe.

Otherwise I ditched nylon tubing all together on mine and used a union and spa flex and used abs to pvc glue. Prime the pvc not the abs and then use transition cement.

My jebao 18000 came with a 1 1/2" fitting but 1 1/2" coupler wouldn't go on at all. 1 1/2" bushing didn't fit right either so took it to the hardware store to find a good snug one. Found a 1 1/4" bushing to 1" fit nicely inside.

Transition Cement

Cemented in and union on top. Hard to see but the strainer is on the front.

Then you can do all kinds of fun crazy things like experiment with dual venturi intectors

Try different size injectors

Or attempt to make it a Beckett. lol

 

[ChrisQ0904]

That skimmer will be great. Which pump is that?

Couple things, is there an intake strainer for the pump? I would use it to remove the chance of a small snail or larger getting sucked up and jammed in the venturi.

If you're going to use a barb make sure to secure it on with some kind of clamp. There are nylon ones. I don't really even like seeing zip ties. Also, if you are going to go with a barb connection and a clamp to secure it I would use a barb on the pump and not the pvc pipe.

Otherwise I ditched nylon tubing all together on mine and used a union and spa flex and used abs to pvc glue. Prime the pvc not the abs and then use transition cement.

My jebao 18000 came with a 1 1/2" fitting but 1 1/2" coupler wouldn't go on at all. 1 1/2" bushing didn't fit right either so took it to the hardware store to find a good snug one. Found a 1 1/4" bushing to 1" fit nicely inside.

Transition Cement

Cemented in and union on top. Hard to see but the strainer is on the front.

Then you can do all kinds of fun crazy things like experiment with dual venturi intectors

Try different size injectors

Or attempt to make it a Beckett. lol

So far it has been amazing! I don't have the strainer on it but I can always throw it on. I did end up using the plastic clamps to secure the clear plastic to the barbs. Still a very small bio load on the tank so it's having a tough time keeping a constant skim with only 5 fish in the tank. The tank is now going through the algae bloom process so maybe it will start producing a little more.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I have not read all four pages and apologize if it's already been stated, but Feldman did a study on skimmers and with the ones he looked at, "the least expensive skimmer (the Precision Marine ES100) offers the greatest rate of TOC removal.

HERE is the link to that Feldman paper. It's a long article, but at least take a look at the pretty colored graph just before the conclusion. I'll attempt to paste it here, if I can:

 

[Bpb]

I️ interpreted the data differently. The Venturi driven Precision Marine was rated the highest VALUE, but one of the lower % TOC removal. At 24+-4% it’s the second lowest but being as inexpensive as it is, it is of a higher value for what it does, than the others. By a large margin. Right?

Looks like you do get what you pay for though with a bubble king. They carry quite a price tag but they really do pull the most from the water. I’m not paying $800+ for a skimmer in that size class though.

That PM ES100 is a pretty similar design to the lifereef.

 

[mcarroll]

Also from the article:

in the larger picture, it is equally apparent that if an aquarist runs a skimmer continuously (24/7), then any of the skimmers tested would perform adequately in terms of rate of TOC removal; the only practical differences might involve the frequency of skimmer cup cleaning. A perhaps more interesting observation to emerge from these skimmer studies involves not the rate of TOC removal, but rather the amount of TOC removed. None of the skimmers tested removed more than 35% of the extant TOC...

And even more interesting point and one utterly left out of the analysis is the effect a skimmer has on gas exchange and what effect that has on corals. I think it's coincidence that any waste is removed during skimming and the value of that waste removal is even up for debate IMO.

2¢

 

[RobertP]

Good point. I feed pretty consistently and my Lifereef is plugging away 24/7 but does not always produce skimmate. I do not see this as a bad thing either. I use a CO2 reactor on the intake so I see the skimmer as pushing O2 back into the water and helping to keep my Ph above 8....along with pulling out waste if available. Filter socks and refugium are pulling out waste as well. If I didn't have either of these the skimmer would pull out a whole lot more. In my system the 3 are doing such a good job that I have to dose Potassium Nitrate just to keep my nitrate levels at 4ppm! PO3 is at .001 with a GFO reactor running.

 

[RobertP]

Another advantage is the ease of changing out pumps! My water mover pump died a few weeks ago so decided with black friday specials to go ahead and upgrade my skimmer pump from the Mag 9.5 to the Sicce 5.0. Pulled the skimmer out of the sump, made the pump swap (both pumps used the same size output), and cleaned up the skimmer with wet paper towels, and put it all back in the sump again. Had to open the valve slightly to account for the additional water and DONE. Thing was pushing bubbles around like crazy and now I have a nice powerful mag 9.5 for water changes!

Nice part is now I am down to 51 watts for the skimmer pump instead of the Mag 9.5 using about 95 watts.

 

[Adele]

I’ll put in my 2 cents. I inherited my Lifereef skimmer, Sump and Fuge as second hand at LFS and was glad the decision was made for me but it was a good one by previous owner.
Very “KISS” friendly and since this was my first one to use ever it was nice to have. When I had some replacement issues (o rings, fitting and reactor replacement) Jeff Turcheck was very helpful and offered a lot of advise not only on the Sump but with an algae problem in another tank. Great guy to work with who stands behind his product even if you are a newbie dork like me.

 

[Kallor]

How much noise do Lifereef skimmers make compared to modern quiet needle-wheel designs? I read through the thread I didn’t see noise come up.

Interesting discussion nonetheless!

 

[RobertP]

Noise is a huge deal to me since mine is under the tank in the house. I am running a Sicce 5 pump that is super quiet so that is not an issue. BTW, the mag9.5 that was on it was quiet too, it just used more watts. I do hear air moving in the skimmer but when I close the cabinet doors I hear nothing. Out of the box the airline is pulling from the skimmer cup which drowns out any sucking sound and holds the lid down. I have mine running to a CO2 reactor which helps bring up the ph. Again I do not notice any noise from the skimmer.

 

[ChrisQ0904]

How much noise do Lifereef skimmers make compared to modern quiet needle-wheel designs? I read through the thread I didn’t see noise come up.

Interesting discussion nonetheless!

I have a vertex omega and my lifereef in the same room and I can tell you that the vertex skimmer make significantly more noise. I can unplug the vertex and you can instantly tell that it is off. With the life reef (using jebao pump) when I unplug it there is no noticeable noise difference.

 

[Bpb]

I cannot hear my lifereef at all when the stand is closed. I can hear the Venturi a little if I open the stand and get my head real close. Noise level will really depend on what pump you use. The Venturi, when hooked up to the cup, just sounds like a faint white noise. Not a slurping, bubbling, burping, or a hum. Just a faint white noise.

 

[Mark Gray]

Life Reef's are great skimmers I have one right now. Set and forget empty the cup, I have had 4 other skimmers before this one this one takes me laess time to deal with. but they are big

 

[Mark Gray]

Another advantage is the ease of changing out pumps! My water mover pump died a few weeks ago so decided with black friday specials to go ahead and upgrade my skimmer pump from the Mag 9.5 to the Sicce 5.0. Pulled the skimmer out of the sump, made the pump swap (both pumps used the same size output), and cleaned up the skimmer with wet paper towels, and put it all back in the sump again. Had to open the valve slightly to account for the additional water and DONE. Thing was pushing bubbles around like crazy and now I have a nice powerful mag 9.5 for water changes!

Nice part is now I am down to 51 watts for the skimmer pump instead of the Mag 9.5 using about 95 watts.

Interesting I may do that same thing