Large skimmer opinions: Bubble King 650 or MRC Orca Pro 3 or 4

Jeffdstafford · Oct 26, 2016

Hey everyone, we just went under contract on a new home, where I will be starting my new build for a seriously large reef tank and addition to the house for a fish room, and I'm trying to do as much prep work ahead of time before I start the build process. I'll definitely start a build thread on here to document the process, but it will probably be next spring before we get finished with the home purchase then the renovations..for some reason my wife's priorities are the rest of the home vs an amazing reef tank..go figure?

I'm leaning toward a 12'x5'x4' ~1700 gallon tank that will be in wall, and will tie in my current 600 gallon reef for extra water volume and use as a frag growout or project tank.. something fun like that. With a large sump, I'll be at 2500+ gallons.

Does anyone have any experience they could share with me on either the large Bubble King skimmers or MRC's Pro line? I'll have room for a large external skimmer in the fish room.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks

Reefing Madness · Oct 27, 2016

Jeffdstafford · Oct 27, 2016

Thanks Reefing Madness! I assume this is going to be a pretty niche audience who both have unexplainably large aquariums and one of these 2 skimmers, but worth a shot!

dragon99 · Oct 27, 2016

You should look into one of these:
https://reefbuilders.com/2016/07/13/check-out-this-powerhouse-all-in-one-filter-from-mat-lss/

Seems like a lot of bang for your buck with that inclusive system.

reefwiser · Oct 27, 2016

You can't go wrong with either of these units. I have several friend with the Royal Exclusiv Bubble Kings. They are built like tanks and easy to work on and clean.

Jeffdstafford · Oct 27, 2016

Thanks for the input Dragon. That skid is very interesting, haven’t seen that before..I'll check into it.

Thanks Reefwiser. What is hard to figure out online is if the crazy price tag on the bubble King is justified vs other brands. I ran a Vertex 300 skimmer before needing to switch to an external external skimmer and loved it's performance , but after finding out the BK650 is $12,500, that's pretty tough to swallow.

Battlecorals · Oct 27, 2016

Any consideration for a Deltec? The 3070s would be a great fit on 1700+ or you could step up to the 4580. I own and have used both skimmers and can give you some real world feedback, albeit a bit biased lol. trust me, I hate shilling in threads like this but let me know if you'd be interested in any more info on The Deltecs at all.

mcarroll · Oct 27, 2016

So is it going to be more like "1700 gallons+", or is the system really going to have 2500 stocked gallons?

If it's going to be the 1700 gallons+ I'd consider these my top picks:

Tunze Master DOC Skimmer 9480 ($1400)

AquaC EV2000 ($800 plus pump)

I like both of these for superior ease of cleaning and superior performance.

If you could find an old ETSS 1400 or larger, that would also be nice performance-wise, but then you're getting into thumb-screws.....not a big fan of thumb screws as cleaning times go up by 10x. I like all of these better than MRC skimmers. Used small and large ones and they are among my least favorites.

Jeffdstafford · Oct 27, 2016

Hey Adam, I've never had any experience with Deltec, so haven't considered them up to this point. I'd love to hear your experience on both models; you can PM me if it's frowned upon to talk about it here since you're a sponsor. Thanks!

mcarroll · Oct 27, 2016

AquaC would do a custom if you asked, too. I really like their design.

Jeffdstafford · Oct 27, 2016

Mcarroll, the 1700 gallon display will be heavily stocked, then the remaining 500-1000 gallons will either be non stocked, or lightly stocked, depending on if I decided to set up a side setup with the current 600gallon system I will tie in to the total system.

I'll have to research the Tunze, never looked into them before, but their quality is great on the other products I've used. I had a smaller Aqua C years ago and wasn't in love with it, but I'll look at the one you mentioned as well.

So can you expand on your experience with MRC and why they are your least favorite? I've never used their stuff or personally known anyone who has, just have to go by online research.

mcarroll · Oct 27, 2016

In a nutshell, they are the hardest to clean. So many thumbscrews. So many parts that foul during normal use and affect performance. Always seemed more needy and less responsive than other skimmers.

We mostly used these and ETSS where I used to work. Mostly ETSS. Some Euro Reef's and a few misc. others too of course.

Jeffdstafford · Oct 27, 2016

I see, yeah ease of maintenance will definitely dictate whether it actually gets done or not. Thanks a lot for the insight and recommendations, you've given me some more options to look into!

mcarroll · Oct 27, 2016

Jeffdstafford said:
Hey Adam, I've never had any experience with Deltec, so haven't considered them up to this point. I'd love to hear your experience on both models; you can PM me if it's frowned upon to talk about it here since you're a sponsor. Thanks!

Personally, at least, I'd like to see it talked about here! Deltec is a classic brand that gets little "radio play".....turn it up!

mcarroll · Oct 28, 2016

I'll also add that I was distracted with "real life" earlier and I'd forgotten you specified the MRC Orca.

Not many thumbscrews and no becketts! I can't comment too much beyond that, except to say it doesn't change my recommendations.

I personally ran an AquaC EV90 (one of their first models I got second hand years ago; still have it in dry dock) up until my current skimmer, which is the little Tunze 9410. Love them both quite a bit.

The Tunze pumps are so efficient that the system dropped almost 60 watts compared to the AquaC.

(I had to add heaters to make up for 100% of the watts I lost in the switch. Chasing efficiency numbers is silly in the LED age. Glad that wasn't a reason for the switch.)