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Ok so here is my testing results. Water level skimmer is sitting in is 6.5 inches in all tests.
So yeah if you're skimmer in roughly 6 to 7 inches of water at wide open everything and doesn't pull 53 watts or thereabouts, we have a pretty big difference in what the pumps want to do. Now, the more I've thought about it the more I've realized it may not be a mod to the pump or impeller spec at all... it might be that vertex simply optimized some of the volute components or other tertiary parts they spec and machine in-house since those are probably the cheapest pieces to R/D and make on the fly updates to.
In any case, I'm glad your unit doesn't seem to suffer from overpowered pump syndrome and is working optimally. The fact that mine requires so much volute and air restriction just to be workable with the standpipe actually functioning as a means to control water level in the skimmer body and the pump still pulls 35 watts is pretty gnarly. I have a bubble magus curve 7 next to it in the sump that looks like a child's toy in comparison and pulls about 14 watts. The funny thing is they produce almost exactly proportional levels of skimmate to their relative body sizes and pump draws. Basically they are about the same efficiency per watt in my applications and looking at the design of the two, it's pretty clear that bubble magus used a lot of influence from the vertex omega line. Edit: just for a laugh I looked at the bubble magus pump power factor (PF) - this is stock with no mods by me to any functional part of the skimmer, just adjusted the standpipe to the right level once it was plugged in - It's PF is 0.20.... Just lol that's incredible to me how low it is.
And, yeah, hate to be that guy making you question the return pumps haha. You'll be fine with the sicce's IMO. I've just had a few clients in the past who'd had various quietone's in the 1000gph range which suffered issues with the front bearings sticking on power off restarts if even a tiny piece of grit got into them. Otherwise strong, quiet pumps for the dollar. The askoll blocks and rotors have that shrouded front bearing with the volute pressure driven cooling duct and bearing flush slot built into the rotor well. Just a really well thought out and optimized design for a balance of efficiency and decent ruggedness for the type of pump it is. Best place to get fluval stuff is amazon actually. It's very hard to beat amazon's prices even buying wholesale once you factor in the tax and extra hassle. I think Hagen just has a really good deal selling direct through amazon so it makes it hard to beat them from any of the other aquarium retailers. Probably why you don't usually see the fluvals go on sale at your usual online aquarium retail suspects.
Following!
If anything 8 inches of water should make life easier on the pump so in theory it would pull more wattage than at a lower water level with the higher effective head pressure. And yes, both the vertex and bubble magus are in the same sump. It's 7 feet so there's plenty of space lol. Used to have a much larger dual askoll pump powered skimmer in there but it was just too big for the 430ish gallons of the total system and the amount of nutrient the corals and coralline algae were demanding so I pulled it off and ran skimmerless for a bit. Just threw the smaller ones in there for gas exchange really more than waste removal.Thank you for posting these results! Very interesting to note that your optimized specifications are very similar to the parameters that the pump on mine is operating as stock. I do have the skimmer currently running in 8+ inches of water. I will go back and make some adjustments to try to recreate the environment you have noted in your tests. I will report back, with the additional test point results that you have made note of (pf, VA, etc).
This is a very good point, and something that I did not consider. I will take some time over the next couple of days and take some measurements of volute, volute nozzle, impeller, and motor block, and report back. Differences in the size/weight of the motor block could indicate that a different motor block was put in to service, while differences in proprietary components may indicate made on this front. As an aside, it may be easier to just reach out to Vertex (or the supplier) to ask what changes have been made - but that would take all of the fun out of it!
Out of curiosity, is this an observation while the skimmers are in service simultaneously, or separately?
Now you've done it! I'm seriously contemplating returning the Sicce's, and picking up 2 of the Fluval SP4's. One question before I make the move: how is the noise level?
Ha ha ha ha!
Leak test sat!. Finally making water!