Swabbie owners?

skinz78 · Feb 8, 2011

I recently upgraded my tank and I reused my old skimmer which is a Reef Octopus NW150 on steroids, it has been modded by Luke at Reef Filtration. I am debating on upgrading my skimmer or wondering if I added a Swabbie if it would make a big difference or not? The tank is a 120g heavily stocked with a total water volume of about 130g including the sump.

Are there any pluses of minus's that owners have found with them?

sportzfish · Feb 8, 2011

For me there have been no issues other than the assembly should be cleaned about once a month (that is just my preference, if you are not picky then you could probably go for a long time without doing so). If you do get the swabbie, be sure you have something to collect the gunk. I have the swabbie locker and the auto shut off switch to my skimmer which saved me from an overflow situation when the locker got too full.

dnov99 · Feb 8, 2011

Completely agree with the above poster, as I have both pieces also and have not had a problem at all. Its a pleasure to not have to touch my skimmer for a month and still have it running flawlessly...

btkrausen · Feb 8, 2011

Thanks for posting this skinz, I've been looking for the same info. I've been really thinking about getting one, so I was curious to see the reviews on them.

skinz78 · Feb 8, 2011

Thanks for sharing guys, do you think I should get the Swabbie or ugrade the skimmer?

Jcr's Reef · Feb 8, 2011

I'm running the ATB Elegance 200 and have been contemplating on adding the swabbie myself. Is it really worth it is what I'm asking myself right now? Taking a toothbrush and swabbing out the inside of the neck every day or so and rinsing the toothbrush in RO water isn't too hard for me to do to keep foam production up. Manually doing it also give me reason to check on my equipment everyday. But I want the swabbie!
Sorry skinz. I'm no help either :xd:
but you could try the "toothbrush" method and see if your skimmer collects more skimmate by keeping the gunk out of the neck to help justify your decision.

m and m · Feb 8, 2011

I have never personaly used one but i have played with one and use to own the old Deltec one when they where crazy exspesive, Swabbie seems to be the same thing just with out a thousand pluse price tag. I mean i dont think it will make a very big diffrence in what your skimmer pulls out. so if your current skimmer is not pulling out the kinda stuff you want it to my answer would be no i dont think this will boost the promofance to let say hold another 25G of water when it was just getting by on your previouse set up. The swabbie IMO is more for a luxary, Right now i clean my skimmer neck once a week, with the old deltec i use to do it every 3-4 weeks.

btkrausen · Feb 8, 2011

Jcr's Reef said:
I'm running the ATB Elegance 200 and have been contemplating on adding the swabbie myself. Is it really worth it is what I'm asking myself right now? Taking a toothbrush and swabbing out the inside of the neck every day or so and rinsing the toothbrush in RO water isn't too hard for me to do to keep foam production up. Manually doing it also give me reason to check on my equipment everyday. But I want the swabbie!
Sorry skinz. I'm no help either :xd:
but you could try the "toothbrush" method and see if your skimmer collects more skimmate by keeping the gunk out of the neck to help justify your decision.

Good idea. I might try this as well. Manually just wipe the neck while running to see if it makes a big difference. I've been anxious to try one as well on my skimmer, as it builds up junk fairly quickly.

dnov99 · Feb 8, 2011

skinz78 said:
Thanks for sharing guys, do you think I should get the Swabbie or ugrade the skimmer?

It depends on how well your current skimmer is performing, as I do think the Swabbie does increase the effeciency of the skimmer, its probably not going to have the same benefits of having an upgraded skimmer if you need it. If your tank is "happy" with the current skimmer and all your levels are low, I would go with the Swabbie. If this skimmer cannot handle the current bio-load, I would upgrade the skimmer. HTH...

btkrausen · Feb 8, 2011

You should updated to a big Super Reef Octopus 3000 Internal like I just got a few months back. By far the best skimmer I've ever run, and with a swabbie, I'll be set for life :)

jledon4 · Feb 8, 2011

+ 1 on dnov99 opnion. the fact of buying the swabbie should not be looked at as a upgrade in skimmer, but an upgrade on its performance. if you are currently happy with the performance of your skimmer but don't want to be cleaning it every other day, then the swabbie is for you. if you are trying to get a better performing skimmer because yours is not keeping up, you should get a bigger one. there is a guy here on r2r that wrote a thread about it: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/avast-marine/53925-swabbie-abuse.html

skinz78 · Feb 8, 2011

This is what I have been pondering. I am horrible about cleaning my skimmer cup and I am thinking if I had the Swabbie set up it would actually help the performance because I have noticed that the current skimmers performance slows down when the neck of the cup gets dirty.