Tall skimmers vs. Short skimmers

Daniel@R2R · Oct 13, 2015

As I'm looking into buying a skimmer for the new build, I'm noticing that some of the brands like Lifereef have really tall skimmers (48") vs. some of the other brands that run shorter bodies (24"). Is one to be preferred over the other?

luke33 · Oct 13, 2015

IMO the older skimmers were taller to allow more dwell time vs newer skimmers which push more air for more surface area to bond with DOC's. The pump's have gotten much more efficient and powerful over the years when it comes to skimming, and the "newer" technology happened like pinwheels vs downdrafts and venturi skimmers, which have been around for ages. So both work well : ) I'm glad I couldn't answer that for you.

But if you have a 48" skimmer vs a 24" skimmer, both pulling the same air and flow through I would imagine the 48" skimmer is going to work much better for you. Also people use shorter skimmers because they are more compact and fit better under a stand. If I had the room I would 100% use a taller skimmer.

stunreefer · Oct 13, 2015

Downdraft skimmers (such as Lifereef) are taller. Needle/Mesh/Pinwheel skimmers are shorter.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 13, 2015

stunreefer said:
Downdraft skimmers (such as Lifereef) are taller. Needle/Mesh/Pinwheel skimmers are shorter.

Right. The lifereef skimmers were the ones I noticed being super tall.

143MPCo · Oct 13, 2015

venturi driven protein skimmers inject small air bubbles into the skimmer chamber through the venture valve... the venturi skimmers need correctly sizes pumps that can deal with back pressure and the pumps needs to be powerful enough to make the skimmer run at maximum efficiency... as it was explain to me, the height is needed for more dwell time and why you normally see them super tall, is it better or worse IDK but you read a lot of high parse from the ppl that own lifereef skimmers (not knocking the skimmer in anyway)...

...needle wheel protein skimmers are just modified venturi skimmers with a "needle wheel" impeller. A venturi valve is still used to inject the air, the difference is that the water is drawn through the needle wheel impeller, which chops the incoming air into a super fine mist of bubbles... needle-wheel impellers can reportedly really hack bubbles apart, which is great since small bubbles are ideal for efficient skimming... needle-wheel skimmers are notorious for building a dense, milky froth. This makes for very efficient skimming in a relatively compact package... so requires less height as the super fine mist (foam fractionation) has better contact with the smaller particulars...

bayoupr · Oct 15, 2015

I prefer the tall Mazzei venture driven skimmers. Lots of people say no way when I make this statement but My lifereef has out performed the BK's I had and it is set and forget other than cleaning the cup once a week. Of course this is IMO but I've used both and will stay with my Lifereef. MTC's are very good also.

ballroomdude · Oct 15, 2015

bayoupr said:
I prefer the tall Mazzei venture driven skimmers. Lots of people say no way when I make this statement but My lifereef has out performed the BK's I had and it is set and forget other than cleaning the cup once a week. Of course this is IMO but I've used both and will stay with my Lifereef. MTC's are very good also.

I'll be using a 72" lifereef skimmer on my big tank build as well. The way Jeff has them built they are super simple and really do the job effectively. Plus he has unbeatable customer service.

SerpentSlick · Oct 16, 2015

I've been curious about this too. I have a Bullet Series Precision Marine, which is Beckett injected, and these things are all over the place as far as height is concerned. I got mine with a tank I bought, but it's never been used and I hate to drill a hole in my sump just to find out I wanna stick with another internal skimmer.

I know I didn't add anything so I guess I'm just following. Lol