Skimmers
- Thread starter EricGZ
- Start date
My Christmas gift to my self is a bubble king double cone 180 with the new dc pump. Tank size is 100 gal ish . I was thinking about the vertex alpha 170 but went with the new bubble king instead. Now I just need to fire it up, but I'm lazy. Also this is not a small skimmer 45 pounds shipping weight.
yes and no...IMO, i should have listened to the reviews on the alpha 170. Even Jeffrey Lam IIRC was/is running the bigger brother of the 170 and that's why it runs and skims like a beast. Something about the 170 and the neck being too wide or something along those lines that makes it nearly impossible to dial in.
Now the new ATB 840v2 that I have comes with a thinner more narrow neck and that could very well be the main factor in skimming performance and not the pump as we all would like to believe as being the ultimate reason why some skimmers are better than others.
Now don't get me wrong, the red dragon pump is whisper quiet, extremely reliable, and energy efficient but what good is that if it's too much pump for the skimmer body. So far with the ATB, the sicce pump has been almost as quiet, just as reliable and only uses 3 watts more than the red dragon pump to pull almost as much air/water and the results..well I will let the picture I post when I get home do the talking.
Tangwich is right. Just because you have a great pump and a great body, it doesn't make it a great skimmer. Maybe the body and the skimmer are not a good match. Out of that whole vertex alpha line, I've heard of more success stories with the 200 than any other. Any maybe I haven't too many success stories with the bigger models because not too many people have large tanks.
I have a BK Mini 160 on a 90g and love it! I wouldn't say the performance is better than any other nice skimmer but the Red Dragon pump is reliable, efficient, and absolutely silent. Worth the money in my book.
I've heard complaints about the large neck size of the Alpha-170, but the Alphas are no more. Vertex and Royal Exclusive have gone their separate ways. If you want one, you'll have to buy used. Bubble King released their new Double Cone-180 with a smaller diameter neck than the Alpha-170.
I've never heard anybody complain about the ATB-840 (PSK-1000 model) either.
I've heard complaints about the large neck size of the Alpha-170, but the Alphas are no more. Vertex and Royal Exclusive have gone their separate ways. If you want one, you'll have to buy used. Bubble King released their new Double Cone-180 with a smaller diameter neck than the Alpha-170.
I've never heard anybody complain about the ATB-840 (PSK-1000 model) either.
