Red Sea Skimmers

[stefday]

Hi,

Further to my recent post about my skimmer not working ( I hope this is not breaking the rules starting a second thread ) I have discovered that my impellor has snapped in two and this is why it has stopped working. I have thought for some time that it didn`t seem to be doing much. I have the Red Sea Max 250.

However since it is only 6 months old it seems to have broken a little prematurely. I have been quoted £32.00 to replace it.

I remember reading posts about Red Sea Skimmers not being very efficient and this led me to wonder what to do.

I would mention that I have had a previous tank completely break down and lost all the fish and corals so I may be a little paranoid but I don`t want to experience that again.

My question is should I buy a new impellor and hope it is more efficient ( will have to wait for LFS to receive it) or do I replace the whole thing for a more reliable skimmer? If so are there any suggestions to alternatives?

I currently have quite a few hard and soft corals and fish ( that I would hate anything to happen to ) and would cost several hundred pounds to replace so want to make the tank as safe as possible.

I would welcome any advice.

Feel quite stressed at the moment!

 

[seffieuk]

Ditch the Redsea and go buy yourself a deltec mce (there are good second hand bargains to be found)

Seffie x

 

[AK77]

I've had both the RedSea Prizm and the Prizm Pro Deluxe. I did have problems with the prizm initally as it just wouldn't maintain suction from the tank, as it was drawing in too much air. After a small modification (connected an airline valve to the inlet/mixer pipe) it functioned pretty well and removed a lot of gunk from the water. I now have the prizm pro in the sump of my nano tank. Overall, I'm not blown away by it. It can be a bit noisey, although it functions quite well. As seffie says, there are better skimmers out there. I definitely wouldn't have paid £230 for a new one.

The Redsea Max 250 looks like its got a scaled down or modified version of the prizm skimmers contained in it already. Before you do anything though, I'd suggest you see if the part is under warranty. If you bought the product from new, you might have a guarantee on it. If you don't then I'd have a look on ebay for a 2nd hand deltec skimmers.

 

[stefday]

Decided to ditch the Red Sea skimmer and buy a Deltec.

Looking at their site they look good so hope it performs better than the Red Sea.

 

[seffieuk]

Oh it will and last longer


Seffie x

 

[stefday]

Thanks for your advice.

Decided to order the MC500 in the end as it should sit well in the skimmer compartment at the back of the tank. Got a good price from a LFS, which made it cheaper than on-line. Decided I did not want to risk a second hand one.

Although my tank is only 250 litres with 25 litre filter the skimmer can go up to 650 litres for normal stocking and 450 for heavy stocking. This gives me the option of upgrading at some point.

Don`t quite understand the difference though as I would have thought that the tanks actual size would decide the stocking level.

 

[seffieuk]

A good choice - ready for when and if you upgrade to that bigger tank, , you know you will

Seffie x