I've heard good things about AquaC EV Series skimmers, EuroReef, and Precision Marine Bullet models.  Most of these are about $50 - $100 more than you're wanting though (and that's not including a good pump needed by several of them).  I'm using a custom built skimmer similar to a Bullet and love it.  It replaced a Berlin skimmer that basically did nothing...  Here is a pic:

It was built by George Weber (aka Geo) http://www.geosreef.com/home1.html">http://www.geosreef.com/home1.html

He built it and I had to supply the beckett pool airator and the gate valve (both from Home Depot).  It had a crack in one of the joints so he sold it to me for an awesome deal (about $60).  A retail skimmer of the same size would easily be about $350 I think.  The sad thing is I don't think he builds them anymore (only calcium reactors) but it wouldn't hurt to ask him.  He's a very nice person!

May I offer a word of caution or maybe experience. When I turned off my simple air-driven reverse flow skimmer, my coral loved it. For instance a 2 inch mushroom grew to 6 inches in diameter and a lowly conylactis anemone grew to a foot in length from tip to tip. It was gorgeous. A tank can be skimmed too much to the point of starving the organisms.

Carbon was spoken of at the meeting the other night and it was mentioned (and nobody refuted it) that it should not be used 24/7. The same goes for skimming. I have heard lots of experts advise that it is best to skim part time. Run it for a week and then off for a week or somehow find what your tank responds best to. When you are skimming you are removing coral and invert food.

One of the purposes of the WMAS is to help people see that they don't need to give an arm and a leg to have a nice healthy tank. Was it Jakes presentation on filtration that makes you want to go out and get a "better" skimmer?

Didn't I hear him say to think about things and not to run out and change something because of what we heard from him. He told us that if it's not broken, don't try to fix it.

In your tank, if there is something going on that you can't figure out, this is the time and place to discuss it rather than needlessly spending money.

There a lot of us in the club that have been around the block on these things. Adam, Jake, Shane, Joe and Cindy, Jeff, Kirk, just to name a few. Please let us help.

rfoote, I am currious because I am setting up a larger tank. what kind of problems are you having with your tank? I am going to invest in a skimmer and if the one you have isnt doing the job I would like to know. Are you having high levels of amoina and such? Please let me know thanks.

Ryan,

What you are asking is for the price of a good skimmer.

It looks to me like you missed the whole point of my post.

I asked you if you are sure it is a new skimmer that you need. I asked what is going wrong with your tank. I also suggested that you may be jumping up to go spend some money when that may not be the answer. Pistonfister asked similar questions. If you are going to insist that you know for sure that there are problems and that a new skimmer is the definite and only answer, then I had better just shut up.

Does anyone else see the misdirection here or am I just an old fart that should give up on trying to help people see the light?

Boy do I have egg on my face! I thought I lost the first post so I repeated myself unknowingly in a duplicate message. I get pretty excited about this stuff. I've been at it for 10 years and have seen hundreds of tanks as an active member of the club presidency for almost 10 years. I hate seeing the same mistakes being made over and over that I have spoken out about so many times. I don't have all the answers and my way is not the only way, but I've seen too many people throw away their money at the misdiagnosis of a problem.

BTW - I misspelled "condylactis" anemone

Mark I guess I assumed incorrectly that when I posted that question that people would also offer up good information in regards to what I presently have.  As well as what I asked - What do you feel the best skimmer for around $250 would be?  I never said I was going to do it or that I have a problem or that it was for me. I Just simply asked what people think the best skimmer is for around $250 and stated what I have.  Obviously I need to be a little more clear when I ask a question in the future.  Sorry for the confusion and getting you unecessarily excited!  Just trying to find out info. and what peoples opinions are.  I will post here in a few why I am looking at it.

Ryan,

         When I researched skimmers a year ago I was most impressed with ae Tech's ETSS.  It can suck like a mother when needed and be toned down when not needed.  I ended up getting one from Randy up in Centerville. I only run it one or two days a week. I found if I left it on all the time I started sucking out everything including the aquarium sink. It fits just under the budget you mentioned. I bought big thinking I would be able to also use it when I'm able to go to a larger tank (150gl).   

Here is why I am looking at it.  Sorry Mark I should have put this info. in the first posting.  I've had my tank up now for about 18 months and have so far had pretty good success.  For some reason(yet to be determined), over the past two months I've started to have my first bout with Hair Algae.  Here are my water paramaters.  Ph 8.4, Alk. can't remember but normal, Phosphate 0, Nitrate 5-10, Calcium 440, Salinity 1.024 to 1.024, temp. 78 to 80.  From what I understand my paramaters are ok - I've never been able to get my Nitrates below 5.  I guess I am trying to determine where my excess nutrients are coming from to be feeding this hair algae.  I feed lightly to about 8 fish.  I also feed live phytoplankton about every two to three days.  From what I understand this should actually compete with the Hair Algae?  I have a 150 gal. tank, 3 to 4 inch Crushed Coral Substrate, and 150 lbs. of live rock.  This is what I am doing about it right now and thinking.  Please let me know what you think. 

Presently I have just a RO system - I am changing out the filters this week(they are 16 months old).  I am considering adding a DI system to this.  I have removed my mat from wet/dry(I wasn't diligent enough to replace it before it build up crap!)  I am daily pulling off what hair algae I can and getting it out of the tank.  I have reduced my photoperiod, I have also replaced all bulbs.  I have bought 40 new snails and two sally light foot crabs to combat it.  My cleanup crew now consists of probably 120 snails, 100 hermits, 2 emeralds, and now the two SLF crabs.  Wondering if a good virgatus tang, foxface, or rabbitfish would help?

I am also wondering if my crushed coral substrate is causing an increase in silicates that could be feeding the hair algae?

The reason I asked about the skimmer is;  I have limited space under my tank where my sump is and I had to make some major modifications to my Berlin Turbo Skimmer to get it to fit.  I collect 1/2 cup of junk in it probably every week.  I do have a second outlet from my sump that I could hook a pump up to and do a external skimmer if needed. 

rfoote-I'm not sure what the best skimmer for under $250.00 is.  However my Sea Clone that I ran for a couple years or so, seemed to do the trick in my 72 gal.

Suzy- Yes, I'm still running completely skimmerless.

IMO the amount and types of equipment we use may be derived by following the following simple formula:  what goes in = what comes out

How we achieve this can be done in a multitude of ways.  Including skimmers or other equipment or the bare basics that may not include skimmers or whatever but could include animals, scavengers and live sponges and the likes. 

Some methods may be more cost effective and simple while others are more elaborate and cost more for equipment.

Some people run certain set ups and equipment for the purpose of enjoyment.  For them that's what it is that makes them happy and they may not enjoy the hobby another way. 

Either way it's nice to know there are options and the way the WMAS members are there for each other is nothing less than impressive.   

I  think by having enough coral that uptake nutrients, plenty of pourous live rock and lots of surface exposed live sand it enables me to run skimmerless.  When I say surface exposed live sand what I mean is it's not being choked off by the placement of live rock that makes contact with the live sand.  I use a shelf that I constructed out of pvc that enables me to keep roughly 85 to 90 pounds of live rock in my 72 gal. and still keep plenty of exposed live sand bed. 

Also this allows excellent water circulation in the tank since the manner in which the rock is placed doesn't block the power heads.

I'm sure there is more to it but I don't want to try and act like I know more than what I do.  So I won't go on.  I just know that what's going on in my tank is working.    

I would also like to add that I have always considered myself an under feeder.  When the day comes that I feed the amount I should feed mabe things will change. 

Also if anyone who is running a skimmer is considering going skimmerless I recommend skimming less and less first.  Don't just quit cold turkey.     

There could be another consideration.  If sps corals are what is primarily kept in an aquarium without good balance with soft and or lps corals that may uptake nutrients a skimmer would likely be beneficial to use. 

If someone who knows more about this would jump in here that would be great. 

I am running an Auqa Medic Turbofloater skimmer.

http://www.marinedepot.com/a_ps_t1000_info.asp?CartId">http://www.marinedepot.com/a_ps_t1000_info.asp?CartId=

Overall, I like the skimmer. It was only $150. But the thing can be noisy. I also had to add an air pump to the venturi after about a year. The quality of the foam decreased. It was wetter than I liked. After the addition of the air pump the foam quality improved and I havn't had any problems since.

I keep both soft (leathers, claudiella, xenia, etc,.) as well as sps corals. I do notice a difference in the soft corals after I clean my skimmer. They do not expand nearly as much. But the opposite is also true.  If I let the skimmer go, I do not see as much growth in the sps corals.

I am a firm believer that if you keep sps corals they will do better as a result of the use of a protein skimmer. If the main purpose of upgrading is due to an algae outbreak - I would probably hold off. There must be more to it if the tank was maintaining a nutrient balance with your present skimmer. Have you had anything die lately? I recently lost a large toadstool leather. I left it in long after I should have hoping it would pull through. As a result, I too now have a cyano problem. There is a discreet cause of your cyano. Find and fix the root cause and keep your present skimmer.

Another thing I have learned - change one thing - then wait awhile. If that doesn't have the desired effect change something else - then wait awhile. This approach will save money and will allow you to better understand exactly what affects (or lack of affects) your changes are having on your system.

Good luck.

Shane - Thanks for the info.  The only thing I've had die was from two meetings ago was the small fungia type deal.  Other than that nothing that I can think of - other than a snail or two do to crabs.

Mark - have you looked at whats going on and do you have any suggestions?

Ryan,

I can't answer which skimmer is "best", I've only used a berlin and a couple diy models.  A friend of mine has an etss downdraft that really works good.  I've also heard good things about the "beckett" head type skimmers.  I'm going to try builing a beckett this summer (if the larger tank materializes). 

If you had difficulties fitting the berlin under your stand, you'll most likely have trouble with all the others too.  You might consider an external one (could be unsightly though).

As others have suggested, you might try a refugium.  A refugium (or algae/turf scrubber) does a lot of the same "good" things that a skimmer does without the "bad".  The problem with sole reliance on plants to do your filtration is they are not as dynamic as a skimmer.  If something big dies in your tank and starts to decompose, the plants may not be able to keep up with the waste removal where a skimmer will (or at least has the potential to do a better job of it).

I agree with the points made by Steve and Shane regarding SPS keeping and running a skimmer and I've noticed the same trend with my tank.  When I upgraded to my current skimmer from my Berlin my leather growth slowed and there wasn't as much polyp expansion, but my SPS growth has been awesome (which is where my interest is).  With the rest of my softies I haven't been able to tell a difference.  If you plan on keeping SPS corals then I recommend a good quality skimmer.  I also believe that a good skimmer is helpful (though maybe not a panacea) for algae problems.

If you can't tell by now, I'm a skimmer believer and personally have no plans of going skimmerless.  I'll stick up for using one even though there seems to be a trend in the club to pooh-pooh them.  FWIW, If you follow the "tank of the month" posts on http://reefcentral.com/">http://reefcentral.com/http://reefcentral.com/"> you'll see a trend, almost all of them use high efficiency skimmers 24/7.  But here again, most of these tanks are dominated by stony corals...

Great thread topic.  Keep the posts coming!

Aaron George

Ryan,

I wasn't ignoring the thread. Just too busy to get back to it. I'll comment later today hopefully, when I have time to think.

Mark

Ryan,

I just re-read your post about the algae problem. Since I am a self proclaimed advisor on algae control (among other things!), I'd be glad to come see your tank and give you my opinion. I live in Bountiful so it's an easy drive to your place.

Call me at 296-1563 anytime, 

Mark

Sounds like you have uncovered the reason for the algae bloom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Theres's nothing like the abrupt "addition" of nutrients to cause an algae bloom. In this case, the discontinuance of previously effective skimming by a hose slipping off was the reason for additional nutrients being available.

As we see from this situation, algae can react quickly to uptake an increase in available nutrients. This is evidence for the use of algae as one aspect of the tanks filtration system. Hooray for the algae scrubber refugium!!!

Also not seen in your tank was the increase of bacteria. If you were to have done a bacterial count, you would have seen how the population increased exponentially.

I couldn't return your call last night but would still enjoy seeing your tank. The extra snails and hermits may soon become unnecessary. Watch for hermits attacking snails or coming out of hiding, immediately upon feeding. This will be the clue that they are getting real hungry. Someone in the club will probably be willing to buy them from you.

A note about skimming - I also agree that SPS coral enjoy lower nutrient levels than most soft coral. Skimming is one way to improve conditions for SPS. Other ways are algae scrubbing, activated carbon(not charcoal), benthic scrubbing(sponge,sea squirt) frequent water change, and straight chemical extraction.

I live up North in Syracuse, but I work down in SLC.   I'm hoping that in the next couple weeks I have more hair algae issues under control and then I think I'll be getting rid of a few crabs.