S-120 Economy Cone Skmr Review(Final Review w/ vid)

hey we know it all here. we get calls and email all the time from hobbyists mentioned about the coralife skimmer they had. in a way this is good meaning when they started this hobby, they start off slowly and build their way up.

FYI, the two most common mistakes someone can make is when they get into this hobby. #1, They spent an arm and leg in a high end skimmer or high end product. A high end skimmer is never the way to go for a beginner in this hobby. Is like who own a Mercedes Benz for their first car, right? The down side of getting high end product is that it can risk the chance of killing the hobby for a consumer as they can get discouraged easily thinking the hobby is so darn expensive. #2, They go with a wrong brand. The down side of this is when buying a product from a brand that doesn't work, they alway have to keep on buying the product over and over again. This can be costly and will also discourage a consumer to leave the hobby. So it's very important when you find a brand that you can trust and just stick with it. As always good luck to your hobby.

 

Well said. I've never owned a Coralife. My first skimmer was a ReefOctopus 1000H but then I found an Eshopps PSK 100H that made that RO look like a sad movie. There's really no reason for me to ever go anywhere else. I can't wait to get this cone skimmer going. Waters not dirty enough yet.

 

I decided to go ahead and set up because the new system is not showing ammonia or nitrites.

Start off with a short vid of it. Sorry for the quality of it and the pics. Taken with my phone. But even I was amazed....

These photo's and the video were taken just 15-20 minutes after I set it up and plugged it in. It is so quiet, unbelievably quiet.




Hopefully my wife will get home with the camera soon and I'll get better pics up.

 

The skimmer appears to be running great, RM.

I have the Coralife 125 SS, the same one Bobo has...no livestock in the tank yet, so maybe I shouldn't be so quick to judge.

But I noticed that the skimmer neck goes almost all the way up to the same height as the skimmer cup. With very little space b/w the top of the neck and cup lid, the foam simply touches the lid of the cup, but rarely spills over into the cup...

 

The top of the neck is about an inch below the bottom of the lid, just like every other skimmer I've owned.

I took these pics about a half hour ago, so around 2.5 hours after set up.




I had the level adjusted high like if I was going to wet skim. It's already pulling some junk out of the water. After I emptied the cup I dropped the level back down close to where I'll run the skimmer after break in.

Hey Seano, Does your Coralife give you this bubble action?

Haha I used my Nova Extreme for a drop light ;D

 

Yes, actually. I get that a lot. Why is that?

Here is what I was saying about the coralife. Even looking at your Eshopps skimmer, there seems to be more space b/w the top of the neck and the cup lid.

 

But for some reason today it doesn't want to pump water high enough to even get to the cup section of the neck. It's worked somewhat before...I realise there is gunk on the top, but I just cleaned it this morning It seems to get gunked up very quickly.

 

The S-120 appears to be broken in already and it hasn't been 24 hours. This morning it is producing the good, drier foam I like to see. This skimmer is great!


That effluent is nasty considering the system it is being skimmed from currently has only 2 urchins inhabiting it. No fish, no coral yet. Rock and sand all recycled from another system.

 

hmmmm judging by what I'm seeing seems to me that the swc 160 Is still giving off better results and preformance...
I will however continue to troll along with this thread...

 

i think its hard to judge a skimmers performance with another's tank.

his tank is new... which means there are lots of surfactants from the sand and all the new.. which makes a skimmer act funny, foam way too much, and what not. (hince the pictures above where the skimmer is SO full of super light colored stuff. (most of it looked like sand dust... ) and the second to last pictures had some protein, but mainly water.)
i would think the water lever is too high, along with not enough protein to pull.

after that tank matures, or if you swapped it out in a "mature" tank, you might be able to compare more.

that "new" tank, also doesnt have a lot of bio load. (if they did, they would have Tons of algae problems.. because the bacteria isnt in the tank to combat it)