reef dynamics ins135 protien skimmer.

[coffeetwitch]

i know reef dynamics is synonymous to eruo reef. ive read they make great skimmers. ive read people write about their "out dated" designs and bubble blaster pump this, "horrible pump" that. "i love my ___ skimmer" the mojo posts are bookmarked too.

ive seen the vids on youtube why they chose this design without bubble plates or making cones. im not sold on cones anyway.

this question is to the people who own them or have owned them.

i pulled the trigger and ordered one over the weekend to replace my erratic skimmer that i have now. like the title says, reef dynamics ins 135. its going on a 90g dt with a 40 breeder sump with about 30g of water. minus the rock that i have in each. ive just started running biopellets too. i wanted a skimmer that was +1 for my system without going over kill. idle time is fine by me but not for hours on end. stocking is going to hopefully be moderate to heavy on the fish side. and nothing more than a few low light corrals here and there as decoration.

did i make the right choice? am i overkill or not enough?

thank you in advance.

 

[coffeetwitch]

well it took the full 10 business days they mentioned, but i finally got my tracking number by email today.

hopefully ,no latter than this time next week, ill be plugging my skimmer in and feeling confident with my purchase.

 

[Saratj1]

I'm torn about an upcoming skimmer purchase, so let me know how it goes. I was thinking about a cone skimmer, what turned you off on the cone design ?

 

[coffeetwitch]

lots of people have said they love the cones. im just not sold on the idea that they can out perform the standard cylindrical design. they are designs that have been proven to work, but better???? for typically more money than a traditional?

here is some back story for you:

when i purchased my first skimmer ever, i was turned onto the sc150 cone skimmer being sold on ebay. it is a bubble magus cone clone (nac7 i think). it was used on a 40gallon dt with a sump with about 30 gallons of water. it did pull skimmate out on a weekly basis. about half of the collection cup of not wet and not dry skimmate. then i upgraded my tank to a 90g dt with the same sump... still about half of the collection cup of the same skimmate. a lot of waste caked on the inside of the neck but never really anything spectacular in the cup. i tried adjusting it with the wedge pipe. i tried different water depths. i tried restricting air flow. nothing really helped. i did my routine maintenance like cleaning the pump and clearing the scaling in the air fitting on the venturi.

never did it really have the thick foam we've seen on the youtube vids of other peoples skimmers. it was like they had thick foam shaving cream and i had a kids bubble wand. i dont know if that was a good visual or not but it makes sense to me.

i under stand idle time for a skimmer. its when the skimmer has execrated all the docs in the system it can and hold a stable foam. i know its a good indication of the skimmer being properly sized for the system. but this thing was idling for hours on end. i know for a fact i over feed and there should be tons of stuff to pull out. fat fish make waste you know?

like now its just sitting there, just blowing bubbles.

this from a cone skimmer that should be rocking right? knock off or not, im not seeing the performance. sorry for the long story there.

here is what i was considering replacing it with: a reef octopus super reef lss-1000 or a vertex in180. both around the 300$ mark give or take.

i looked at skimz , swc , jns , and the numerous reef octopus models.

why i chose the reef dynamics... reported proven designs of the euroreef skimmers, youtube vid series from la fish guy, the ease of the cup release, and the bonus of a us made product.

i really liked that the owner of the company gave reasons why he stuck with the design. that it wasnt just the idea to stick to what worked but he stated that they tried the cone and the bubble plate but they found that the current design works just as well and better in some cases. i know this was a sales pitch video but for me it gave me reasons why, not just buy this one.

again, big selling point for me was the collection cup release. quarter twist and its off. no wiggling the cup off and using the skimmer as leverage to do so.


hope that wasnt too long winded. i know other skimmers work well to very well. im not knocking them.

 

[Saratj1]

No, I appreciate the long reply. I feel like there is a lot of speculation and emotions involved in skimmer promotion, and even people's reccomendations. I liked your approach to choosing your skimmer and wanted to hear what you had to say.
I still don't know. I'm torn between possibly that same cheap eBay cone skimmer that you mentioned, or a used downdraft skimmer of some type, I see a few old downdraft skimmers on eBay that look pretty nice for around $125 without the pump, I figure the pump will be around $100, but it's easier to break up the purchases for me.
I don't know. I have a 135g +55g sump I'm setting up on a tight budget. But I'm not aiming to buy junk, I just don't think you have to spend thousands to have a nice setup, especially when it comes to skimmers.
So like I said I'm still undecided.

Is this the skimmer you were referring to that you didn't like on eBay?
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=380437254920&index=23&nav=SEARCH&nid=55264562213

 

[coffeetwitch]

yeah yeah, same skimmer just a bit different. but yeah.

150 Gallon Fresh Saltwater Fish tank Protein Skimmer | eBay

i totally get breaking up the expense of it all. this is not a cheap hobby. it took me time to save up for this skimmer only to hope it was a wise choice. the skimmer i have now has gotten me by and i have learned from it.

 

[coffeetwitch]

oh and another thing... there is an sc skimmer club some where. i stumbled onto it by a google search. lots of people said it works great for them. just didnt for me.

 

[coffeetwitch]

ive had the reef dynamics skimmer installed and running for 9 days now. it has gone from idling to overflowing the cup (usually when im out of the house or asleep overnight) 9 times. each time leaving a mess of spatter and saltwater on my stand and floor to clean up.

i have yet to see any sort of proper skimmate. i am becoming more frustrated with this thing everyday.

 

[coffeetwitch]

here are two vids of the skimmer and a picture. in the picture you can see some gunk one the side wall, so its pulling some stuff out. it fell to this level right after i fed the fish 1 cube of pe mysis.

reef dynamics ins135 - YouTube
reef dynamics ins135 day 9 - YouTube

 

[coffeetwitch]

i have noticed a couple different issues about the skimmer that I believe shouldn't be there. One would be the collection cup assembly being slanted. The other is a 1/8 or just less gap between the main body of the skimmer and the transition portion of the skimmer. To me I would think this area should be near seamless.

I have called reef dynamics twice to no answer. I left a voicemail and sent an email. That was Monday. Today is Thursday. Customer service is lacking. A lot.

Regardless of how well these skimmers are claimed work this is unacceptable.

I believe I was courteous and respectful in both my attempts to contact him.

As of right now I'm going to have to say that reef dynamics is a company that should be avoided.


Just fyi, the ins135 skimmer is still breaking in. No quality skim mate production after 2 weeks of installing and running.

 

[coffeetwitch]

Ok so I just got an email from Jeff at reef dynamics. Said he is sorry for the delay and my trouble. Said he was terribly busy with his move. He is going to make it right with me and sending me a whole new skimmer once I send him my skimmer serial number and verify my address.


Fingers crossed on this deal.

Already feeling better about it and hope I can withdraw my nasty comment about them. So far he is on the right track.

 

[coffeetwitch]

ok, so here is an update...

today i came home from work to find a box from reef dynamics at my door. a brand new skimmer. complete with pump! it is a warranty replacement. at no expense on my part. not even shipping. this is pretty cool.

hopefully this one is a better performer.



it is still huge detriment, though, that there is such a lag in response time to emails and phone calls.
maybe so much so that this will be the last product i purchase from them.

 

[coffeetwitch]

ok so i got an email asking for the old skimmer back. cool part was that i found paid return postage through ups. i was redesigning my sump so i was holding off moving anything around until i had that done. yesterday i put the new skimmer in a 2:1 water:vinegar mix and let it run for 24 hours. rinsed all the pieces and then swapped sumps. already its a different skimmer. i dont know why but remembering how the first one was to this one im looking forward to see if it will continue to outperform the old.


conclusion:

customer service is there but man is it slowwwwwww.

if im not wowed by this one ill be buying the new vertex omega 150 from premium aquatics or maybe my local fish store if they can get any in.