GOBY
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I was wondering what the best skimmer for a 75 gallon fowlr and dsb would be i have decided between either the remora , bakpak, or remora pro
remora vs. bakpak
- Thread starter GOBY
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
loganj
Aquarium Advice Addict
Remora Pro...no contest. Although there are folks here who swear by their Bakpaks, (might be some who swear at them too) my opinion is that the standard Remora is a marginally better skimmer. Any HOB skimmer needs a surface skimmer to function at maximum efficiency though.
C
cj10488
Guest
I would say Remora as well.. I own one and I love It.. I have converted it into an Urchin though with the help of Aqua C.. So far I has worked awesome.. I have not owned any other skimmer but I would highly Recommend the Remora or any of the other Aqua C skimmers
HTH,
James
HTH,
James
captivereefs
Aquarium Advice Addict
Actually the aqua medic turbo flotor multi 1000 outperforms both. It also has the daul option of hang on or in sump.
Darin
www.captivereefs.com
Darin
www.captivereefs.com
wseaton
Aquarium Advice Activist
The BakPak is actually a better designed skimmer.....but the Remora trumps *every* other skimmer mentioned in this thread including the BakPak because of one thing: that ingenious spray injector.
As far as I'm concerned, no skimmer that uses a powerhead to make bubbles is worth more than $50 because they are too inconsistent. I've used em all, and they all work the same. The injector on the Remora however is simply far more efficient and consistent than any powerhead/venturi based skimmer I've encountered. I modified my Remora by drilling a small hole in the side and fed airline tubing from the collection cup to a 2-litre bottle below, so the remora never has to be fussed with. I also cut off the inflow pipe to just below the elbow so I can cross feed the Remora with water from a powerhead on the other side of my tank.
Othwerwise, if you get a Remora, get the bigger Powerhead option. With some finaggling you can mount them with a Hagen 402.
As far as I'm concerned, no skimmer that uses a powerhead to make bubbles is worth more than $50 because they are too inconsistent. I've used em all, and they all work the same. The injector on the Remora however is simply far more efficient and consistent than any powerhead/venturi based skimmer I've encountered. I modified my Remora by drilling a small hole in the side and fed airline tubing from the collection cup to a 2-litre bottle below, so the remora never has to be fussed with. I also cut off the inflow pipe to just below the elbow so I can cross feed the Remora with water from a powerhead on the other side of my tank.
Othwerwise, if you get a Remora, get the bigger Powerhead option. With some finaggling you can mount them with a Hagen 402.
loganj
Aquarium Advice Addict
FWIW, the Remora and Remora Pro are available with a drilled cup so you can attach a drain. IMO, the Maxi Jet 1200 (295 gph) is the only PH to get if you order a new Remora. I don't much like Rios. For a Remora Pro...Mag 3. Beware using too large a pump on them or any other skimmer though. There comes a point when you are pushing water through the skimmer so fast that your bubble dwell time drops to almost nothing. This will have a detrimental effect on efficiency not to mention filling the display tank with microbubbles that are swept out of the skimmer body.
steve5520
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I had a skimmer that was not BakPak, but the design was nearly identical. Worked okay. About two months ago, I decided to "upgrade", oddly enough after reading much information in these forums.
The difference in how much gunk is pulled out of my water is amazing. The other thing that I like is the ease with which you can adjust the Remora Pro. To be honest, I never was quite able to adjust the old skimmer to get a nice "dry" foam. I got the Remora Pro set properly within a couple days.
If someone would be so kind, can you describe accurately WHERE precisely (how far down from the top of the cup) you drill a hole to put a hose in. I was just a bit to cheap to spring for the cup ready to attach the hose to. I'd like to do this mod.
Thanks.
The difference in how much gunk is pulled out of my water is amazing. The other thing that I like is the ease with which you can adjust the Remora Pro. To be honest, I never was quite able to adjust the old skimmer to get a nice "dry" foam. I got the Remora Pro set properly within a couple days.
If someone would be so kind, can you describe accurately WHERE precisely (how far down from the top of the cup) you drill a hole to put a hose in. I was just a bit to cheap to spring for the cup ready to attach the hose to. I'd like to do this mod.
Thanks.
loganj
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'd probably come down a couple of inches from the top of the cup. You don't want it to be too low because it might interfere with the height adjustment on the cup. Beware that this mod can make you lazy though...your skimmer needs to be cleaned no less than once a week. You also will want to remove the injector plug no less than once a month and clean the injector. If you don't, you may get so much buildup on the exposed threads of the plug that it won't come out when the injector clogs.
wseaton
Aquarium Advice Activist
Sorry, don't have a diagram, except to tell you they are stupidly simple. My Remora C is basically a plastic box about, oh 2 inches in depth by maybe 6 inches wide by about 20 inches high. That box is then baffled internally into two sections with the outflow on one side and the reaction/injection chamber on the other.
Take a garden hose turned all the way open, hold your finger over the end, and hold the end a few inches directly over a bucket of water while spraying as hard as you can into the water. Same concept as the Remora - not rocket science. It's conceptually the opposite idea as conventional skimmer in that most skimmers inject bubbles into a water stream. The Remora injects/sprays the entire water flow via a plastic nozzle into the air and then into the water chamber. This means that almost all the water that gets circulated into a remora gets some air contact, generates massive amounts of dense bubbles, and that makes it brutally efficient. Only Becket or large airstone driven skimmers push as much air or seem to be as efficient. I've seen Remora's pull literally gallons of crud out of unskimmed or poorly skimmed tanks in under a day. I abuse one of my FO 55gals with over-feeding and sparse water changes, and I swear it's the Remora doing most of the work keeping my nitrates at ziltch. Stupid Seaclone sure didn't.
Good point. Unlike a typical venturi skimmer where the more water flow *usually* means better efficiency, you can easily overdrive a Remora and reduce it's efficiency. I've found that a powerhead in the 250-300 gph class works the best like your Maxi or an Aquaclear 402 while my 802 experiment filled my tank with bubbles. The stock pump that comes with a Remora is *insufficient* because you can figure the Remora will cut the flow rate down in half.
I've also found that Remoras work much better running in a sump, or plumbed with cross tank circulation, and this is very important in their placement. Because Remora's don't move a lot of water, they need to be in a place of high tank turnover such as a sump, or or central circulation to work the best. I have mine set-up so that the Remora sits on one end of my tank, while their powerhead sits on the opposite side. This insures the Remora gets near absolute water turnover, and I'd say this technique has tripled the amount of grunge my Remora pulls out vs having the powerhead connected in stock style. The further away the intake is from the outflow on any skimmer the more efficent it will be. If you have a Remora plumbed this way I'd say even the small one could handle a tank of several hundred gallons.
Ug. Im so pissed. Non of my photos turned out with any decentcy. All of them where either out of focus or they did not show what I was hoping they would show.
Sorry.
The main section of the skimmer body is made up of 2 sections. The first section is where the spray injector mixes the water/air together to form a very nice frothy mixture. Air and water flows up toward the skim contaner and the water flows down and into the secondary chamber where the water rises up and out of the skimmer.
I got the surface overflow attachment for the skimmer so that the skimmer will truly skim the surface water. This keeps a film of DOC's from building upand makes the skimmer more efficent.
Sorry.
The main section of the skimmer body is made up of 2 sections. The first section is where the spray injector mixes the water/air together to form a very nice frothy mixture. Air and water flows up toward the skim contaner and the water flows down and into the secondary chamber where the water rises up and out of the skimmer.
I got the surface overflow attachment for the skimmer so that the skimmer will truly skim the surface water. This keeps a film of DOC's from building upand makes the skimmer more efficent.
Similar threads
