Now im officially lost.....

[Iceman72]

Hello all. I plan on buying a new protein skimmer this Friday. After doing some research I think I am more confused than anything. I have a 55g tank. Right now about 30lbs of live rock and getting more base rock this week. Anyway I was first looking at the Coralife Super Skimmer 65. I saw mixed reviews. Then a guy that helped me get my tank up told me Octopus was also great. So I looked up the BH-100. People online blasted that one. It seems like everyone I pick it's like 50/50. Although funny thing is that I saw less bad reviews of the Coralife than the Octopus. Which I didn't understand. Anyway what do you guys recommend? I want to do a HOB and I don't want to spend more than $100-$200.

Thanks in advance.

 

[VinnyLLU]

Reef octopus got blasted? That's a solid skimmer IMO... If you're really set on an HOB, you can't go wrong with a reef Octopus. The ones that blast them usually don't maintain it properly, or have a skimmer that is inadequate for the stocking level... Thus they blame the skimmer by default.

 

[Iceman72]

I don't know anything about these. Is the BH-100 decent?

 

[mr_X]

I would rather have the octo than the coralife.
That said, you should pick a skimmer rated for 1.5 to 2 times your total system volume. The bigger the better.
Get the coralife super skimmer 125 or the Octo BH2000. They are right around the 200 mark.
Check Ebay and Amazon also.

 

[Brad M]

Only bad thing I have ever herd about the octo HOB is the noise it makes. Put a couple peices of rubber on the top mount and back brace to reduce noise vibration to next to nothing.

 

[VinnyLLU]

It can be a little noisy, but the rubber stoppers are a good idea... Still a great HOB skimmer tho.