SKIMZ Kone SK201 Review (1 Viewer)

[flipside]

This is going to be a review in progress as the skimmer is brand new, and still is breaking in. I wanted to get that ATI Powercone, but they are having an issue with the what pump to use for us in the USA. I'm sure I'll get one later on when they figure that stuff out but so far, I'm pretty pleased with this one.

Pros:

-Price for what you get.

-Build quality.

-Footprint.

-Power savings. (13w for the normal pump, 20w for what I have).

Cons:

-Pump now is an ES2800. I got lucky and got the ES5000, though.

-Not really sure what else, right now... but I'm sure I'll find something.

This replaces my Vertex IN-250 w/modified Laguna/Askoll 1500 pump. So far it's starting to develop a nice foam head after a few hours of breaking in. I'm curious to see what it looks like in the morning.

I like how small it is but my bioload may overpower this little guy...

More to follow.

 

[flipside]

I forgot to add pictures:

Pretty small, really...

Breaking in...

 

[flipside]

Here's a video, 24 hours later. Just uploaded with my phone, so pardon the quality.

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9tNgFafUrTM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm pretty pleased with what I see so far. I just fed a bunch of food to the tank... the skimmer did as most skimmers do when this happens... the foam head dropped significantly. Let's see how it looks tomorrow.

 

[soymilk]

Nice. How much did this set you back?

 

[flipside]

They run around $460 via Aquacave's site. Of course, that's with the ES2800 pump... they don't sell them with the ES5000 anymore, but you can get this pump on the SM201 model. Only difference appears to be the body style (not a cone).

 

[flipside]

So, here's some pics of the skimmate production on this little thing...

This is a 24 hour shot, after I fed quite a bit to the tank.

And this is a 48 hour shot.

 

[R-BallJunkie]

build quality looks robust. is there a visible seam from forming the cone? one of the knocks i have about my BM-180 is the seam is quite visible. it holds just fine, minor aesthetics. hows the historical performance of the pump...seems proprietary, not aftermarket.

 

[flipside]

Yes, there is a visible seam on the cone, but it doesn't negatively impact performance. It's not an eyesore as they tried to meld it in there pretty nicely. It is very stout.

The pump is called an "Eden" pump and it's made in Italy. The same people that make this pump are the same ones that make Eheim.

 

[flipside]

Update...

I was running the skimmer in about 9" of water up until 2 days ago. At this depth, it was hard to adjust. Well... to be frank, there was no adjusting. I was just running it fully open at the gate valve.

I went away on vacation this past week and came home to a pretty full cup. This kind of annoyed me as I like to run my skimmer wet... but not that wet.

I raised the skimmer to where only about 4" is under water. This made a great difference. It's very adjustable now and I don't overflow my cup when feeding my frozen recipe (I overfed last night, on purpose, to test).

The pump has been running very well and it's still extremely silent. This is more than enough skimmer for a heavily loaded 150g, such as mine. I'd say that it would handle 200g pretty nicely. 250g if you took it easy on the fish (as I don't).

So, two thumbs up for SKIMZ. Again, it's no Laguna/Askoll-type skimmer, but it does a very good job on smaller tanks like mine.