GS1 cone skimmer from Grey Seas Aquatics

[schneijt]

My new skimmer arrived today while I was at work. Since I have found absolutely no reviews of this skimmer online yet (it's only been available for a couple weeks), I've decided to do a bit of a review and put up some pics of one of the newest cone skimmers to hit the market.

Here's the box before I cut it open. It was a huge box, so I knew it would be packaged well.


Inside the big box was another box.


And inside the inner box was the skimmer body and collection cup, wrapped in a very liberal amount of saran wrap.



Here's the skimmer with everything assembled. The pump isn't on it yet, since I have to pull the Sicce off the Octo Extreme 200 and attach it to this beast.


It's a pretty simple plumbing setup. Since the skimmer comes without a pump, it gives you a lot of options for what pump you can use. The recommended pump is the Sicce PSK-2500, which the skimmer was designed to run off of. There's a bracket included for helping you mount the Sicce, and it has nice little rubber feet to help dampen any possible vibration from the pump/bracket on the bottom of the sump. Very nice! I also like the gate valve to adjust the water level. I wish it weren't underwater, but hey, a gate valve is easier to adjust than a finicky wedge pipe!


The construction of the skimmer appears to be entirely PVC. It's not the prettiest skimmer out there, but unless you get up close and personal, you don't notice any glaring cosmetic issues. That said, the seams could be cleaner and the PVC work isn't top-notch. However, the skimmer only costs $250. So, it's not like anyone should be expecting an ATB cone for $250... I expected a cone that gets the job done and doesn't cost a fortune, and I think that's what arrived in the box.


Oh, and it's not a seamless cone.


There is one thing about the skimmer that I'm not crazy for. The silencer attaches to the lid of the collection cup, rather than being attached elsewhere. So, in order to remove and clean the collection cup, you have to unscrew the little thumb screw and remove the silencer. Not a big issue, but a minor thing that I would have done differently if I were designing/building the skimmer.

Things I do like: Seems to have a nice bubble plate. Slip fit collection cup seems to fit nicely, yet not super tight to the point of being difficult to remove. Can be easily disassembled for cleaning, since it uses thumb screws throughout for quick, painless tear-down.

So, over the next couple days I hope to get this beast into my sump so I can take some photos of it in action and breaking in over the next few weeks. I just hope it fits into the sump between the door and the rim of the sump! It's a lot bigger in-person than I expected! But, it's worth hacking apart the doors to my stand if that's what it takes to get this sweet beast in there!

Stay tuned for further updates if you'd like.
Joe

[tangmang23]

very nice. cant wait to hear the news.

[Kyuss]

mmmm pretty!!

[Hop]

There is one thing about the skimmer that I'm not crazy for. The silencer attaches to the lid of the collection cup, rather than being attached elsewhere. So, in order to remove and clean the collection cup, you have to unscrew the little thumb screw and remove the silencer. Not a big issue, but a minor thing that I would have done differently if I were designing/building the skimmer.

Or you could pull the hose off the bottom

[schneijt]

Yeah, I never thought of it that way. lol

[Aquaman777]

I almost bought this skimmer. You will have to keep us posted on how it works for you. I bought the mini cone from SWC instead. How much did the gs1 run you? The cone I bought cost $413 to my door and will be here Tuesday hopefully.

[schneijt]

I got the skimmer in and hooked up last night. It was by far the tightest fit I've ever experienced. I tried every angle possible and in the end it got in there with less than 1/16" of clearance! Yikes!

I adjusted it to overflow the cup all night long and drain back into the sump via the 1/4" John Guest drain fitting in the cup. This morning I started adjusting it, and I'm still working on getting it where I want it. For some reason, the water level is right where I want it for 5-10 minutes, and then when I check on it later it sometimes has moved up or down an inch or two. Since the skimmer is new and has a long way to go toward breaking in, I'm not worried about this. I think it just takes a few hours for the skimmer to stabilize after I tweak the gate valve. So, I've resorted to very small adjustments every few hours until I start to get the water level inside the cone where I want it. I'm aiming for having the water level just below the start of the neck, and then as it breaks in and forms some skimmate, I'll adjust it up/down from there as needed to get the type of skimmate I'm looking for.

I will say that the cone so far seems to really be living up to the hype. There's a fair amount of turbulence still, but it is far less than what I had in the Octo Extreme 200, and the cone isn't even broken in yet, of course. I expect that as the cone breaks in more, I'll see a slight reduction in turbulence. And it's hard to explain, but the cone's gradual transition from bottom to top really sort of "compresses" the foam head, making it really frothy at the top. Once I get the skimmer adjusted to where I want it and keep it stable like that, I'll take some pictures and a video of it in action. So far, so good!

-Joe

[firsthesitation]

Originally Posted by schneijt

It was by far the tightest fit I've ever experienced.-Joe

ROTFLMAO.



haha. Mean while in other news.

[schneijt]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Wait, I don't get it...?? lol

And I swear that I'm going to play a drinking game some day where I take a shot every time you guys post that "This thread is worthless..." thing. I'd be dead in minutes...

Pics will come later this afternoon. I'm almost done fine-tuning the gate valve to where I want it.

-Joe

[hansmatt]

like to hear your cone impressions...I like the idea!

[reefin fool]

Is there a reason your not using the octo anymore? Only reason Im asking is I have the same skimmer and have been very happy with it.

[schneijt]

Originally Posted by reefin fool

Is there a reason your not using the octo anymore? Only reason Im asking is I have the same skimmer and have been very happy with it.

The Octo Extreme 200 was a good skimmer. It performed really well for me, especially once I put the Large PPW (purple pinwheel) from ATB on it. However, it always seemed like it had an incredible amount of turbulence inside the skimmer body, and I've always been intrigued by the physics of the cone skimmers and heard that they reduce turbulence and have a number of other benefits. So, I wanted to try one, and it was nice being able to buy one without a pump that was designed for the pump I already had from the Octo Extreme.

-Joe

[schneijt]

Here are some photos of the skimmer in action. I'll post more later, but I'm busy tonight.

I will say that,despite it not even running for a full day yet, I'm extremely impressed. The reduction in turbulence is amazing, and I think that has a lot to do with the cone shape. Instead of just swirling around for a while like a traditional skimmer until the transition to the neck begins, the whole skimmer body is the transition when you're skimming with a cone, so the foam is gently compressed the whole length of the body. Did that make sense? It's just a very gentle and constant transition to the neck, instead of swirling around inside a cylinder for a while before being transitioned to the neck. I dig it.

Ok, I'm now running even further behind because of all that typing. Gotta go, will update later!

-Joe







(The last photo is trying to show the pump and the gate valve... But all it does is show how unorganized my sump is right now. lol)

p.s. I also took a video of the skimmer in action, but I need to resize it and reduce the file size before I can upload and post it.

[quader94]

Originally Posted by firsthesitation

ROTFLMAO.



haha. Mean while in other news.

[schneijt]