I have a 44 gallon reef, and I am about to order a Prizm Skimmer. I already called and asked Red Sea if they would send me the 18-blade impeller. It's on it's way.
While i dont own a prizm, I have had the opportunity to watch one at work on the 55g SPS tank at the LFS I deal with, peersonally I wouldnt buy one for anything larger than a 29g. I think they are fine skimmers for small tanks but I think you would be better served with something with more capacity, a Remora or Remora Pro would be more on the lines I would consider personally. But then again you might find it satisfactory with a light bioload. I just find it easier to run it less often than to try and keep up with to big a job.
Had one on my 30g tank....complete and utter garbage, my Very reputable local fish store had one running on their 10g tank, ended up leaving a slick of sludge on the surface, they carried it for a whole 2 weeks. Same response from them..garbage. Spend $109 at www.exoticfish.com for a CPR pakpak, be smart. Or go to www.marinedepot.com same price there too. But stay away from the prism skimmer. It aint worth a dime.
Will state again, garbage, for about $30-40 more dollars there are about 2-3 skimmers that will do a 100x better job, people who "think" they do a good job, have never seen what a real skimmer is capable of. Garbage, nuff said.
I've got one on my 42Gal hex. Got it mainly because it was a hang-on back and it fit, as well as several good "reviews" from people I talked to. After working with it for a few months, I would recomend it for smaller tanks. It seems to do an ok job on my tank (42 Gal, med bio-load, med-heavy feeding, 3-4 inch SB, 50lb LR). If you have a provision for a sump, I would recomend something else, or if you plan on using it on a larger tank in the future, get something else. All that aside, I like it on my 42 hex and it might be right for you (only you can decide that!)
There are actually a couple of great HOT skimmers for a 46g tank, along with a couple of good in sump models too for well under $200, including the Precision Marine HOT-1,AquaC Remora and RemoraPro,also a great deal from Jeffs Exotic Fish is a CPR BakPakII for $99, which is of a quality acrylic(not prism plastic)has a great bubblebaffle,comes with a great working venturi design, and you can get an optional surface skimmer(highly recommended)for only a few dollars more. www.cprusa.com but seriously, I got one for sh!ts and giggles for my own 30g tank, it couldnt do the job properly at all, and also started leaving a film at the top of the tank, With my RemoraPro on the tank, it literally shut down the Prismskimmer and cleared the tank up within a couple of hours. I have plenty of experience with many high end skimmers, and cheaper ones too, so take it as good advise that there are much better units out there for the money.
I tend to disagree. I have both the bakpak and the prizm, and the prizm skims better than the bakpak. I think you could get by with one on a 40 gallon. It all depends on what you do to the tank. For a heavy bioload and/or heavy feeding, I'd probably go with the Remora Pro, but if you keep the load light to medium, the prizm does a pretty job. It's not as nicely crafted as a bakpak, nor was it meant to be. Overall, I'm fairly impressed what this little skimmer can pull out. To compare a $70 skimmer to one that costs $200 is not really fair. As for stating that people who have good things to say not having ever experienced a nice skimmer... I've run ETS and now a Euroreef. I'll wholeheartedly agree that the $300 skimmers are much better in comparison, but we're talking about a $70 skimmer here. For $70, I think it does a good job.
We had one too Bill, it was on our 30g tank helping out with "curing" duties, it was pulling out about a teaspoon of weak tea a day while our RemoraPro was ripping out a couple cups worht a day!
i owned one on my 55 gallon for 6 months and i skimmed great. How great? i bought a turboflotor on the boards and ran both at the same time. the TF in the sump and the Prism hanging on the tank. guess which one at the end of the week had more heavy brown gunk. both were about the same. so i don't think it's junk.
what i didn't like about it was the fact that you can't really clean these things.
I also sold the TF. it is way too big for the job it does. now im running a modified Seaclown and the darn thing is doing a pretty good job.
i think the market needs a better skimmer. most come with a Rio pump and we all know about the chances you take with them.
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