We brought you the newest addition to the Grey Seas Aquatics line with the affordable Compact 6 protein skimmer the other week and we want to thank Dan at GSA for sending along an evaluation unit so we can put this skimmer to the test. GSA combined performance and affordability in this skimmer and so far so good. With a $249 price tag and a Sicce PSK-2500 meshwheel pump attached, you know you are going to get a no-frills skimmer that just works. My blue-collar reefing mantra is to know the difference between cheap and inexpensive and this one hits home providing an inexpensive, yet solid piece of equipment showing you can get good bang for your buck without breaking your reefing budget. More pictures and full review after the break.

You’re not going to see a lot of fancy CNC’d parts here, the Compact 6 uses a blend of simple, custom parts and off-the-shelf fittings to work. This skimmer can be plumbed either with the pump inside the skimmer body (taking up less space) or externally (easier access to the pump).The skimmer arrived with assembly required, so those of you looking for turnkey this one is going to take a little bit of work to get up and running but isn’t too difficult. The skimmer sports a 6” extruded acrylic body and 4” neck, not the beefiest of materials but one of the cost-cutting measures. A side note here, be very careful when adding the pump venture to the body, we noticed the face of the pump volute touched the skimmer body and it won’t take much to crack the body if you’re not careful. A reinforcement plate or some kind of soft rubber “biscuit” the shape of the skimmer body curve would be nice to help get a snug connection while protecting the skimmer body.

We did have some issues with the pump starting correctly and needed a little massaging to get it all going. From conversations with GSA it seems the pump we received had the impeller from the larger GS1 skimmer installed with more mesh causing the issues (GSA is sending out the proper impeller disc). Once started, the Sicce is a monster, producing a thick, white foam but we had to twist the pump casing a hair to get ours to kick start a few times before it would stay running, so we plumbed this externally which made for a tight fit in the small sump. Not as solid feeling as it is when plumbed internally, but it gets the job done with easy access to the pump.

We really liked the addition of the pressure-fit collection cup. The cup simply fits snugly on the body and needs only slight pressure to pull it up and out with its 1/2″ of clearance. The collection cup also features a 90-degree John Guest fitting for a waste drain allowing you to use a spare hunk of RO water line to collect the skimmate in a separate container. The skimmer also comes with an air inlet silencer, which you’ll need with this air-pulling beast.

This skimmer may not have all the bells and whistles of more expensive models but like its appearance, it’s plain and simple and does work well so far pulling some good skimmate after just 24 hours. We’re going to run this skimmer for a while to allow it to break in and really test out the performance factor. We’re hoping the initial pump issues were just part of the break in period and will go away with time to give us the chance to run it for an extended time plumbed both internally and externally, providing more performance updates down the road.

Related Posts:

• Compact 6 Protein Skimmer from Grey Seas Aquatics balances performance and value
• Sicce Synchra 1 vs. Maxijet Utility 1100, a visual comparison
• TMC’s new V2 300 and 500 compact protein skimmers
• Euro-Reef products and support shifted to Reef Dynamics
• ATB’s new large Elegance cone skimmer
• Planctonite releases new Sweeper 2.0 version
• JBJ LED 28G Nano Cube unboxed
• Fauna Marin blue line skimmer seen, available in January

Back near the beginning of May, Reef Builders asked me to test a new line of products geared toward reef tanks called Aqua Vitro by Seachem Laboratories. The Aqua Vitro line of products consists of 7 different additives. They are – Alpha, Balance, Calcification, Eight.four, Fuel, Ions, & Vibrance. Click the read link for the full review and analysis.

Having had a reef tank for several years, I have used many different products with varying results, seen many products come and go, and have learned how to manage my tank’s chemistry through the use of cheap alternatives and good tank husbandry in order to make my corals thrive. Because of this, I decided to take up the challenge of testing the new product line. Knowing that I have a good feel for when a product is negatively or positively affecting the health of the corals and fish, I wasn’t overly concerned about wiping out my system if something were to go array. After all, adjustments could be made prior to having any long-term negative effects. In the end, two different test systems were used to test the products, my understocked 300 gallon total water volume mixed reef setup with excellent water quality and a 20 gallon quarantine tank with an undersized skimmer.

Alpha

The first product tested was Alpha. Alpha is a product that claims to remove chlorine, chloramines, & ammonia, along with detoxifying nitrite & nitrate. Since RO/DI water is used for all water additions in my tanks, all new water is free of these chemicals. Additionally, the test reef tank has never measured any detectable nitrites or nitrates. Because of this and my want for some new fish additions, I set up my quarantine tank with fresh saltwater using tap water directly from my well. Well water in my area does not have any chlorine, chloramines, ammonia, or nitrite, but it does have 25ppm nitrates. The nitrates alone should have had minimal affects on any new fish, but being a freshly setup tank, elevated ammonia and nitrite levels were expected as the tank went through the cycle process. So far, Alpha has been used in the quarantine tank for three weeks and only a slight rise in any free ammonia and nitrite levels have been observed and all of the fish are still alive. Overall, the product may have helped to protect the fish from any high levels of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate that would have risen during the cycle process, but the time span that the product has been tested is still short. With how bad it smells when you open the bottle, the product better work. I wouldn’t recommend the product as a substitute for waiting out the cycle process, but for people that need to lower elevated levels while they are finding a permanent solution to solving their problems, Alpha, along with water changes may help. I still do not know if I would feel comfortable testing the product in my reef tank, but since I don’t have elevated levels to test it on, I’ll leave that for someone else.

Balance

The next product tested was Balance. Balance is an optimized blend of sodium and potassium hydroxides that claims to balance the carbonate buffer system ratio and raises pH without affecting calcium and alkalinity. Being that my tanks have a pH of 8.20 in the morning and 8.42 in the evening, the tank’s inhabitants would probably not benefit for the pH being raised any higher, so Balance was tested by being dosed at half the recommended rate for two consecutive days. After those two days, the tank pH was 8.26 in the morning and 8.44 in the evening. Per the products claim, results may vary widely, but as a starting reference point, one full dosage should have raised the pH by 0.1 pH units. My results were lower that the reference in the bottle, but the product did raise the pH and I didn’t notice any change in my alkalinity or calcium levels. One week after the second dose, may tank’s pH was back to 8.20 in the morning and 8.40 in the evening. I repeated the test a second time and achieved similar results. If you are looking for a product that will raise your tank’s pH level, the Balance product may help if your tank has an improper carbonate/bicarbonate ratio. However, most of the time, there are other reasons that cause a tank’s pH to remain too low. Products such as Balance help to cover up the true cause of the low pH, but I don’t consider them a permanent solution. As my results show, they did raise the pH for the short term, but unless dosed consistently, you may end up with a tank that has a fluctuating pH and be worse off than prior to dosing any pH adjusting chemicals.

Calcification

Calcification was the third product tested. The product raises & maintains calcium and claims to accelerate coral growth. The product did raise the calcium levels as claimed, however, to raise the calcium levels by 10 mg/l in a 300 gallon system, it takes 84 mL plus however much more is necessary to keep up with the calcium usage by the corals. At that rate, large systems could go through a bottle in a matter of days. No increase in coral growth rate that could be correlated to the use of the Calcification product over any other product that is designed to raise the calcium level in a reef tank was observed so far. However, as of this time, the test process has been short so both positive or negative growth rates are still inconclusive. The tests will continue over the next couple months, while only dosing one additive at a time, and the results will be posted once more data is achieved.

Eight.Four
The next product that was tested is Eight.Four. Eight.Four safely raises & buffers pH to 8.4 and raises carbonate alkalinity. Since my tank already has a relatively high pH level and remains near the upper end of the recommended alkalinity range during my routine dosing, I had to determine the most effective way to test the product within a reasonable time frame. The best way would have been to make adjustment to my dosing routine, monitor how the tank reacted with the adjusted dosing and then start dosing Eight.Four and see how my tank reacts. Since this would be a multistage process taking several weeks to properly test, I decided to continue my dosing routine and add the Eight.Four product in addition to my normal routine for a short time span to see how the tank reacted without throwing my tank out of balance. What I noticed was that the alkalinity and pH did rise very slightly, however, like Calcification, in a large system, a full bottle may only last a matter of days when dosed at the recommended rate.

Up until this point, the products have been tested in alphabetical order by name. If I continued that order, the next product would have been Fuel, but I am going to skip ahead to Ions and save Fuel for last. This is because Fuel is a product that’s sole purpose is to ignite coral growth and does not have a means for testing the results besides for visual appearance.

Ions

Ions is a product that raises magnesium while maintaining strontium and boron. While testing the product, the magnesium levels did rise at the rate provided on the bottle, but I do not have an accurate strontium or boron test kit at this time so data on how those levels were impacted were not tested. Besides for pH, alkalinity, and calcium, I consider magnesium as being the next most critical chemical in a reef tank. Low magnesium levels can make it tough to achieve proper alkalinity and calcium levels and make the tank less stable. However, it is tough to monitor how magnesium levels directly affect coral health or growth rates unless the magnesium levels are well below the ideal range. As of this time, I have not seen any indications that the Ions additive is either better or worse than most other magnesium supplements on the market.

Vibrance

The second to final product tested was Vibrance. Vibrance is an iodide supplement. Iodide is a chemical that most of the corals in my aquarium do well with less than ideal levels, but I do have many different types of inverts, such as hermit crabs and cleaner shrimp, that benefit for supplementation. While dosing Vibrance, none of the inverts or corals showed any signs of positive or negative reactions, even when dosed at a rate slightly higher than the recommended amount. None of the shrimp in my tank molted during the testing process either. Most often when dosing Iodide supplements, negative signs are much easier to observe over the short term than positive signs. Since there was no signs of stress observed by either the corals or inverts, I will take this as being a positive sign and continue to monitor future testing.

Fuel

Fuel is the name of the final Aqua Vitro additive tested. This additive was saved for last since it is the only additive that can not be tested for changes to specific chemicals with a test kit. One can only judge how well the product works by visual appearance and how other monitoring devices react. Fuel is a mixture of carbohydrates, vitamins, fatty acids, and amino acids designed to ignite coral growth. The only monitor on my tank affected from dosing Fuel was my tank’s Oxygen Reduction Potential (ORP) meter. Directly after dosing, the ORP level in my tank plummeted from its normal operating range of around 400 down to 250. Even when I tried dosing ¼ of the recommended rate, my ORP still dropped over 100 points. Within a few hours, the ORP would rebound back to near its typical operating range. It didn’t totally surprise me that the ORP dropped some while dosing since, it keep things simple, dirtier water generally means a lower ORP. What did surprise me was how much a small dose of Fuel would drop my ORP readings. If a fish goes missing in my tank, generally, the ORP will drop 20-40 points, depending on the size of the fish. Most other coral “color enhancing” additives tried in the past did not give me the large drop either. Seeing that Fuel will drop the ORP by 150 points indicates that there is something in the mixture that is pretty potent with regards to the oxygen levels or water quality. One other side affect observed was that a green film algae would appear on the front glass after dosing. Prior to beginning dosing Fuel, the front glass on my setup could go 2-3 weeks without being cleaned if it wasn’t for the fact that coraline algae would start growing all over the glass pane. These two side effects indicates to me that you don’t want to dose more than the recommended amount, and may be better off using less than what Seachem Laboratories recommends, depending on how clean your water is. Besides for those two side effects, the product appears to work well. Within a week after starting the dosing I could notice my SPS corals reaching out their polyps farther, and shortly after that, I noticed about 1/3 of my SPS corals have gained some coloration. With everything that I have noticed with the Fuel additive, it does seem to have potential in tanks with very low organic levels. Fuel may not work as well in tanks with higher organic levels, unless dosed very lightly, since it may spark algae or water quality problems.

One item of note during my testing is that I did loose one fish. That fish happened to be the largest and favorite fish in my reef tank – a 7”+ Foxface Lo. The fish passed away on a weekend when I was out of town, so the tank went two days without food and the water temp raised to 82 degrees, which is two degrees higher than its normal operating temperature. Neither of those items should have caused and problems with the fish, but none of the other fish showed any negative signs from the additive dosing or tank changes. I do not feel that dosing the additives caused the death of the fish, but in order to give complete test results, the fish loss had to be mentioned.

At the beginning of the testing process, I was, like I usually am with any new product, skeptical of the new Aqua Vitro product line by Seachem Laboratories. However, all of the products tested did show some positive signs of working as claimed either through chemical testing or visual results, although there was side effects with the Fuel additive. Whether the product line works better than other products on the market will take some time to determine. As we all know, everything is this hobby takes time. I think that I have a pretty good feel for how my reef tank reacted to all of the products and the product that has me the most excited has to be Fuel. I will continue to test the Aqua Vitro line of products and will be providing updates periodically so stay tuned for future updates on Seachem Laboratories Aqua Vitro line of products.

Related Posts:

• No Related

Before you rush out and buy Seachem’s new line of “things you must have for your reef”. Be warned. Most if not all of their products are just a re-hash of similiar products they already sell, with one or two things added that make them “must have”. Fancy labeling and “mac” stylized graphics abound on the Aqua-vitro. Along with fancy names called “alpha, eight.four” (what the heck?) This is Seachem’s premium line, which means you be paying a premium price for things you don’t need added to your water that you can’t already get cheaper elsewhere.

For example, they are offering a product called “fuel,” which is a carbon source and amino acid source, which includes some vitamins. Now, with vitamins you could add Selcon to your food feeding, finely minced garlic and vitamin C (lime juice) are great ways to do this. With Seachem’s line, you are enriching your tank water with all the vitamins, not the food. Sorry Seachem, we are not convinced that you need to enrich the tank water.

Update: We got to review the aquavitro line and we liked what we found. Be sure to check your LFS or online supplier to get what products that enhance your reef.  Fuel is highly recommended.

Related Posts:

• No Related

Neptune Systems introduced the Aqua Controller Jr to a lot of fan fare. After all, it was one of the first controllers on the market that the average reef keeper could afford. However it wasn’t until later that Neptune Systems realized that customers preferred the “coolness” of the Reef keepers 2 in order for them to change the style.  One look of the old style of the Aqua Controller Jr gives most people horrors. Thankfully they did a refresh, but it our opinion the Reef keeper 2 still looks better. Click the read link to see more photo’s.

Old Aqua Controller Jr Style:

New Aqua Controller Jr Style:

Reef Keeper 2:

Related Posts:

• No Related

If by chance you live or plan on visiting Madrid Spain, you might want to drop by and say hello to Enrique Mora who runs a spanish blog about his 90 gallon setup. For those of you who don’t speak Spanish you can read his thread about his 90 gallon wonder of a tank. Among his vast array of corals (mainly SPS) he uses a deltec Bubble King protein skimmer no less. Times must be really hard good over there in Spain. He uses the Zeovit method with a twist. I am guessing to mean he makes the equipment himself and just buys the Zeovit “food”. Anyways get your drool pan ready if you haven’t already started to with the teaser pic.

Related Posts:

• No Related

Here’s what my Euro Reef pulls out in one day. This is running on my light bio-load 75 gallon.
I encourage anyone needing a new Protein Skimmer to check out the Euro Reef line.

Related Posts:

• No Related

There are a lot of choices out there for a calcium reactor. Just like everything else it seems the more choices the better off you are. This is especially the case when it comes to saltwater aquarium equipment. That brings us to our current review.

My Knop C Calcium Reactor. For a brief run down of the features:

• for aquaria up to 200 gallons (800 l)
• constant calcium values above 420 mg/l
• constant carbonate values above 8° dKH
• moderate CO 2 consumption
• includes EHEIM pump
• internal circulation 1200 times per hour
• bubble counter included
• CO 2 safety valve included
• automatic release of false gas

Overall this unit a very well built unit. Im very happy with it. It was a huge pain to setup, which is the only reason why it only gets 4 out of 5 of my stars. Other than that. It’s the orginal, and still the numero uno seller (Number 1) in Germany. However, the Korallin Calcium reactor is going to over step this unit as number of units sold. I’ll have a Korallin Reactor on my tank in the months to come. Stay tuned for a review then!

Related Posts:

• No Related