The Titanium Square Skimmer is one heck of a way to make debut in the American reefing scene and that’s precisely what Macro Aqua has done at MACNA 2017 last weekend. Macro Aqua is an innovative Taiwanese company that we’ve been reporting on for years, and they always have a few featured products when we visit InterZoo.
But this time Macro Aqua brought the heat to our own shores with a radical new protein skimmer design that our Japanese team spotted in China last year. One look at this skimmer and it’s impossible to compare it to anything like the current status quo, but it has all the advanced features we come to expect of a modern skimmer, and a few tricks of its own.
The Titanium Square Skimmer, as the name implies, doesn’t have a single curve on it – the square footprint makes extremely efficient use of space, especially when placed in the sump. It has a controllable DC pump, a unique bubble diffuser design, and a very elegantly integrated gate valve.
Instead of having a now-standard sloping cone shape or tapering neck, the Titanium Square skimmer is more of a wedge from the pump outlet all the way to the neck. Rather than having a collection cup that sits on top of the body, this skimmer has more of a spillover at its terminus where foam collects into a side-mounted cup.
By now you might be wondering where the titanium name comes from, and this is from the use of a unique Titanium mesh wheel that we spotted almost 18 months ago. This original meshed version of a needle wheel has proven to create a generous amount of very fine bubbles, and we all know that this metal is extremely hard and resistant to corrosion.
Macro Aqua was naturally at MACNA seeking a U.S. distributor for the Titanium Square Skimmer, as well as their vast catalog of differentiated aquarium products. Despite its exotic appearance and innovative new features, the Titanium Square Skimmer, complete with controllable DC pump (or AC pumps in the smaller models), is expected to start out at a very reasonable $200 for the smallest model. [Macro Aqua]
