When it was first announced, the Maxspect Aeraqua Duo came out swinging out the gate with not one, but two needle wheel impellers while using just a single motor. This on its own, or coupled with the static ring of needles in the volute, promised a significant improvement in protein skimming performance and was enough to secure Maxspect’s first protein skimmer some mindshare in a well established part of the reef aquarium hobby.
If you’re a regular reader of Reef Builders, by now you’ve seen countless cycles of light, flow and protein skimmer technologies come and go, promising to upend the status quo and revolutionize the hobby ‘as we know it’. Maxspect is making no such claims but we are because everything about the Aeraqua Duo has been rethought, reimagined, redesigned and improved in subtle and substantial ways from the base to the lid.
Some major highlights of the Maspect Aeraqua Duo include that nifty dual impeller needle wheel pump, and the controllable Turbine Duo is both wireless and programmable. The pump has a stationary needle ring in the volute and a special adjustment intake that can switch the pumps intake from inside the body to water outside the body to make one side fully recirculating.
The body has an oval-cone shape with the water level adjustment and air intake incorporated into opposite sides of the body for a nearly impeccable form and the air intake is routed through the base of the skimmer where the air silencer disappears and is further insulated by the water of the sump. Quick disconnect latches at the base and on the cup as well as a pressure-fitted pump base makes for some of the most simple attachment/detachment mechanism we’ve ever seen, streamlining the maintenance and cleaning process.
Just that small list of specs and features is enough to make any reefer salivate over the Aeraqua’s foam fractionation capabilities. But after running this new device for a month we can tell you that this is one skimmer that is just a total pleasure to use and operate through and through and likely to influence many protein skimmer designs in the future.
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