RLSS vs LIFE REEF

pablomay28

Well-Known Member
For those of you thinking of a new skimmer. So far the RLSS is winning but I will wait till the LIFE REEF starts producing.

 

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
I used to own the life reef skimmer and you are dead on, the noise from the Venturi is unavoidable.

In my opinion and experience, the life reef skimmer with that setup (pump/Venturi) does not produce the amount of bubbles other skimmers do and I feel it isn't very effective.

I replaced mine with a SRO 2000sss and it outperformed it hands down.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
I would agree that your not going to get rid of the venturi on a Lifereef skimmer. That's just the way they are designed. Because they draw air from the collection cup, to prevent collection cup overflows, you can't easily put a muffler on them like you see on some of the needle wheel pump skimmers.

I also would set the Lifereef skimmer up a bit differently. Ideally you want the cleaned water coming out of it to re enter the sump slightly above the water level in the sump. By placing this below the sump level you don't get as clean a level of bubbles. Notice how the level rises and falls in the narrow plastic column.

To get the best results out of a venturi skimmer you really need a pressure rated pump, something like an Iwaki MD55-RLT. The power head type pumps like the mag just can't produce the pressure needed to really get best results out of the venturi. The downside is that a pump like the Iwaki is going to cost a lot more, and consume a lot more electricity compared to a needle wheel skimmer skimmer, especially if needle wheel is using a DC pump. Also, most pressure rated pumps must be mounted outside the sump, they are not submersible. This means doing a lot more plumbing. Notice how the bubbles in the Lifereef skimmer are all different sizes.

You would also get better results if you were using a Mazzei venturi. However it's a lot longer and a lot more expensive.

The bottom like here is that the Lifereef is running at a big disadvantage. However, even if you made all those changes I mentioned above, your still not going to resolve the venturi noise and you need to spend a lot more money to upgrade it and you'd spend a lot more to run it. The Lifereef is a great skimmer, but even with the improvements I don't think it will be that much better than the RLSS.

For those reasons I think your better off with the RLSS.
 

Mjcj34g

Active Member
I wish I would have read this prior to taking the plunge. I researched as much as I could on the life reef products and really couldn't find anything negative. So I made the purchase of the life reef refugium/sump for my RSM. The product itself is very well made. However the skimmer is the loudest thing in my house. Its like a jet is taking off in my home office.
Its too soon to tell how well it works. Maybe I will get used to the noise if it ends up working well.

Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk
 
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