Avast Protein Skimmer

[04charedcompg]

Well after much research and problems with my biopellets, I decided to break down and get a recirculating skimmer. I called Justin from Avast and he was very helpful! The skimmer is rated from 100-200 gallons, and my tank only being 55 gallons I was worried that it would be too large for my tank. He informed me that he knows of one running on a 40 gallon and that I should be fine with it.

Well off with the boring things and onto the good things!!!!! I purchased the CS1 pegleg with the recirc mod, and the smoked cone.


At first it was VERY overwhelming. but the instructions were very detailed and helpful!!


I may have went out of order a tad bit when building but it got built! lol


Here the body is finished, i never took pictures of the cup finished, I apologize for that:-(


here it is all finished up! ready to go in its vinegar bath.

After about 12 hours it started pulling a little skim, and after 24 hours it had about half an inch pulled out. it was a little wet but none the less skim! I've slowly started adjusting it to be dryer and every day this week, I've emptied 3/4-1" of skim!! not bad for its first week of service!!

[larryandlaura]

Cool skimmer! How long did it take to assemble? Sounds like its working great!

[chort55]

Were you running a skimmer before, or just the biopellets?

[04charedcompg]

I had a reef octopus on it, it just wasnt doing the job. And larry what model was that skimmer that i got from you at ann arbor? The assembly with dry time maybe took 4-5 hours but then you have to wait 24 hours for the main seem to dry so that time was a factor too. id say 5 hours over the course of 2 days

[chort55]

Interesting, everyone I know that runs the Reef Octo's love em... which model were u running do you know? It may just have not been the "one" for your tank, everyone overrates them pretty much like this ones rated for a 100-200g, but id guess its really best on a 50-100g (100g being light bioload).

[04charedcompg]

i think it was the extreme xs200 but larry will have to confirm that for me im sorry. it def. was not the "one" for me. but i bet it would be an amazing skimmer on a larger tank!! im very happy with this avast one tho! and it was cool because i got to build it

[chort55]

Yeah the whole build it yourself is a pretty sweet thing IMO, hopefully this one continues to rock for ya!!!!