MACNA Coverage: Reef Life Support booth and their new modular skimmer

H2O Systems Inc.,a Canadian company behind the Reef Life Support Systems (or RLSS in short) makers of reef keeping equipments including protein skimmers, calcium and other media reactors as well as a Waveline DC return pumps, has showed their latest skimmers and pumps at this year’s MACNA, including the very interesting new cone shaped skimmer powered by their DC pump. For those of you puzzled by the DC symbol, thee main differences between a DC powered pump and a regular 110V AC one are power consumption and control-ability. DC motor consumes less power, last longer (at least in theory) and offers various flow rates through an external controller capable of adjusting the impeller’s rotation speed. I personally believe it could be the next big thing in aquarium industry. H2O Systems booth had several of the Waveline pumps in display, as well as some of their skimmers. The little controller is a nice looking device that controls the pumps speed and can be easily adjusted for consumer’s flow needs in a given system, eliminating the need of ball valves restricting flow as in a standard AC powered pump. The company’s representative was happy to show me their latest invention, a conical shaped in-sump skimmer (model DB10i) that incorporate few very smart ideas into it. First of all, in the heart of it lays the earlier mentioned DC pump hooked up to a controller. That combo takes skimmer’s adjustment rate no the next level- not only you can fine tune the foam neck using an air intake valve, but also by the means of changing the pump’s flow rate. It could be an ideal feature for those of you struggling to maintain a stable foam neck in the skimmer. Following along, the next interesting fact is that the pump is placed in the skimmer’s body in a way that the intake is at the very bottom of it.  According to the company’s representative, this innovation extends the overall skimming ability of their product by providing more skimming volume without making it too big to fit under the stand. The skimmer’s parts are removable for an easy cleaning and within modular built lays one more smart engineering solution- the skimmer’s outer acrylic shell can be unscrew just below where the cone starts as well as at the very bottom, where pump sits. What for? Well, The new RLSS skimmer is gonna debut along with an optional 6″ neck extensions. Need more skimming power, just buy one or more extensions, the skimmer pump can handle them just fine. I am eager to see this skimmer in action later this year, if the inventions incorporated in it’s body match H2O Systems claims, it could be a game changer in the world of nasty skimmate.  Read more about the company’s line of products as well as their upcoming solution for a fishkeeping market on their website at: http://www.rlss.ca/