Mr. Saltwater Tank

7 Months With The Hydor Performer 2005 Recirculating Skimmer


Protein skimmers have a lot of value on a saltwater tank. They remove dissolved organic material (waste), they oxygenate your tank’s water and they help give you insight to what’s going on in your tank.

For my 235g tank build, I wanted to go in a different direction with my protein skimmer choice and try a recirculating skimmer. I chose the Hydor Performer 2005 as my test subject and here’s my review after 7 months of testing.

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Comments for this article (56)

  • joel says:

    Hey mark,

    I have a 93 gallon cube on my first floor. I ran the sump the basement because the stand was no big enough. I have a 40 gallon breeder with some live rock, filter sock, a huge power head, plus the skimmer. It’s great to work on all the equipment standing up. I have a ASM G3 and I am not happy with it. My 28 gallon has a aqua maxx hang on back and it is a amazing. The ASM is super finicky. I got an Auto top off. It is better but still is not consistent. I dose calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity by auto and my skimmer goes from no bubbles in the neck to over flowing. What kind of skimmer do you suggest? I ask because your advice on algae has been a life saver and now dosing has shown great improvement. I know you won’t steer me wrong. I would like to be in the 300 gallon range. I am 93 gallon display, 40 gallon sump, and 20 gallon refugium/frag tank.

    thanks,
    Joel

  • Jeff says:

    So I got the 705 for my tank set it up with a 400 gph flow. It was working good the first few days or so nice small bubbles at the bottom then bigger ones up top by the skimmer cup. Now it’s just small bubbles all the time and having a hard time adjusting it. I am only curing live rock at this time so I don’t know if that maters or not. When it was running good it was producing nice skim even thow it was a bit watery. I still have high ammonia and its been four weeks now. Is there any thing I should try. Thanks

  • George Wright says:

    Jeff I think it’s got a lot to do the curing of the rock and high test levels only I noticed mine stopped foaming as well when readings got to high once I got them back down to sensible levels its start working great again. Only other thing I would check by turn the skimmer pump off and check the height of the water as it can need adjusting over time oh have u also checked the amount of water your supply pump pumping
    Hope this helps

  • Jeff says:

    So I’m having problems with the skimmer staying level it goes way up then drops a few inches. I have the return pump in my refugium right know because that is the only place that stays level with water, and it still moves all over the place. Don’t know what to do. I have had it know for about two weeks maybe a little bit longer by like a few days or so.

  • Peter says:

    Hi Mark I’m moving on to a bigger tank, a 180 gallon SPS with a 100 gallon sump/refugium. I know you like to go +2 on your skimmers so what would you recommend as far as size? Would one rated for 400 heavy load be good?

    Thanks….Peter

  • Dominik Kobylinski says:

    Hi guys!
    I got 1300 L tank. Just bought hydor skimmer 2005. On the box it is saying that it is from 2150L to 3000L. My tank is got lot of corals inn. Was it correct to buy such big skimmer for a 1300L tank?

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