Simplicity 120 DC Protein Skimmer with DC Pump

I’ve had many skimmers including the Bubble King and I will tell you this skimmer is definitely the beat bang for the buck. This skimmer is ultra quiet, very controllable because if the dc pump, and well made. Obviously it’s not built like a Bubble King, but it’s definitely a quality skimmer. I use it on a sps reef and I highly recommend it and would definitely buy this again.

I have been using the protein skimmer since 2017. On this unit, the pump showed some intermittent failure. I contacted Simplicity and after explaining how i had troubleshooted the problem and found the root cause, he understandably asked for my receipt. Once I sent that online to him, he sent me within a day a new pump and instructions on how to install it (it is a improved design). EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE. Thank you! I will buy from Simplicity again.

So as I had mentioned my 120 had some noise early on, it got worse then it got unbearable! I contacted Simplicity and left a message with my skimmer running in the background, he called me back within the hour. Very nice, very helpful, very appreciate. We decided a new impeller was the way to go, I had it in 3 days. All seemed well as first but after 4 or 5 days (just like before) it got loud again. This time I noticed an odd wear mark on the impeller magnet when compared to the original it was identical. Sent off a few pictures to the owner and we agreed something was rubbing it inside the housing, so he sent me a new motor and impeller, on good faith and assured me that it would be torn down and investigated so no more would go out the door like that. New motor did the trick and it has been silent for many months. I give the product, the help, shipping and customer service 5 stars all around, they take care of their customers!

This is not a perfect skimmer but it has strong potential. First the build quality of the acrylic parts and the fit is excellent, it is a very attractive unit. I always say the look is second to performance but in this case I needed a black and grey skimmer and it is that. I take issue with the pump noise which seems to be random and can be annoying. I have experience with DC skimmers and most are near silent, not the case here. I am of the opinion that the fit of the wheel in the shaft allows for play and uneven rotation. It may even out and quiet down but I expect the pump will need replacement within a year. So why keep it? It's just a good match cosmetically and it does work well noise aside. It took no time to break in and after dialing in the speed matched with the air flow and water level it pulls great gunk. The ability to switch from wet to dry skim with just the air inlet is fantastic! It surely has the power, and it definitely has the look! With a better pump/shaft/wheel or maybe just a new swap it has the potential to be the best DC skimmer I have owned to date.

This is a very good skimmer and well worth the money. It is recommended for 60 to 120 gal depending on load. It was extremely well packaged and there was no chance of anything being damaged in the box during shipping. Assembly was simple and instructions were not needed but they were provided. Assembly took about 10-15 minutes. Once assembled, I washed the skimmer by hand in hot water to remove any contaminants from the molding process and placed it in the sump. It was producing skim with a few hours and once it broke in (2 days), I haven't had to adjust the height of the water in the skimmer. I am running the pump at the maximum speed and have the air adjustment fully open as recommended by the manufacturer for initial settings and I haven't had to adjust them The water level knob is turned between 1/16 and 1/8 of a turn. It is being used in a 3 foot, 65 gal with a 29gal (half full) refugium/sump with about 800GPH flowing through the refugium/sump. Total water volume is around 65-70 gal due to rock and substrate displacement and expansion room in the sump. The tank has a light load on it at the moment but corals and more fish will be added in the next few months. I will revisit this review and update as the load is increased to heavy to provide a thorough assessment. Over the next month I plan to play with the adjustments to get it pulling a thicker skimmate so I will include that in the updates as well I can verify the skimmer works in 9.5 inches of water depth and as it says, that is probably the deepest it can go, the manufacturer recommends 7 to 9.5 inches depth for the skimmer. I did have an issue with a loud pump but I emailed the company and they promptly sent me a new needle wheel to resolve the issue free of charge once I supplied proof of purchase. I specifically got this skimmer over the Skimz brand because the collection cup is really easy to remove on this. There are a lot of complaints that the Skimz collection cups can be difficult to remove. This one, the cup is really easy to remove and requires little effort.

I am really loving this skimmer! I have owned many skimmer is the past 12 years of reef keeping and none of performed as well as the Simplicity. The first thing the stands out is the build quality. It's solid and ver nicely put together. I do some acrylic fabrication and can spot a good seam weld when I see one. It took about 5 days to break in and is now really pulling out some nice skimate. Right now, I have to empty the cup every other day. The pump runs very quiet - the only sound you'll hear is from the air silencer. While researching a skimmer for my latest build - I came across the Simplicity brand on RC and then started looking them up. While the performance reviews were good... the customer service reviews were great! I wanted to get a brand that would stand by their product and have replacement parts available. If that's important to you, the Simplicity is the skimmer to go with. The one thing I'd like to see changed is the size of the collection cup on the 120DC. The skimmer works so well that it fills the cup ever other day. It does have a drain in the cup but my sump walls are too tall to utilize it. I run the skimmer in 8" of water and it's fantastic.