Having some skimmer issues

[russell_wiley]

I purchased one of the Euro Reef Nano Skimmers for my 34 gallon Solana. I bought it right when it came out, so I knew there were some "bugs" that would have to be worked out. At first, it worked great! Lots of skimmate & I couldn't be happier. However, after a couple of months, the performance of the skimmer took a serious down turn.

So, I took it apart to find that the mesh wheel had all but dissolved off of the impeller. I sent an email to the company to request help. They immediately sent a replacement. They said that the first version of the mesh wheel had the same problem & that this new one would work well. The last few days, I have noticed the same down turn in performance & once again disassembled the pump to find the exact same problem.

Once again, I contacted Euro Reef & told them about how my impeller dissolved away. They responded quickly again, by saying that they have a new diamond mesh wheel as a replacement. However, since this was made out of a more expensive material, they were charging $12 for the replacement. I responded by asking if this, the 3rd version, was going to have the same problems as the previous two, thereby causing me to be without a skimmer again in 3 months.

He said: The other impellers fell apart because of the pH levels in reef aquariums which was not expected...it attacked the base material and over time destroyed the impellers. The new material is not affected by pH levels since it is made of a Silicon Carbide material as opposed to metal foam.

You must also recognize that this is a rough environment for any impeller to be in. We feel that these new impellers will last a lot longer then the old

ones but I could not honestly tell you at this point how long...we would expect at least 6-8 months and maybe longer.

I really don't know what to do here. Should I buy the replacement, knowing it will break down again? Or, just chalk it up to experience & get a new skimmer? I really have no clue which skimmer to buy if I do this. But, I want a skimmer that will continue to work. I don't want to keep buying costly replacement parts every few months. Any help with this would be great.

Thanks,

Russ

[Boret]

Go for the replacement, for $12 is not that bad... are they covering the shipping?

What about going back to a regular pin wheel?

[russell_wiley]

The problem isn't necessarily the $12 part. It's the idea that I will be buying those every couple months. Not to mention that they can't guarantee the part to begin with.

They don't have a pin wheel for it. This seems to be all they have.

[ctenophore]

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt one more time. If this one does the same thing, then simply post your story (very reasonably explained, btw) all over the web. I dislike when somebody gives a BS excuse to cover up a problem, rather than admitting they were wrong. How could they not know what an average pH in a marine aquarium would be? I have an impeller made from delrin that has been running for over 5 years now.

[F&Fmgr]

Aqua Euro nano skimmers are the shiznit, like I told you before dude

[davelin315]

I would ask them to send it free of charge since you paid for a defective product. They have admitted that they made these wrong, how could they charge you for a replacement that works? I have trouble buying the excuse that they want to charge you because this costs more to make - do the new skimmers cost more than yours did or has the price come down? It certainly does not cost them $12 for an impeller and mesh... and I can't imagine how they could possibly not have tested this for the pH of a reef tank - have yet to hear of a marine tank of any sort being kept at 7.4 or whatever is neutral and have yet to hear that a skimmer would actually work in a freshwater tank...