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Euro-Reef Nano Skimmer Review


dan3949

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Just received a new Euro-Reef Nano Skimmer. It is installed on a 20L tank with a 10 gallon sump/refugium (where the skimmer is installed). I had to send all system measurements to the vendor to have a skimmer designed to fit my system (limited head space, about 7" above the sump water level). It took about 10 days for Euro-Reef to confirm that they had fabricated a skimmer that worked for my system. Total shipped cost was $140.

 

Skimmer fabrication quality was fine. Installation was simple. Currently, the skimmer is producing way to many bubbles (overflowing the cup), but the owners manual says this is to be expected because of chemicals on the acrylic surface. It should abate after a few hours.

 

This is my first skimmer, thus I will not be able to compare performance to other models. I will say this skimmer produces an insane quantity of bubbles and has silent operation.

 

The model installed is a NS-2.5-4C. It has a 2.5" diameter body and a single pump. The total system volume is around 25 gallons.

 

I will post some pics this weekend.

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bluenassarius
Just received a new Euro-Reef Nano Skimmer. It is installed on a 20L tank with a 10 gallon sump/refugium (where the skimmer is installed). I had to send all system measurements to the vendor to have a skimmer designed to fit my system (limited head space, about 7" above the sump water level). It took about 10 days for Euro-Reef to confirm that they had fabricated a skimmer that worked for my system. Total shipped cost was $140.

 

Skimmer fabrication quality was fine. Installation was simple. Currently, the skimmer is producing way to many bubbles (overflowing the cup), but the owners manual says this is to be expected because of chemicals on the acrylic surface. It should abate after a few hours.

 

This is my first skimmer, thus I will not be able to compare performance to other models. I will say this skimmer produces an insane quantity of bubbles and has silent operation.

 

The model installed is a NS-2.5-4C. It has a 2.5" diameter body and a single pump. The total system volume is around 25 gallons.

 

I will post some pics this weekend.

 

$140 shipped..? can you take a photo of the skimmer you received?

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Still playing with the adjustment. After an hour or so, the foam goes to the top and quickly fills the collection cup. I may have to lower water level in sump about an inch. However, I will give it a few days and see how the skimmer settles in. Promised pics follow.

 

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A quick update.

 

Skimmer is starting to settle down. After 2 days, the collection cup now fills in about 4-6 hours with tea-colored water. The vendor called to check how things were going. He said it typically takes around 4 days for the skimmer to "break-in." It is definitely doing better. Initially, the cup would overflow in about 30 minutes with bubbles coming out of the collection cup. Now it takes almost 6 hours.

 

Hopefully the bubbles will continue to settle down and allow for a good, dry-skimmate. I will update in a few days.

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I got the same skimmer. Mine stared skimmer almost right away, but i did have it soaking in hot water and vinigar for a few days to take the oils of it while i finished the rest of my set-up

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wanted to give an update.

 

Skimmer still producing tons of bubbles. I am now producing a fairly wet skimmate. The cup fills about every 36 hours. I am running this right at the edge concerning headspace. I am making some changes to my sump to drop the water level 1" to allow production of a drier skimmate. It is definitely pulling a good bit of crud out of the water. The skimmate color is a very dark tea. Right now, I need about 8" of head space above the water line to get good performance.

 

Overall an excellent performing nano skimmer. It is as quiet as advertised. I makes no noise will operating. I will post some skimmate pics this weekend.

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  • 1 month later...
The skimmate color is a very dark tea.

...

I will post some skimmate pics this weekend.

 

Any pics of recent skimmate? I'm curious...

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Forgot my promise to post skimmate pics. I will get some pics this weekend.

 

There has been little change in the skimmer performance. I am still getting a very wet skimmate. It is a dark tea color. The cup tends to fill over a 24 hour period, a little faster than I would like. This tank is almost 1 1/2 years old and this is the first skimmer. Maybe it is still pulling crud out of the water and the tank will need to get "cleaner" before the time between cup filling is extended. However, the skimmate collection rate does seem to vary over the day. For 6-8 hours, the cup will have very little skimmate, then a couple of hours later, it will be full. I don't know what is causing this behavior. My system has an auto top-off, so the water level is constant. However, since the skimmate I remove is nasty, I really can't complain. I do like getting this stuff out of my tank.

 

I have been fighting a nasty bryopsis outbreak in this tank for several months, and the addition of this skimmer has helped my get the upper hand in the ongoing battle.

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Forgot my promise to post skimmate pics. I will get some pics this weekend.

 

There has been little change in the skimmer performance. I am still getting a very wet skimmate. It is a dark tea color. The cup tends to fill over a 24 hour period, a little faster than I would like.

 

You said you were going to lower the water level in your sump...that might help make the skim drier. Did you do that yet? I would guess that every 1/4" inch would make a difference.

 

Look forward to the skim pix.

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  • 4 months later...

So i just wanted to give my own personal Review of Euroreef's nano skimmer. This skimmer has been on the market for some time and can be purchased for most name brand All in ones currently on the market. The model im reviewing is the one designed for the Cadlight 39 Signature. Although i can assure you can expect the same type of performance regardless of the type of All in one you own.So on to the review...

 

 

euroreefskimmer0002.jpg

euroreefskimmer0001.jpg

 

 

 

Design

The euroreef skimmer is a venturi style skimmer.These skimmers are designed to fit in one of the rear chambers of your All in One. It is custom designed to hang off the false wall in the refugium chamber.(This is the slighty shorter wall) The model i had designed was to use two pumps however i find that for now using just one pump is extremely efficient. The reason i decided to use only one pump is because frankly using two is a bit too much.Its pretty hard to control the foam level in the reaction chamber because the second pump just adds too much horsepower. I believe Robert over at euroreef plans to design these models with just one pump from now on. I can assure you from personal experience that one pump is perfect for optimal skimming performance.

The skimmer is designed with a bracket that allows you to easily adjust the height of your skimmer. This makes it very easy to adjust the foam level which in turn can control whether you have dry or wet skimmate.IMO this is big reason to choose the euroreef skimmer over its competitors.The bottom of the skimmer is also designed in a way to control how much water is released through the bottom of the skimmer which helps adjust the actual water level in the chamber. The collection cup on the cadlight model is a bit larger than the cup designed for other models but it is a relatively small cup. However i will say the skimmer is so efficient that when running the skimmer dry it will take quite a while for it to actually fill up.The top of the collection cup has a few holes to allow the skimmate to escape if the cup ever filled to the top. I will say it would benefit to have a drain hole like other skimmers have just in case you go on vacation and would like excess skimmate to drain into a bucket. The pump used is a 9 watt resun pump with a custom mesh wheel. This tiny pump is very powerful and pumps a tremendous amount of small bubbles into the reactor.

Lastly theres a bubble catch(a piece of foam) at the bottom of the skimmer to catch some of the bubbles released from the skimmer.

 

Performance

I allowed this tank to break in over a period of about a month before i would give an honest review. So in a word i will describe this skimmers performance as superb. It takes about 2 weeks before its broken in but its well worth the wait. I adjusted the skimmer to run dry skimmate and have been nothing short of impressed. This skimmer pulls out organics almost simultaneously to when they are introduced :o The funny thing is im not exaggerating.. As im feeding my tank the skimmer immediately starts pulling out skimmate. I dont think ive ever seen a skimmer as efficient. The mesh wheel design helps to produce extremely small bubbles that help the speedy export of organics from your tank to the collection cup. This of course is done by all protein skimmers but this skimmer does it the fastest IMO The skimmate it produces is very dark. So its definitely pulling out the nasty stuff. The Collection cup hasnt filled too quickly in my experience since im running it very dry but that way it produces the darkest skimmate.(Ill be sure to add a pic later to show this)

The other very important thing i wanted to point out in this review would be microbubbles or should i say the lack thereof. This seems to be the biggest nuisance to most reefers in this hobby that use protein skimmers. But i will say after this skimmer had broken in I have 0 microbubbles in my display. I was told by Robert over at Euroreef that the design of the baffle system in All in ones has a direct relationship with the number of microbubbles. He told me the design of the cadlight baffle system as well as the solana inhibits the presence of microbubbles(combined with the skimmers bubble catch) However i have checked with other nano owners of euroreef skimmers owners and they confirmed that microbubbles werent an issue for them either.

 

Maintenance

I would recommend to owners and potential owners of a nano euroreef skimmer to allow the proper amount of time for the skimmer to "break in" before you worry that skimmer isnt functioning properly.

Secondly From time to time clean out the bubble catch.Take it out and run some some hot water through it to make sure it stays clean and free of debris.

 

 

Price

These skimmers are priced between $130 and $200. Depending on the model of All in one you currently own. Some would say its a bit expensive but i will say in this hobby you get what you pay for. This is one skimmer that pays for itself just in how well it performs. You can order these skimmers directly from Euroreef or from globeaqua

 

Customer Service

Ive dealt directly with Robert at Euroreef for questions and support for the skimmer. And i can say hes a real class act. He answered all of my questions promptly,gave direct calls to my cell to help me with any issues and is always open to feedback. I couldnt ask for more. Customer service is a big deal in my book so im glad to say you will be taken care of.

 

Final Thoughts

Well i was searching for the best skimmer available for my cadlight and i do honestly feel euroreef answered the call on this one. You get alot of skimmer for the price and it really does a phenomenal job. I hope this review helps any who were on the fence about buying this skimmer or just might have been looking for another alternative. I apologize for the review being so long but i had a few ask me my opinion of this skimmer and i just wanted to be thorough.

 

My rating

Performance:10 (I would give it an a 11 if the scale wasnt to 10 :D )

Design:10

Price:9

Customer Service:10

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  • 1 month later...

DAN- i have this skimmer also on my Solana, and i love it. But i had the exact same problem as you in the beginng, that being to much water rising the tub into the collection cup way to fast. Make sure the pump on the side of the skimmer is totally submerged, if it isn't it'll over heat. I noticed with mine i had to keep raising it out of the water like you to avoid it overfilling, but this left my pump out of the water. The solution is pretty simple if you want to lower the skimmer under the water level more!~

 

At the bottom of the tub you should have a grey rubber piece with a hole in it. The problem is the skimmer is filling with water faster then the water is leaving the bottom. All you have to do is SLOWLY widen that hole on the bottom and you will be able to lower the skimmer deeper and at the same time allow more room for foam to develop and rise. I used a drill and actually added a 2nd hole into the piece on the bottom to allow water evacuate at a quicker rate. This allowed me to drop the skimmer 3 inches, and made it so the collection cup didn't fill up so fast. It normally takes about 3 to 4 days for mine to fill up with very dark skimmate, still a little on the wet side but thats ok. Make sure you don't widen the hole to much because once you do you can't go back, just make it bigger then test it and go back if you need to. Thats what i did and it worked perfect!

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I completely forgot about this thread.

 

I solved the issue by completely removing the sponge/bubble trap off the bottom of the skimmer body. My skimmer did not have the grey orifice plate, only the sponge in the bottom of the tube.

 

I suppose if you clean it on a regular basis you could leave it in. However, as the sponge filled with crud, it change skimmer performance and I was having to constantly tweek the skimmer height to keep the collection cup from overfilling. After removing the sponge, I never had to adjust the height again. It worked great.

 

I did not need the sponge for micro-bubble elimination.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So i got the new impellers for my euroreef skimmer. This is the upgraded "diamond mesh" material. It should be alot less prone to wear. Here some pics of the old impeller and how worn down it is in a relatively short amount of time. Just installed the new one and ill check in month or so to see how it compares to the old one...

 

Old impeller

oldimpeller_2.jpg

Oldimpeller.jpg

 

New impeller

newimpeller.jpg

newimpeller_2.jpg

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