Aqua Euro Nano Skimmer II Performance

[njasmin]

I have heard a lot of mixed reviews on this skimmer so I wanted to throw in my 2 cents. For the price($40) shipped) I honestly cannot complain about the performance as we all know, you get what you pay for.I currently have it set up in my fuge chamber of my Nuvo 16. It does not throw microbubbles in the tank which is a plus, however it skims a little too wet for my liking, color turns out more like a very light green tea. I have also heard reports of the color being completely clear in some cases and this is due to the non adjustable water level within the chamber....pretty much the water just splashes up and into the collection cup.

 

Here are my issues and solutions.

 

The water level is too high out of the box, the water level goes about half way up in the collection cup. Although you can barely put the cup on the skimmer which is a solution, the water level was still too high. What I did was put the top piece on backwards and cut about 3" off with pvc cutters. Since it is plastic not pvc in order to get a clean cut you must clamp the cutters down to where it is BARELY touching the plastic and then spin the tube til it cuts. If you clamp all the way down it will surely break.

 

I waited a couple of days to see the results

 

Here is what it looks like with the water level adjustment mod in place....

 

And finally the end result

 

The color is still very light, but for a $40 skimmer it serves its purpose, although the results are much more desirable.

 

Due to the impeller size I was skeptical to do anything else to the skimmer but I am going to try modding the impeller today.

 

First I will try a mesh mod to see if i can get the impeller to chop up the air into smaller segments. If this does not have a good result I will mod the impeller into a pinwheel, and last into a pinwheel/mesh. The reason I am going to proceed with the mesh mod first is because I will not have to make any crazy changes to the non replaceable stock components.

 

I will post pictures of the mods as they come along as well with the results in performance.

[xiaoxiy]

When I was running my AquaEuro Nano Skimmer II, I had to perform 2 mods on it to get it to skim.

 

1) Fishing Line Mod

2) Attaching an air pump to the venturi line.

 

 

Xiaoxi

[njasmin]

Mine has no problem pulling in air, the only thing I don't get is why the stock impeller does not look like a skimmer impeller at all. I guess it's how they make their products do cheap. The fishing line mod would probably be difficult due to its small size. Does yours skim well or you don't use it anymore?

[njasmin]

Alright, so i went ahead with the mesh mod...I am very glad that I did, I will not be able to tell if it makes any difference until a couple of days but the reason I am glad I did it regardless is for this reason....IT IS 100X MORE QUIET NOW!!!

 

I was actually researching when i first got this if anyone had problem with the noise, granted it wasn't super loud or anything but you could definitely hear it, just a little noisy. Well not anymore and it does appear the break up the bubbles a lot better.

 

First the Skimmer, I'm showing this to show the water level mod before, the water level obviously stops at the top of the tube

 

Ok, so here are the steps I took, first is disassembly...

 

I know showing this picture is irrelevant but I wanted to post it anyways because I would have loved to see this before I purchased it so just trying to help people who have not yet purchased it so they can get a better idea.

 

Now the Impeller mod

 

I just used some old foam block, cut it into 6 small pieces, then superglued them inbetween the slots. This was not as easy as i pictured lol you have to do one at a time letting each one dry before proceeding to the next. After all mesh is in place, a little trimming then reassemble. Easy enough. Like mentioned before I can even believe how much this eliminated the humming sound! If anything its good to do for that. Ill update in a few days to see the results of the skimmate produced.

[xiaoxiy]

Mine has no problem pulling in air, the only thing I don't get is why the stock impeller does not look like a skimmer impeller at all. I guess it's how they make their products do cheap. The fishing line mod would probably be difficult due to its small size. Does yours skim well or you don't use it anymore?

I wasn't sure whether mine was having trouble pulling air or not, but it definitely skimmed better with the pump attached to it.

 

I first did a mesh mod, like you, but then just wrapped fishing line around the impeller instead.

 

I don't use it anymore because I took down my AIO tank.

[njasmin]

I just wanted to report my findings back after the mesh mod. The skimmer is pulling some nice foam but as far as the performance goes, the skimmate appears to be an even lighter color than before so the performance has actually decreased as a result lol. I'm going to leave it as it is for right now as the skimmer is going through a mini break in after cleaning. I can't argue the fact that the decreased noise it makes me want to keep it how it is regardless of how much it pulls out. I'm sure adding an air pump to it as xiaoxiy would definitely make it much better I'm gonna hold off on that right now as I would be adding the noise that had been taken away. I'm going to try messing with the air intake a little and see if that helps. The issue with the light skim has to do with the chamber size, the bubbles are breaking too close to the top causing the water to just drip down. Once some gunk is accumulated on the collection cup it might help but I won't know for a few days.

[xiaoxiy]

I just wanted to report my findings back after the mesh mod. The skimmer is pulling some nice foam but as far as the performance goes, the skimmate appears to be an even lighter color than before so the performance has actually decreased as a result lol. I'm going to leave it as it is for right now as the skimmer is going through a mini break in after cleaning. I can't argue the fact that the decreased noise it makes me want to keep it how it is regardless of how much it pulls out. I'm sure adding an air pump to it as xiaoxiy would definitely make it much better I'm gonna hold off on that right now as I would be adding the noise that had been taken away. I'm going to try messing with the air intake a little and see if that helps. The issue with the light skim has to do with the chamber size, the bubbles are breaking too close to the top causing the water to just drip down. Once some gunk is accumulated on the collection cup it might help but I won't know for a few days.

The issue I was originally running into before the mods was that it wasn't even foamy bubbles. It was like sodapop.

 

After the mods, it actually produced foam that would spill into the cup.

 

I did a mod similar to this:

[njasmin]

I just saw that video literally before I checked back here lol. Looks easy enough. Mine produces really good foam where the foam is thick and solid. I think I'm just spoiled. I went from a 60 gallon tank running a reef octopus nwb150 and that thing pulled tar out of the tank lol maybe my expectations are a little high. Are there any nano skimmers that are known to pull extremely dry skim? In general that is, not just ones that will fit the nuvo 16.

[njasmin]

If there are any opinions as to what to expect from ANY nano skimmer I am open for some input, as mentioned before I had an in sump skimmer previously and it pulled really dark stuff out. I dont feed that often in my current tank, maybe there really just isnt enough to be pulled out? Either way this is what the skimmate is like with the mesh mod