Euro Reef Nano Skimmer
 

I picked up the version for the Solana today. Nice to finally have a Canadian supplier (Ocean Aquatics). First impression is that it's very nicely built for a nano skimmer. Seems very solid. Simple design. Easy to set up. Cheaper than the Tunze 9002 which I seriously doubt can touch this one performance wise just based on design. I did use the Tunze and hated it.

One thing that was missing from mine was the sponge in the bottom. Does anyone know if they did away with that design? Or is it just missing?

There was a sponge in the bottom of the body that apparently helped keep micro bubbles out of the tank but also created some back pressure to keep the skimmer running properly.

I will take some pictures and let everyone know what I think after a few days.

After setting it up without the sponge, I realize that sponge is there to really keep micro bubbles out of the display :neutral: Crazy amount of bubbles!

I am quite impressed with the bubble size though, very tiny. Its a relatively tall skimmer which is great for performance but I am not a huge fan of the thing sticking out of the back. Oh well, its more about performance than looks this time. Actually the skimmer is not ugly though. The collection cup is the same size as the body, so it kind of looking like a really cool tube with micro bubbles in it. When its clean :)

I will clean it weekly along with my water changes. Clean the body, sponge (when I get it) and pump. The one downside I have read about is that it doesn't perform well once dirty. I really have no complaints about cleaning it weekly as part of my routine though.

Pictures soon.

looking forward to the pictures, please include a tank shot.

I will include a tank shot so you can see how it looks.

But as expected its going nuts and needs some time to break in. Overflowing too much, so I am letting it run in a bucket of tank water for a few days. Apparently I could have avoided this by soaking it in vinegar for a while.

Customer service from Euro Reef has been great. They don't include the foam anymore for the solana version because people are complaining about it. It would collect detritus and then effect the skimmer performance. So now its not needed. The problem though is that I get an insane amount of micro bubbles in the display.

I am trying to work out a solution without the sponge. Euro Reef will send the sponge if you request it.

Skimmer overflowed a bunch because of the new acrylic so I ran it in vinegar for a few hours last night. Today its much better in the tank. Already pulling some light brown/green out of the water.

Still not a fan of how it sticks out of the tank but as my fiancee said last night, its not ugly and "if people are looking at it, then my tank obviously sucks a$$"

:lol:

I agree...I guess its not so bad. Especially if it makes whats IN the tank look even better.

I will take pictures soon.

Man they finally released that thing? I wanted one for my 20g because it was going to be released "any month now" and I shut that tank down after at least 18 months or so, way back in March.

I'm sure it's a good skimmer, but this is one of my pet peeves about the pushers in this hobby pre-hyping stuff before it's really ready.

Is the problem with the looks because your tank has the sump in the back of the tank and not hidden in the stand?

The microbubble problem might get a little better over time but yeah if it's really bad then you might want to devise some clever solution. Can you fit a bubble trap in there somehow?

This skimmer has been out for a while in the US now actually. Just that OA is the first in Canada to get it. I think they may be the only Canadian vendor?

Anyways, yes the looks problem, if you want to call it that, is the thing sticking out of the back compartment. But its really not a problem in my opinion. Many people, especially with the rimless craze will hate how it looks. For me, as long as the front and sides of the tank are clean and equipment free, I don't mind. My light also blocks much of it from sight when looking at the tank straight on. Its more noticeable from the sides. But whatever. Like my lovely fiancee said, I have bigger problems if the skimmer is more interesting than the corals/fish.

I also wouldn't want to sacrifice the skimmer height for aesthetics. Its nice to find a nano skimmer that is 24" tall!

Robbert from Euro Reef has been great and said it will take a week to break in. Probably best to take the collection cup off for now he said.

One of the reasons that I don't think the design looks too bad sticking out of the top is that its all one clean line. The collection cup is not wider than the body.

EDIT: Ok, well it is a little in this picture but this must be an older model, mine is exactly flush with the body. This one does stick out a little. Mine looks like they made the skimmer body wider to match the collection cup. It also came with a nice silencer not pictured here. Must be an old model.

Not my pics but here you go:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ns25-3lclg.jpg

I also like the Alloy Mesh Wheel:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...kimmer0001.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...lloymesh-6.jpg

Here's some pics of my one before I installed it...

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA140009-1.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA140010-1.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA140011-1.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA140012-1.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA140013-1.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA140016-1.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA140015-1.jpg

.

How do you like it VFX? How long have you had it now?

What bugged you about the Tunze?

I didn't like the pump after a while because it wouldn't start up properly. The design is not great when you consider the height and also the contact time for the bubbles. Its basically pushing bubbles through a tube into a tiny neck if I remember correctly. I was not impressed at all with the performance.

Oh and it was MORE expensive than the Euro Reef by $20 or so.

Looking forward to your review. The Euroreef for the CadLights is $70 more than the Tunze.

The Euro Reef has only been running for a few weeks & I'm still in micro bubble land but at least the over filling collection cup thing stopped after a week or so.

I've had no problems with the Tunze 9002 I'm running on my 20G. I've only got a tiny frogfish, a yellow goby & a cleaner shrimp in there so maybe I'm not taxing it too much.

To early to tell but so far the Euro Reef seems a much better product in terms of performance & price.

.

Yes I believe that one is a dual pump model!

I already fixed the micro bubble problem for the most part. I have LR rubble and chaeto in the middle which helps but now I also put a piece of eggcrate ontop of that and put my bag of carbon on it. It traps a lot of the bubbles.

I also stretched out the chaeto to cover more area and catch more bubbles.

Still get some in the tank but its only be a few days. Hopefully it will calm down.

I may put a sponge or some sort of bubble trap in the middle section eventually.

what the over all hight of this thing? and what water depth is needed?

Do you have to have the top open for these skimmers,if so to me they are useless.I'm just setting up a nano 29biocube and am in the market for a skimmer.I want everything hidden though,if the skimmer has to sit on the outside of the tank i can get a oversized hangon.

GSP, what are the overall dimensions on this thing? I too dislike my 9002 - I feel like it could be doing a lot better than it is. I guess I'll wait a while to see how your unit is working out :)

The height is 24". Im not sure yet about the water depth but its working in about 8" right now I think. Its designed specifically for the Solana, but you can get many different ones (design is similar for each) for different nanos. They kind of custom made different models to fit the AIO tanks.

It would be useless to you then.

I was not impressed with the 9002 at all and I had only 3 small fish in the tank at the time. It really should have been able to handle that. Most of all though I just found it inconsistent.

The EuroReef is still breaking in, so nothing new to say. I have it running in the tank without the collection cup on right now. Euro Reef said to try that for about 5-7 days and then it should start to run properly (ie. won't overflow in a matter of minutes).

24" tall and I think I heard 3.5" "wide" but I would have to measure the body.

I decided to try putting the collection cup back on last night and this morning I am happy to see it didn't overflow and is actually skimming quite dry. I expected it to be skimming very wet. It could be better but Im not complaining considering its a nano skimmer.

I still have to work out the micro bubbles in the display.

Here are a few pictures:

This is what you see from the front of the tank:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_7838.jpg

Side (it has been running with the cup for about 8 hours now):

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_7840.jpg

Yesterday at 9:00am I posted a question on the Euro-Reef Nano website. By 11:00 Robbert, the owner, called me from California. We had a 20 minute discussion on skimmers, weather, the economy and politics.

He asked me to send him some photos of my tank and setup to ensure that his designs for a 39G Cad Signature would work. By 4:30 in the afternoon he confirmed that his original design was not going to conflict with any of the equipment I have installed and that he was going to build a batch of skimmers for this tank configuration.

Now that is customer service! I have now placed an order through Ocean Aquatics. Hope to see it in a couple of weeks.

I agree. I emailed him last night and he gave me a call this morning (sunday)to make sure I was happy with the skimmer. I have spoken to him over the phone a few times now about the skimmer and he's a great guy.

I am trying to figure out the location of the outflow from your photos, but I just do not see it?

I used sponge on a previous micro bubble maker like you mentioned. That seemed to work well.

The Solana has 3 chambers in the back. The overflow on the left pushes the water down to the bottom of the first chamber where the skimmer is. Then the output water from the skimmer goes over the top of the first chamber and down into the second chamber and from there under to the last chamber. So under, over, under like you may do the baffles in a sump...but in a AIO, that doesn't work if the skimmer is already INSIDE one of the baffles! There should be baffles before the return pump if they had really thought of the design well. There is probably just enough room to do this in the Solana.

Anyways, I have added filter floss to the top of the second chamber right at the top of the water level. It traps almost all the bubbles although some of the finest ones still escape.

I don't like that I have to change the floss every few days but it collects all kind of other crap too, so I guess its worth it. If I were away for a few days, I would remove the floss. It could get really backed up.

The CadLights has 4 chambers but the skimmer has to fit in chamber 2. So it also only has 2 chambers left for bubbles to be removed.

In my previous post I was really meaning to ask where the outflow from the skimmer is. I see one hose but I though that was the air intake?

I'm considering using the EuroReef Nano on my 20g with sump. I see Ocean Aquatics has a bunch of different designs to us with the different Nano AIO's. Anyone know which one I would use just simply for in-sump? It's not much cheaper than the RS-80 though, so I may just go with that tried and true option.

Try sending a note directly to Robbert. You will find their address on this website: http://www.nanoreefsystems.com/index.asp He might even give you a phone call!

You may just want to go with the RS-80 if you can. Really the ER nano skimmers are only great if you have an AIO tank and have no choice but to use a skimmer only a few inches in diameter. They are great for AIO because they work well and fit in the back...but if you compare them to something like the RS-80, they wouldn't compete I don't think.

Thanks Oscar! I will do that.

GSP, ya that's what I'm thinking. Although the tank will probably only be about 25 gallons including the sump, so the RS-80 would be quite serious. :lol: I'm not sure it would fit in the stand either now that I think of it. I should measure.

Update on the skimmer.

It is fully broken in now and I am super impressed with its performance. I can't believe a nano skimmer can pull this much crap out of a lightly stocked tank.

Its also great that this thing can skim very dry. The tunze I used to own had to skim wet and wasn't even good at it!

Here are some pics of some skimmate. This is just over 24 hours skimming dry.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_7842.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_7843.jpg

Hmmm, i'm toying with the idea of getting one of these... would it fit ok in a chamber thats 4x6" ? Thanks.

Yes it would but I would talk to EuroReef about which model to get. Is this a specific all in one tank?

The different models fit the all in one tanks differently. You need to make sure you get the right one for your tank.

Thanks for the update, I have a unit on the way hopefully arriving next week.

Did you solve the microbubble issue?

Yes, I am using filter floss at the top of the water level in the second chamber. Most of the bubbles went away after the skimmer broke in but the few that still come out of it get caught in the floss which also takes out a lot of crap from the water. Pain is I have to change it every day or two but I think its worth it. If I am away for a few days, I would just take the floss out.

ended up buying the solana version for my 10g sump... my water level was a bit to low and my stand was to short im moving soon so i was planning on building a bigger stand and sump anyways. for the mean time i went down to industrial plastics and paint and picked up some off cut acrylic tubing for $20and made a new shorter wider body. its working a hell of alot better then my tunze nano ever did even within the first 2 days of breakin.

Cool, I would love to see some pics if you can. The meshwheel pump is amazing. Just based on the design, the performance of Tunze shouldn't be able to and can't come close to the EuroReef.

It's nice to finally have a good nano skimmer out there. I was hoping someone would eventually come out with a nice small meshwheel skimmer for nanos :mrgreen:

yep, for sure i will get some pictures tonight.

Thanks, i got a hold of Robbert at euroreef, just going over which one would work best. Then its time to drop hints to Santa.

This doesn't have a drain does it? I wonder how easy it would be to put one in without cracking the cup?

http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k...8/IMG_1154.jpg

http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k...8/IMG_1151.jpg

bodys 14" tall and 2.75" ID. i have lots of acrylic left i think i might make a 13" tall just so i have a bit more adjustability