Eshopps 4th Gen Skimmers

[TroyHoot]

Uhmm My S-120 has a drain hole with a plug in the collection cup. Lost my plug down the drain last week. Had to engineer a replacement.

[Potatohead]

Originally Posted by TroyHoot

Uhmm My S-120 has a drain hole with a plug in the collection cup. Lost my plug down the drain last week. Had to engineer a replacement.

Earlier model? The 4th gen doesn't have one.

[TroyHoot]

mine is a 4th gen. ordered feb 7 from premium aquatics. crappy picture. Ill take it off tomorrow and clean it. Get a better picture. Black cap over the drain on lower right of collection cup. It had a nice silicone plug. But lost it down the sink.

[d0ughb0y]

That does look like a 4th gen. Does it have the marking 4th generation on the skimmer body?

[TroyHoot]

[d0ughb0y]

I wonder if eshopps will replace the collection cup for those who got the version with no drain hole.

[TroyHoot]

I need to try and get a replacement silicone plug. It was really nice to just pull the plug while holding a little cup under the hole and drain it without turning it off and removing the cup. My cap fits too tight to just slide off.

[Potatohead]

Bizarre. I've had two cups and neither had a hole, and none of the promo material has it. It's pretty easy to drill one, I don't have space for a secondary container under my tank anyway.

[Potatohead]

OK so after having this skimmer for four months, I feel I can comment on a few things with accuracy;

The skimmer skims very well. It is deadly consistent, I never have to adjust it unless I actually want to change the wetness of the skim. I haven't had any issues of the air line or venturi clogging from salt creep, which was an issue with my old skimmer and would cause it to overflow. The pump is virtually silent after running for a while. The twist off body makes cleaning stupid easy.

I have a couple minor complaints;

- It won't pull air after shutdown. I have tried different water levels (8" now) and it just won't do it, even leaving it for quite a bit of time. If I blow into it even the slightest amount, it fires right up.

- The bubble plate itself does not come apart and it is difficult to clean inside.

- The air intake is a little loud but I solved it by putting an 8" piece of airline in the inlet


Overall this is a great performing skimmer and I do not regret my purchase at all.

[d0ughb0y]

what do you mean by it won't pull air, like the pump does not spin when powered back on?

for a product in the "premiere" line, one should not accept anything less than it working as it should. Needing to blow air to get the pump running should not be acceptable.

do you mean the whole contraption that you unscrews from the pump outlet cannot be further taken apart for cleaning? is this also true for the x-120 model?

thanks for the review.

[ROB2005]

What he meant is that the pump is pushing a bit of water into the skimmer, but it's not drawing air to produce the froth. It's been a problem with the Sicce pump where you have to blow into the airline tubing to get it to produce the froth mixture. Have that same problem with my PSK 100.

[Potatohead]

Originally Posted by d0ughb0y

what do you mean by it won't pull air, like the pump does not spin when powered back on?

for a product in the "premiere" line, one should not accept anything less than it working as it should. Needing to blow air to get the pump running should not be acceptable.

do you mean the whole contraption that you unscrews from the pump outlet cannot be further taken apart for cleaning? is this also true for the x-120 model?

thanks for the review.

When you turn a skimmer off, water floods the air inlet up to the level of the sump water level. When you restart the skimmer the pump starts pumping water and is typically strong enough to pull the standing water out of the air inlet, and start drawing air. For whatever reason this one will get very close but will not pull hard enough to fully clear the air inlet. Blowing in the air line helps it along.

Originally Posted by ROB2005

What he meant is that the pump is pushing a bit of water into the skimmer, but it's not drawing air to produce the froth. It's been a problem with the Sicce pump where you have to blow into the airline tubing to get it to produce the froth mixture. Have that same problem with my PSK 100.

Correct

If this is a common issue with the pump I was unaware, my old skimmer had the identical pump (save for color) and it happened sometimes, but not that often. The larger models of this skimmer use larger pumps and may not have the same issue. At the end of the day I would much rather have a reliable pump than something that can pull air but then break after a year.

The "whole contraption" in the S series is the EDDY bubble plate which cannot be taken apart. The bubble plates are different on the S and X series and I don't know if the X series has the same problem. It uses a more traditional plate which I imagine is easier to clean since it is not as complex in its design. If you soak the plate in vinegar for a little while, it cleans it fine, it just takes longer than if you could do it manually.

Again, both issues to me are quite minor. I know Nyos skimmers have a similar style of plate which is held together with a bolt, and many people have broken it, so there is good and bad to both methods.

[d0ughb0y]

thanks for the clarification.

Do you think if the air silencer is wide open and you did not add the extension, that this problem will not occur?

I can see potential issue with this. What good is a running pump if there is no air. the whole basis of skimmer is the use of air. So this is no different (maybe worse) as having a bad pump.

[Potatohead]

Originally Posted by d0ughb0y

thanks for the clarification.

Do you think if the air silencer is wide open and you did not add the extension, that this problem will not occur?

I can see potential issue with this. What good is a running pump if there is no air. the whole basis of skimmer is the use of air. So this is no different (maybe worse) as having a bad pump.

I have removed the tubing and it seems to make no difference.

It only becomes a problem if your power goes out and you are away for some time, the skimmer will just pump water through. Once it is pulling air, it doesn't stop. A tank without a skimmer for a few hours is not a genuine concern. The power being out for any length of time is a far worse situation for your livestock. My power doesn't go out very often so for me when I am done water changes, I fire it up and blow in the tube for a second, no big deal.

It's not at all the same as a bad pump. If your pump physically breaks: a) you don't know it until next time you check your sump, b) you have to source replacement parts and c) it could happen at any time and not predictably.

The point of my post and starting this thread in general has been to be as transparent as possible. If this kind of minor issue bothers you, look into a different skimmer, keeping in mind the IceCap uses the same pump. Unfortunately no matter how much money we spend, nothing is ever perfect. If the pump is trouble free for five years and I have to blow into the tube from time to time, fair trade. Another example is on my 220 Frontosa tank, I have three Eheim filters, they have combined 13 years of run time and I have never changed a single part. They stopped priming properly and are a pain to get started again after cleaning, but I don't really care because they are dead-nuts reliable.

[d0ughb0y]

ok, this is a show stopper for me. Good thing I put off pulling the trigger on the s-120.

I know we rationalize (aka denial stage) how to live with product deficiencies such as this. But need to make others aware of such. Not everyone is ok to have to blow into the air hose to start the skimmer. For someone that runs an autofeeder that runs everyday, the skimmer could run for days with no air undetected and can be a complete disaster.

But as I have said, this ain't right for a "premium" line product and no one should consider this acceptable.

I have ran into a similar issue like this and found a proper solution.
see this thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2057832

In that thread, someone works around the problem by not turning off the skimmer. That is the rationalization of a bad product I was talking about and is bs imho.
my swc 160 has been running fine since I changed it to run like bubble magus since 2011. Had I not found a proper solution, I would have returned the skimmer.

I did a google search on problem with sicce pumps and found a lot of results, includes other skimmer brands that use sicce pump. Even premium aquatics knows about this problem and says it is a common problem with sicce pumps, yet continues to sell it as long as it makes money for them. Come to think of it, recently there was an x-120 skimmer available in premium aquatics clearance section as a customer return. Now I know the reason why the skimmer was returned.

if a proper solution is available, then I can consider this skimmer again.

thanks again for the transparent, objective review.

[Potatohead]

Mountain out of a molehill if you ask me. Good luck in your search.

[stephane]

I would try to raise the skimmer a bit i know they say 7-9 but 6 inch sound more realistic for this size skimmer. I have 2x S-300 on a 500 gallon and absolutely love them.

[TroyHoot]

mine starts right back up. have not had the not sucking air problem you speak of. Guess I got lucky. Im setting 8 1/2" deep. Pump is silent. Air I can barely hear at full open if I try real hard. But my ceiling fan make more noise.

[Potatohead]

Originally Posted by TroyHoot

mine starts right back up. have not had the not sucking air problem you speak of. Guess I got lucky. Im setting 8 1/2" deep. Pump is silent. Air I can barely hear at full open if I try real hard. But my ceiling fan make more noise.

Which model?

[TroyHoot]

S-120. In my pictures above in this post. where we talked about mine having a drain hole in the collection cup.

[Potatohead]

Originally Posted by TroyHoot

S-120. In my pictures above in this post. where we talked about mine having a drain hole in the collection cup.

Cool, didn't put two and two together.

[Swensos]

I've got the S-200 and have been measuring the wattage. It's 48 watts, not the advertised 18, unless there's something wrong with mine.


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[d0ughb0y]

Originally Posted by Swensos

I've got the S-200 and have been measuring the wattage. It's 48 watts, not the advertised 18, unless there's something wrong with mine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

the psk-1000 pump is rated 67 watts. for comparison, the reef octopus skimmer that uses the same pump is rated 30 watts.

That's why I was asking in post #72 why the advertised skimmer wattage is way lower than the pump wattage.

the se-200 pump is rated 48 watts yet the s-120 skimmer is rated 10 watts.

from your measurement, I'd say the skimmer rating is incorrect or extremely optimistic.

[Swensos]

Originally Posted by d0ughb0y

the psk-1000 pump is rated 67 watts. for comparison, the reef octopus skimmer that uses the same pump is rated 30 watts.

That's why I was asking in post #72 why the advertised skimmer wattage is way lower than the pump wattage.

the se-200 pump is rated 48 watts yet the s-120 skimmer is rated 10 watts.

from your measurement, I'd say the skimmer rating is incorrect or extremely optimistic.

Definitely optimistic. I might email eshopps just to double check. I'll let you know what they say.


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[Potatohead]

Bumping this up in case anyone is interested, I think I figured out the problem with not pulling air on restarts... Or should I say stumbled upon it.

On the air silencer there's an ozone port on the bottom that has a cap if you're not using it. I cleaned the skimmer the other day and I guess I forgot to put it back on. Power went out today for a couple hours and skimmer started working normally afterward. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯