AquaEuro USA Recirculating 135 - My Review (lot's of pics)

Blazer88 · #1 04/25/2007, 02:43 PM

I first want to give a huge thanks to Ryan from reefnut who is an awesome guy. My skimmer showed up with a bum pump (I'll explain further down) and he sent me a replace via overnight at his cost. He promptly returned my calls and quickly solved the issue. Awesome customer service!

Now onto the skimmer. I had an Octopus Recic 110 (w/mesh mod) before this skimmer. It was a great skimmer but I thought the AE 135 would be an upgrade for the larger pump and larger diameter of the body. The only reason I didn't get this skimmer to start was because of the misprint on the height since it was originally listed as 26". Once I found out it was only 23" tall, I made my order.

The package showed up and was packed great. It could have taken a three-story drop and been fine.

It was easy to assemble and was ready for the soft-soap bath to clean out some of the manufacturing oils.

After that was done for about a half an hour, I wanted to run it in my sink to cheak for leaks since I will be using this skimmer externally. Here is where I hit a snag. All of the unions and such were fine, no leaks there. I was getting a drip from the back of the pump and found a small crack on the other side of the 1/2" threads for the output. I gave Ryan a call and he agreed to send me a new one via overnight delivery so I could get this up and running asap.

The new pump showed up today and I got everything running on the tank just fine without any leaks. I was quite impressed at the amount and small size of the bubbles, it resembled boiling milk or something rather than water and they filled the chamber. The size/count of the bubbles smokes my Octo recirc 110 even with the mesh mod, I was impressed. Here are some pics. Keep in mind, these bubbles are in reference to a tiny sewing needle!

cropped:

Now it's up and running on my tank just fine. The water level is stable and really easy to adjust. I'm hoping to get some skimmate very shorty and I'll update with pics when I do.

My overall thoughts are this skimmer is an excellent value. The build quality exceeded my expectations and I have some high hopes that this will make my Octo look like a toy. Since Ryan did send me a new pump, I have an extra impeller and venturi that I will mod around and see if I can squeeze any extra performance from it. I figure I will let it break in with just the stock parts though and mod them next week or so. I will mesh out the impeller and mod the venturi once I get my air meter to see how much air it's pulling and if mods will make any difference. Please feel free to update this thread with your experience and any mods that you do.

Here are some extra pics that I took of the venturi and needle wheel in case anyone was interested.

kodyboy · #2 04/25/2007, 02:56 PM

Looks great to me!

aninjaatemyshoe · #3 04/25/2007, 03:18 PM

I've had mine for a few weeks now and I'm pretty happy with it. I didn't give mine a bath at first, so I didn't really start producing any decent skimmate until recently. It seems to be improving everyday.

Positive notes:
-Very inexpensive (buy it before May when the price goes up)
-Mine does not leak at all (can run externally w/ no problem)
-Construction is quite good, the body alone is worth the price
-The skimmate production seems to be going quite well (will have to update this once it is fully broken in)
-Skim level stays pretty constant, no constant fiddling around with the ball valve

Negative Notes:
-Damn Metric! (or fact that the US hasn't converted to metric) - everything is in metric for this skimmer, so modding it in any way will be a pain.
-Running it externally required me gluing the joints on the return pipe so as to avoid leaking. Don't know if this one is a no brainer or not, but I'm not about to let slip/slip connections dangle outside of my sump.
-Unfortunately, the pump on these things have gotten some bad reviews. Can't really verify it as I don't have a way to measure, but I've read that they are pretty inefficient and don't suck as much air as they should. This is coupled with restricted inlet/outlet, small impeller housing, and so-so stock impeller. Also, the mesh mod doesn't seem to have much of an effect. I think we might need to find a way to replace the pump.
-Instructions, or lack there of. A one-sided 8.5x11 sheet of paper with a picture of the assembly. Not really helpful to those that have never had a skimmer before and don't know much about plumbing PVC.

Overall, I would recommend it depending on your tank size and bioload. Certainly, the quoted 135 gallons is overstating (but not so much as say the coralife skimmers overstate how much they can handle). If you want to save some money and have a medium to small tank, jump on this deal!

USC-fan · #4 04/25/2007, 03:42 PM

Nice review. These seem to be a nice skimmer for the price.

How much noise does it make running?

Blazer88 · #5 04/25/2007, 03:45 PM

The noise is very minimal, I can't even hear it. There is some audible noise when the silencer isn't on the air intake but I can't hear anything once I close my cabinet doors. And I just placed my order for my air meter, I'll post up some numbers as soon as it shows up as well as if mods make any improvement.

driftin · #6 04/25/2007, 03:54 PM

Could you confirm the footprint of the skimmer? Is it 7 x 16?

Thanks

steve414 · #7 04/25/2007, 04:08 PM

Nice review looks good.

aninjaatemyshoe · #8 04/25/2007, 04:16 PM

The footprint quoted on Reefnut is correct, only the height was misquoted.

Blazer88 · #9 04/25/2007, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by driftin
Could you confirm the footprint of the skimmer? Is it 7 x 16?

Thanks

I would say more like 16.5" since the ball valve slightly extends past the base. The 7" is correct.

driftin · #10 04/25/2007, 04:22 PM

drat, that's a half inch change in the wrong direction... thanks for confirming though

HoopsGuru · #11 04/25/2007, 05:03 PM

Wow, those pictures are excellent! Thanks for creating a thread for the 135g and I can't wait to see this get filled with more pic/videos of the Recirc 135 in action. The results with the air meter will also get to confirm those in the Recirc 265 thread.

driftin · #12 04/26/2007, 07:30 AM

I think I'm going to place an order for this this week, before prices rise next month. What feed pumps are you guys using?

Jester · #13 04/26/2007, 09:08 AM

I ordered mine a few days ago... can't wait to get it... definitely an upgrade from my BakPak-II... I'm going to plumb mine externally too... what pump are you using as a feed pump..?? Any leaks show up..?? Thanks...

Jester

Blazer88 · #14 04/26/2007, 10:06 AM

I'm using a MJ400 (100'ish GPH) for my feed pump. No leaks to speak of.

koraltek · #15 04/26/2007, 10:09 AM

this weekend blazer is bringing a pump down to my work and were going to try out the euro reef impellar and see what it will take to get the er venturi on there as well.
i suspect this thing will rock with mesh mod and er venturi.

Jester · #16 04/26/2007, 10:10 AM

I have a few different powerheads around, but I dont think I have anything that is that small.. I know I have a few MJ1200, I may need to go buy a new feed pump... My tank is a lot smaller than yours too... what would you recommend..?? I have approx. 30 gallon total tank volume...

aninjaatemyshoe · #17 04/26/2007, 12:05 PM

I'm using an Aquaclear 10 (~100 gph I think) - I have a 38 gallon aquarium with 10 gallon sump and 40 gallon refugium. It seems to work just fine for the application. I am planning to plumb it off the overflow however.

driftin · #18 04/26/2007, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aninjaatemyshoe
... I am planning to plumb it off the overflow however.

I would like to do that too, but I can't figure out how I could balance my drains to make sure I'm getting ~100gph into the skimmer. Right now I have a drain that's split to go to a fuge, and to the sump, where pumped back up by Mag5. I have no idea how to make sure the right amount of water is going into the skimmer?

hoyta · #19 04/26/2007, 12:46 PM

I just ordered mine from ryan- I also have a 65, and will be running it externally. What feed pumps do you guys recommend?

aninjaatemyshoe · #20 04/26/2007, 01:00 PM

My idea was to install a wye fiting (the one that is like a T except the side socket is pointing out at a 45degree angle) into the overflow pipe. I was then going to have the straight path go down directly to the sump and the side one go into the skimmer. To control how much goes where I would use a gate or ball valve on the straight path. I'm probably not describing this very well... basically I'm splitting the line and controlling the flow with a valve.

akaatomic · #21 04/28/2007, 08:35 AM

Any updated skimmate pics? Is the skimmer performing to your expectations? Need mods?

Blazer88 · #22 04/28/2007, 10:46 AM

My skimmer seems to be working great so far. I was getting skimmate on the second day. I'll snap a pic when I can and post it.

driftin · #23 05/02/2007, 08:21 PM

Do you have any updates? Mine should arrive tomorrow, I'm very excited to get it set up this weekend.

Jester · #24 05/03/2007, 06:56 AM

Mine will be here Friday... Having to plumb the new skimmer gives me a good reason to tear down all my plumbing for a good cleaning and clean out the sump while I'm at it... I am going to have to plumb the 135 to sit next to my stand since I'm running it on a 25 gallon (not much room under there)... should I set the skimmer inside some sort of rubbermaid container or a small aqaurium to catch any water if it does leak..?? What have people been putting there externally skimmers in..?? Thanks again..

Jester

Blazer88 · #25 05/03/2007, 07:11 AM

I ran my skimmer in my kitchen sink for a day while I was at work to check for leaks. I came home to everything dry so I figured I was good to go. I finally got my Dwyer air meter yesterday so I'm going to start tweaking with the skimmer and modifying it. Now that it has broken in I'm going to mess with the venturi and impeller. I'll be sure to post up my results.