New Euro-Reef RS180 here!

[NewSchool04]

My new skimmer arrived tonight and I'm very impressed. This thing is built like a tank and the craftsmanship is top notch. All the welds look perfect and not a skuff on the body.

I gave the skimmer a bath in the tub with a little vinegar and it's been in the sump now for 2 hours. Directions say to leave the stand pipe in the open position and just let it run. I set it to open and started it up!

The bubbles leveled off right where the cylinder curves into the neck and about an hour later the bubbles were just reaching the neck and now they are half way up the neck. Directions say set the stand pipe to open and just let it go for a few hours before you start trying to tune it in. The only thing that I did during this couple of hours was put the air valve on the silicone tubing connected to the pump. I put the air valve on because it sounded like someone slurping an empty milk shake. The valve stopped the milk shake sound but there is a definite sound of the air getting sucked into the valve, hard to describe.

The pump is not very loud but there is a hum to it that's going to take some time to get used to. I definitely have to build a quality stand for the skimmer because the one I originally put together with eggcrate and pvc legs is wobbly and vibrates.

Here are some pics. Skimmers is 8" wide and 24" tall. It's massive compared to my last two CS5-2's.

[dohc97]

Nice skimmer Pat, looking forward to seeing it in person. My skimmer arrived 2 days ago, but its taking longer to break in since i didnt give it a vinegar bath. Im happy to say though that as of right now its producing skimmate!
My little cheap hob doesnt compare to this, maybe when i setup that 240 i can move up to a big boy skimmer.

[NewSchool04]

Thanks dohc! It's going nuts now, can't figure it out. The bubbles are all the way up and spilling into the cup. I don't think I can turn it down anymore than I already have it set. I'm still trying to figure out this stand pipe. My previous ER skimmers had the old stand pipe where you pulled up for more wet and down for dry.

[sjm817]

Looks good. If it is running too wet, and the valve is all the way open, you will have to run it in shallower water.

[NewSchool04]

Runing it in shallower water isn't going to be possible, I have about 1/2" to the top of my stand. It's in 8" of water now.

This is the new stand pipe that doesn't go up or down, just a turn clock wise. sjm817, does open mean the dryest setting and closed will get you the wettest skimmate? If I take off the air valve, the bubble level goes down but the sound coming from that in unbearable. Like I said before, sounds like someone slurping an empty milkshake.

[sjm817]

Open is dry. 8" is on the deep side. Is the sound from the airline or the standpipe?

[NewSchool04]

the sound is from the airline definitely. When I put the air valve on, the sound stops.

The bubbles in the neck are relly large and their seems to be a lot of turbulance in the neck. I can see smaller bubbles rising and then falling on one side while on the other side there are larger bubbles.

7 1/2" is about as high as I can get it. It's weird, my little ER's had no problem with the same height of water, actually they were only 20" tall and I only cut the stand down an inch.

[sjm817]

The turbulence and all that will settle down when it breaks in. Give it some time. You can make an air silencer. Its been posted, but I dont have the link. Take a small container like a film canister, put a hole in each and and put some filter floss in there. Put the air line in one end. You are making a muffler.

You are pumping A LOT more air and water than you were with the old ERs.

[NewSchool04]

One thing that I didn't take into account was the size and height of the cup. I'm going to have a terrible time taking it out of the sump. I basically have to pass it over the 40 gallon breeder and then out the far door. That sucks big time.

I'm going to try to see if I can drain my sump and then push it back a couple of inches to give me some room to lean it while I take it out from the skimmer section.

[sjm817]

It is better to pick your skimmer, then design the sump around it, but it never works out that way. Short stands also make things challenging.

I cant even begin to tell you how great it is having a basement sump. SOOOOOO nice! I could never go back to an in stand sump.

[NewSchool04]

Originally posted by sjm817
The turbulence and all that will settle down when it breaks in. Give it some time. You can make an air silencer. Its been posted, but I dont have the link. Take a small container like a film canister, put a hole in each and and put some filter floss in there. Put the air line in one end. You are making a muffler.

You are pumping A LOT more air and water than you were with the old ERs.

I'll keep an eye out for that silencer and thanks for the help. Sounds alot like the BM skimmers now.

Turbulance seems to have calmed down a bit. I've got about 1/8" of tea colored skimmate in the cup after 3 1/2 hours. I'm a little nervous about going to bed!

[NewSchool04]

I can't wait for the basement sump set up also. Gotta move out to the burbs for that though!

[sjm817]

Just make sure if it were to overflow, it would go back into the sump.

[dohc97]

Pat,

If you havent figured out something for the airline noise i can bring the silencer that came with my skimmer over so we can copy it and make one for your skimmer. It really quiets down the airline and its very simple.

[NewSchool04]

I just might need that Jose. With the air valve on it's not bad, without it it's brutal.

[dohc97]

what size airline? Mine looks like quarter inch. if yours is the same you might as well borrow my silencer until you make one. I dont mind the noise that much(and i sleep next to the tank )

[NewSchool04]

I doubt it's 1/4". It's just silicone tubing, real floppy.

[dohc97]

Ok, well i took two phone pics of the silencer to see if you can get an idea on how to make the silencer. Its very simple so i would say a trip to the hardware store should get you the parts.

this is the silencer all put together:




Here it is apart:





As you can see its empty, you could make one with 2 pieces of pvc(one piece smaller so as to fit inside the other) and a couple caps. The bottom piece is just a cap, the top has those 2 smallish tubes. One goes into the airline, the other stays open. You would be surprised how quit the airline gets with this.

[mg426]

Have fun with that beast !!

[NewSchool04]

Not much action throughout the night. I've got what looks like a little bit less than 1/4" of skimmate in the cup this morning, dark tea colored. I'm glad it didn't overflow during the night!

The bubbles have seemed to gotten a bit smaller but still a lot of big one mixed in there. It's nice to see that the 8" of water is going to work, I got a little bit worried there when the skimmer started taking off last night!

[Tennsquire]

If you close the air valve a bit, you'll find that the bubbles will get smaller on the ER skimmers. You have to play around with the valve and the water level inside the skimmer to find the sweet spot.

[NewSchool04]

Thanks Tennsquire. Tonight I'm going to start tweaking the skimmer. I wanted to give it 24 hours before messing with it.

[Worldwithin]

I too have a 180. I noticed that I was able to decrease the air noise by just extending the intake tube to the back of my tank and it just mixes in with all the other noise there.

I do also recommend the gate valve mod that can easily be created for this skimmer. It improved my ability to adjust the skimmer by leaps and bounds.

Another thing... This is a new skimmer? If so, I find it interesting that you received an older model than what the new ones are. It looks like you did not receive the "zero clearance" collection cup. The one I recieved earlier this year has a neck that only requires about 1cm of additional overhead clearance to remove. Twist it and it comes right out - no unscrewing of anything. Not that big of a deal if you have the room for it though.

Also, have you noticed any stray voltage entering your tank from the pump? I have had 2 pumps from Euro Reef that are bleeding voltage into the tank. Not sure if it is a wiring issue on my side, or if it is a bad pump issue on theirs.

[NewSchool04]

I haven't noticed any stray voltage and really don't have anything that I could use to check to see if I do.

It is a new skimmer and it is a zero clearance cup. Just slides right off. Maybe they have redesigned the neck?

I thought this was the newly designed drain piping that they made to alleviate the need for a gate valve. I have no idea if I got an older model but if I did, I wouldn't be that happy about it!

Does this look like an older model skimmer everyone?

[dohc97]

Pat are you working on rigging up a silencer? ill look around the shop to see if i have anything that can be used to build one.