EuroReef Club

[gotdesl]

Okay, I posted a while back about my 6-1 not skimming. I went in and removed some flash plastic from the venturi hole and thought that would do it. A couple of weeks later and I have seen no change... or skimmate. I have no idea what's wrong.

[crab0000]

Can you post a pic of the skimmer?

[dmichellep]

Originally posted by xchrisjb
Maybe I'll try to fire off an email to the EuroReef guys themselves and see what I can find out. Do most people have better luck emailing h2otropicals or euro-reef?

Don't bother emailing Euro-reef, try h2otropicals. While Euro-reef may make great skimmers, their customer support is virtually non-existent. The exact quote I received from Jeff at Euro-reef was "we as a manufacturer are not supposed to be supporting the end user". Not exactly what I wanted to hear after dropping a thousand dollars on a CS8-4 RC.

[tenshi]

Originally posted by dmichellep
The exact quote I received from Jeff at Euro-reef was "we as a manufacturer are not supposed to be supporting the end user". Not exactly what I wanted to hear after dropping a thousand dollars on a CS8-4 RC.

Did he really say that?!?! Hell I would be pretty ****ed off if he said anything like that. I'm glad I went with ASM then, at least then I knew I wasn't going to get any customer support. I've always justified the ER being a little more than the ASM because they were built better and they had customer support. I guess I was wrong.

[reptoreef]

If you're speaking of the pics on my site... my riser tube is only set at the first joint. If I were to raise it to the second(or any higher for that matter), there would be wetter production for each bit of raise I put on the height of the tube. IMO, lower your tube to the first joint and adjust from there.

[DerekW]

Originally posted by tenshi
Did he really say that?!?! Hell I would be pretty ****ed off if he said anything like that. I'm glad I went with ASM then, at least then I knew I wasn't going to get any customer support. I've always justified the ER being a little more than the ASM because they were built better and they had customer support. I guess I was wrong.

I'll give my 2 cents as a retail store owner.
If I have a customer that has a problem with a floor we sold them, I expect them to call me with that concern. In no way would I ever tell them, or expect them to call the carpet mill that made the carpet. In most cases the retail store makes a greater margin then the manufacturer does, therefore the retailer should handle the service end, and it should be the retailer who deals with the manufacturer or distributer.

[tenshi]

Originally posted by DerekW
I'll give my 2 cents as a retail store owner.
If I have a customer that has a problem with a floor we sold them, I expect them to call me with that concern. In no way would I ever tell them, or expect them to call the carpet mill that made the carpet. In most cases the retail store makes a greater margin then the manufacturer does, therefore the retailer should handle the service end, and it should be the retailer who deals with the manufacturer or distributer.

I'll agree with what your saying, that our first recourse should be the retailer we bought our product from. But sometimes the retailer knows just as much about a product as the consumer. Not all retailers are experts in their field; just look at all the bad LFS and online vendors out there giving, what I would consider, bad advice. Even if the retailer is an excellent one, the consumer can not expect the retailers to be experts on every product he/she carrys. That's just to much information. It's also frustrating when the retailer doesn't know the answer and needs to contact the manufacturer for more information and then contact you with that information. And back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth, until hopefully a question is answered or a problem is resolved. Sometimes, it's quicker if you can go to the manufacturer and trouble shoot directly with them.

[whaase]

I may get jumped on for saying this, but, if a retailer does not know his products, he should not be selling them. If you bought a Ford from a dealership and you had a problem, you would not call Ford directly, you would go back to the dealership. In the company I work for, one of our divisions sells countertops to HD, Rona etc... If a customer was to call the maker/supplier of our countertops they would simply get told to call us, we are the vendor for them. The one thing I dont agree with is if someone like PremiumAquatics (Where I bought mine from and just one example) can't get a answer from ER, that's a problem.

I can't imagine all the e-mails and calls ER probably gets in a day. I view them as a wholeseller, not a retailer, maybe they allowed this to happen themselves...?

I do think they made a big mistake by not visiting/answering here anymore. A company as popular as they are should have a rep. that is available.

Just my 2 cents.

Walter

[dmichellep]

the retailer was from a very reputable source that is a rc sponsor. i have ordered from them many times and they have went over and beyond their expectations. let me give you a thorough explanation of the situation. we placed an order w/ the sponsor and ordered an reg er which was placed in mid april. they said it should be in stock in 3-4wks. which was told pa stock person by er. it never showed. being that i wanted to get the show on the road we upgraded to an 8-4 rc it was mailed and the box had no damage, opened it up the cup was cracked and missing a 2"piece. we took it back the next day to indy and upgraded once more to 8-5 rc. in the process we called er to find out how long it would be to keep our 8-4 to get a cup. i think that when you purchase a high dollar item that you should be able to talk to someone about a timeline. being that we got very frustrated that this one item is stopping us from setting up our 150. instead of a timeline we got an insulting email from jeff himself. if you would like to read the email i will be more than happy to forward it to you. being that all of the consumers are priveledged to buy an er and be an "end user" oh and by the way to ask ? only derails their company's production.
after reading the email and picking my jaw up off the floor. i returned the product. and bought a deltec. spent over 2hrs talking to doug and i am hooking up my tank tomorrow. now that is what i call technical support!!! by all means i am not knocking their product, but if u pay high dollar for a skimmer the support better be included.

[Dr]

I wonder if ER provides any of their distrubutors with some type of product traning and trouble shooting. I know many manufactures require new distributors to attend product training before the dristribution agreement is finalized. This eliminates some of the headaches for the manufacture.

It sounds like Jeff is getting burned out. On RC he had to defend himself and ER quite a few times, but my opinion is that comes with the territory of owning a business. You will always have unsatisfied customers.

Good for you dmichellep! I would have done the same thing. Sometimes manufactures only realize that there is a problem when they lose market share and dollars in their pocket.

[dmichellep]

if your company grows to much for you to handle and you can not carry an official tech support person that is rational then you will loose business. i need to know that if my collection breaks because of something stupid that i did that i can get one w/in 2wks or less not 8wks. they need to grow as a company instead of loosing customers due to their hot tempers of frustration. i have dreamed of my big tank for 3years and have done tons of research thought i had the best skimmer that is untill i had contact w/ them. yep traded them in for the deltec. gosh i love saying that!!!!!

[whaase]

Well, on a lighter note, I got my skimmer working better. I ended up cutting down the output tubes 1". I can now get much dryer foam and it does not overflow in minuts. I was looking at my output tube, the OD of it is 1 5/8". Would that be a 1 1/2" Ball valve?

Walter

[crab0000]

I wouldn't use a ball valve. Use a gate valve for much finer adjustment. I think I used 1 1/2" stuff for mine.

[whaase]

Sorry, I meant gate I have a piece of the pipe, I'll take it with me.

Thanks, Walter

[whaase]

Here is a picture after I modified the output tubes. This is about 20 hrs. I just finished feeding so there is no bubbles in the neck. Sorry for the bad quality, my camera is POS.



Walter

[Kirk_M]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
i would do a gate valve mod NO MATTER WHAT...also make sure you venturi isn't clogged

Lunchbucket

What does the gate valve mod look like on your skimmer? I'd like to see it so i can do it to mine.

[Lunchbucket]

there are lost of pics of them around..i don't have one on had.

take off your your riser pipe and the tube it slides on (w/ the o-rings)
insert pvc into the drain outlet
put a gate valve on the pvc
then add a TEE fitting
add a piece of pipe out of the side of the tee to where you want it to dump
then a 90degree down
add a piece of PVC to the top of the tee....and you are done

Lunchbucket

[stevem650]

Just joined 3 weeks ago with a CS8-2. Started to skim 1st day and love it.

I am having problems removing the collecting cup from the union. Seems hard to twist and lift off. I am using the supplied lube that came with the skimmer. Anyone else having this problem?

[fragn'stein]

Originally posted by Kirk_M
What does the gate valve mod look like on your skimmer? I'd like to see it so i can do it to mine.

Here's a pic of mine:



HTH

[Lunchbucket]

fragn'stein - thanks! BUT if you want to get technical the valve is supposed to be FIRST then the tee then 90 over. this is to limit causing a siphon. i ran mine like you have yours for a year or more w/ NO problems!!! but that is what everyone suggests to do

later
Lunchbucket

[LCGoldman]

fragn'stein - If you don't have an automatic top off in the sump, do you ever have a problem with your collection cup filling up instaneously when the water level is too high or too low in the sump with your set up as pictured?

Thanks in advance for your response.

[whaase]

Hey Luchbucket! Time do delete some of your PM's! Your full.

Sorry.

Walter

[fragn'stein]

Originally posted by LCGoldman
fragn'stein - If you don't have an automatic top off in the sump, do you ever have a problem with your collection cup filling up instaneously when the water level is too high or too low in the sump with your set up as pictured?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Actually I do have an auto top off. If you look to the left of the ball valve on the left you will see the small pipe with a film canister on it, it's hard to see, inside that film canister is a float switch and pipe you see under the fan is the output for the FW topoff.

Lunchbucket. I don't think a siphon effect would ever be a problem running the gatevavle where it is. The reason being is as soon as power is cutoff to the skimmer the water has nowhere to siphon to once the water level reaches where the level of the skimmer sits in the water so it will equalize. Besides if you run it the way you did or the way I did it still completes the exact same circuit. Gatevalve or PVC pipe it all lets water through unless you have a oneway valve hooked after the gatevalve. Make sense?
HTH.

[Lunchbucket]

fragn - i'm not concerned about when the power is cut...i'm talking when the pump is running. you have a closed loop on the output of the pump...your supposed to have an open loop...get what i'm saying

Lunchbucket

[albfelix]

here is the order of the fitting for the gate valve mod:
http://euro-reef.com/products-csseriesrc.shtml