Euro-Reef Eheim NW Thread

[scarletknight06]

cerreta,
I think you misunderstood. I think you are incorrect that each model deltec has a different model NW impeller. I believe that all deltec models with eheim's use the same impeller. the difference in air intake/draw is due to body height (head pressure) and using air taps.

[cerreta]

So back to my original argument before I began all the testing. I believe that the Euroreef skimmers do belong up their in the top three with H&S and Deltec. Because they cost less does mean they can not be as good.

Oops, typo here. I meant to say:

So back to my original argument before I began all the testing. I believe that the Euroreef skimmers do belong up their in the top three with H&S and Deltec. Because they cost less does not mean they can not be as good.

[cerreta]

I think you misunderstood. I think you are incorrect that each model deltec has a different model NW impeller. I believe that all deltec models with eheim's use the same impeller. the difference in air intake/draw is due to body height (head pressure) and using air taps.

Hmmm, maybe. I only observed one Deltec skimmer. So, I did not get to compare differences in other models. The info I passed on is second hand. However, you can see an obvious trimming of these pins in the impeller I looked at.

Skip, do you have other models of the Deltec to varify that the the pinwheels are in fact different based on various models?

BTW, I don't completely understand what the air taps are or do, but Skip mentioned these to me too as we were looking at the Deltecs. Can you show a picture of the air taps and explain further?

[Jim_S]

cerrta,

From what I know, the airtaps are valves on the skimmer's air intake hose. On the Deltecs and the H&S models, the Eheim 1260's will actually draw more air when the air intake has been reduced.

I'm not sure how they work, so if anyone has any info on why this occurs, please chime in.

Jim

[cerreta]

Jim, my neck does not have the fine foam bubbles that you are producing. I wonder why. I hae much larger bubbles in the neck. In fact they are larger than when I used the GenX pump. Where do yo ukeep the water level in the skimmer body?

Can you show me a picture of the water height?

Thanks

[Jim_S]

The water level in the skimmer with the pump off, I beleive is right around the bayonet fitting. When the pump is on, It's about 2"-3" below the top of the neck.

I'll go look to see for sure.

Jim



Edit:

Okay, I was right. Here are the pics




As you can see, the water is right on the bayonet. I have never done any flow-rate testing. But with this pump, I have found that it works best for me when its set there.

Jim

[cerreta]

great that helps. I will give it a try. I see how you put a 45 on the output. I will try this too. I put an elbow on there and did not like the results.

I still get a suching noise. I am trying to make a silencer too. Do you use one? Do you have the sucking noise?

Cheers

[Jim_S]

Yeah, I can definetly hear the air intake. Its funny you ask. I was going to go up to the hardware store today and put one together.

I'm going to just put an endcap on a piece of 1" pvc and hook the air hose up to a nylon hose adapter. I'll probably just fill the pvc piece with cotton or paper towels or something. Then mount it.

Jim

[UCanDoIt]

Jim, great photos and very promising. How does is compare to the H&S A150 you had earlier. I understand that isn't a good comparison as the A150 is smaller and uses the AquaBee pump and a better comparison would be against the A200, but what are your initial thoughts anyways? Thanks.

On the air noise, do you think that Lifereef's concept of hooking up the air hose to the top of the collection cup would work. Lifereef claims that the moisture is self-cleaning and if the skimmer ever goes crazy, it will never overflow as the excess will just recycle back into the skimmer. But this mod also eliminates the noise.

[Jim_S]

Christine,

I really like the H&S A150 very much. H&S skimmers are great IMHO. But you are right, this skimmer isn't justly comparable to the A150.

I would say they are both Great skimmers.

The A150 was built very well compared to the Deltecs I've seen locally.

And I really like this ER. Its very powerful, built like a tank and except for the pump, it made in the USA, which I like.

(Don't get me wrong, I love German technology and engineering. If I had the $$$, my dream car would be a Porsche turbo). But I like to see American products that kick***

Edit:

As far as how the I think the A200 models compare? Right now I think its more like 6 one way and half a dozen the other. Pick you poison.

Both units have differences, but I think in the end, now it's more about what brand you want.

Jim

[saurus]

I have had my two new eheims on my 12-2/rc400-500 for about two weeks now. I have been very pleased due to the silence of the pumps compared to the genx's. Now I can mainly hear my sequence return pump more than the skimmer. I have a collection cup fitted with a drain that flows into 5 gallon bucket for skimmate controlled by a aquatronica level sensor to shut it off once it fills up the bucket. After 10 days I noticed the pumps were not on because the skimmate bucket was full. When I did have the genx pumps/skimmer dialed in, at best I could get about 2 gallons a week. So, after only 10 days I was able to fill the 5 gallons. Not too bad in my eyes. Instead of dealing with a air silencer, I was able to use 1/2 pvc pushed through an exterior wall and connect the airlines and overflow so that the air is sucked from outside hereby completely silencing the skimmer. Now with the new pumps, I can barely tell the skimmer is running.

[scarletknight06]

Cerreta,
There are a couple of purposes I have read for the airtaps
1) clamping down the air line, makes the pump spin faster, drawing in more air-->some people say this works, some say it doesnt

2) clamping down the air line to a point where air flow is reduced (like you are supposed to do with the ap 701)

On the skimmers I have owned with air clamps/taps (H&S a110, H&S 90, DAS EX-1) the air tap has done nothing aside from pinching off the air flow, but this is supposedly b/c the 1st purpose I listed only works on the eheims, not the aquabees.

HTH



Sorry to distract, but back to original thread topic.....
Does anyone know if the new eheim pumps will make the price go up on the models they will be put on?

I was looking at the cs400. For $859 from PA thats a pretty good deal.
It has the same airdraw as the h&s 200-2x1260 (internal) for about $400 less. The only differenec is the H&S has a 8" body, and the ER has a 12" body. Same height. Seems like the ER could either use a lot more air, or the neck is taller, and reaction chamber shorter (which seems to be the case) than the h&s.

I am in the early early early planning stages of a 180/210g, I hope that price from PA stays for a couple years. Or comes down

[Jim_S]

From what I have heard, they will only be offering them on the RC units.

I'm not sure if this fact or not, but its just what I have heard


You may try to call Chip over at ER 1-877-hey-euro and ask him. I'm sure he'll have the answers to questions like that.

Jim

[cerreta]

OK silencer is built. There is no sucking noise at all. I stole this idea from the Octopus skimmers. BTW, I also saw those when looking at the Deltec. I will discuss my impression of that skimmer a bit later when I have the time.

I did get in touch with ER. The plan is that the Eheim pump will replace the GenX on the RC series 180 and up for new skimmers being sold. I'm not sure if the price will change. They will also be offering the Eheim pump as an upgrade option for the CS series. He did not mention if they could be used on the RS, but I don't see any reason why not. These pumps will only be avilable as an upgrade purchase through the ER website. I don't think you can prearrange to get a new CS skimmer with that pump.

However, if there is that much interest, then maybe they should just consider offering the Eheim as an upgrade option and just drop ship the product if someone buys it through an online vendor. Afterall, I know they do a lot of dropship business on the bigger skimmers.

They are testing eheims for the RC80 and RC135 skimmers. The 1250 is being tested for the RC80+ and they are using an Eheim 1260 with its smaller volute and the 1262 impeller for the RC135.

I may be wrong on certain aspects of this information because I am recalling it from conversation, so nothing is done yet, just in the test phase.

However, it seems as if they are working hard to get the best pump on their product. I know I wold rather have an eheim on a smaller skimmer instead of the aquabee. That may give them an edge over the competition if the testing works out.

[scarletknight06]

there's a thread on the "other" forum where someone mentioned ER's attempt at a 1250 NW being unsuccesful.

From my understanding aquabee's are made by eheim, I could be wrong though, or at least theres some connection between the two brand names. I would guess the reason that deltec and H&S use the aquabees on the smaller skimmers is b/c they worked better than the 1250.

[UCanDoIt]

I heard that Eheim and AquaBee pumps are made by the same manufacturer. But not sure if that's fact.

[sjm817]

What about the RS/CS/RC250 skimmers? The Eheim pump is ~ equivalent in performance to an SP4, but not as strong as an SP5. Any plans there?

[Jim_S]

Originally posted by scarletknight06

From my understanding aquabee's are made by eheim, I could be wrong though, or at least theres some connection between the two brand names.

I had heard this before in the past. But was told in another thread that this is incorrect.

If ER can make the smaller eheims work, IMO that will be a great combo.

Jim

[cerreta]

OK, here is the silencer build:

1. 4" 1/2" thin wall Sch 20 PVC pipe.

2. Two 1/2" caps

3. Two pieces of rigid air line tubing. I used the black stuff sold for lawn watering.

Drill hole in endcap to accomodate the tubing.

It is SILENT !!!!


I tested the air draw. It seems to reduce the air flow by maybe 1/2lpm. It also stabilizes the bouncing of the flowmeter ball. It actually allows for more air into the skimmer, because before I was using the air tap to restrict the airflow down to about 12lpm to quiet the sucker down.


This thing cost about $1.20 to make. I think ER should make and sell these with there skimmers. It would look cool in the grey pvc!!!

Here are the photos:

[cerreta]

Oh, the caveat. The airline tubing must overlap inside the silencer body, as seen in picture two.

[Jim_S]

Originally posted by sjm817
What about the RS/CS/RC250 skimmers? The Eheim pump is ~ equivalent in performance to an SP4, but not as strong as an SP5. Any plans there?

This is a good question.

The German equivalent skimmers are the ap851 and the a200 1260. These skimmers yield great results with 1 1260. I think the sp5 will give the better results, but the 1262 can run them as well.

[frank2926]

I made a silencer / air filter in a similar matter. took a threaded 1.5 Tee capped all 3 ends and drilled a hole for the skimmer airline in one cap. drilled a bunch of holes in another cap. put the skimmer hose in the tee
and put a bunch of cotton floss and some carbon in the tee.
you should see how dirty the cotton gets, and it is dead quiet.

[Fliger]

Wow, lots of great info here - thanks Cerreta. Glad to see ER is finally sizing pumps to skimmers better. I couldn't agree more with the quality/pricing of Deltec skimmers. That's why I stuck with H&S - because I hate that black flange Deltec uses. Just like Jim was able to post that pic of water height - that is CRUCIAL to dialing these in, water height with the air pumps off. If you take a look at the Deltec threads, you have to take the collection cup off to see where the water is, and its not easy when its under your stand. I had read on another website - some Europeans were talking about the inferior quality of acrylic also, but I never knew if it was true or not. I always thought the acrylic on the H&S skimmers I've owned was stronger than the AP702 I got to use for a few months but never confirmed. That was a lot of really great info Scott (cerreta). Neat silencer also! And you're very right about the pricing as well.

Anyway - the skimmer looks awesome Jim. I think the acrylic work of ER is second only to BK on NW skimmers!

[UCanDoIt]

Originally posted by frank2926
I made a silencer / air filter in a similar matter. took a threaded 1.5 Tee capped all 3 ends and drilled a hole for the skimmer airline in one cap. drilled a bunch of holes in another cap. put the skimmer hose in the tee
and put a bunch of cotton floss and some carbon in the tee.
you should see how dirty the cotton gets, and it is dead quiet.

cerreta - Very cool air silencer! So, you stole the idea from Octopus skimmers.

frank - can you post photos when you get a chance, sounds like a great unit. a picture is worth a thousand words.

[Jim_S]

Thanks Fliger. I'm glad ER went this route as well. IMO, the sp4 was/is a great performer, but unless you have basement or equip-room set-up, or don't mind the hum, they're just a little louder than I like it

Yeah, cerreta really hooked it up on this thread.

Jim