Bullet1 or euroreef skimmers? Which performs better?

B

bigbert96

I've had it. I have been getting no skimmate from my aquac ev-180. My water quality is starting to suffer now. I contacted marinedepot and they are going to take my ev180, diagnose it and give me store credit, if unit is defective (Pluse credit for the refuse container $89.) That equals roughly $470. I can purchase a bullet1 or 2 with mag 12 for roughly that cost, or spend $200 more and get a euroreef 180. Is there a big difference with the euroreef to warrant the cost. At this point, I wouldn't mind spending the extra money if im getting the best quality. Im really frustrated at this point and need some solid advice. The bullet appears to be very similiar to the aquac in design. Whats everyones take on this? Help urgently needed.
 
Ps.. Bullet is manufactured by Precision Marine. Are they reputable? Im asking because there are only 3 skimmers that marine depot sells that have high ratings. The aquaC's, euroreef's, and the Precision Marine bullet skimmers. The people at marine depot wont refund my purchase, but will offer store credit. So basicly im limited to these two choices.
 
:( Sorry to hear that... I feel kinda bad since I recommended the AquaC, and by my experiences, I still do heartily recommend it, but as they say, every tank reacts just a bit differently...
 
euroreef has been taking a lot of heat recently for poor customer service issues on reefcentral and they shut down their forum, again!

PM makes good stuff
 
Not your fault serk. The skimmer worked awesome the first month. It just crapped out on me for some reason. I still think its a good product and thier customer service was top notch. Thier techs are baffled just like everyone on the board is here. But now ive got particles all over my tank and a layer is forming on the top of the water column. Theres just too much livestock at stake here. I will now have to go a whole week without a skimmer until marine depot can test my old unit and ship me a new brand. This sucks because they wont refund my money. So now im stuck with only a few choices. Has anyone personally used the euroreef or precision marine products?
 
Ps.. Ive heard of some people upping the pump from a mag7 to a mag9. AquaC strongly recommends against this. Has anyone tried it?
 
Not sure of the GPH of the mag's, but I'm running a Rio 3100 (I know, I know, at least it's not a 2100!) which is rated right around 1000 gph on my EV-150...
 
To the first question of precision marine. I have to commend them on customer service. They are located in Texas and have the most helpful people that I've met. The quality of the product is also good. I don't have their skimmer (built my own) but I have their Ca reactor and it is top notch.

Regards,
 
Serk: The mag7 is rated at 700gph. The mag9 is 900gph. AquaC strongly recommends using only the mag7 for the ev180. But if yours is working good with more horsepower :twisted: , maybe mine will too. I guess I could scrounge around and look for a used mag9 to try out. But as of now, im leaning towards the bullet series.
 
If you can get your hands on one, 'tis worth a shot at least... I'd be curious to see if it helps... :?:

Did they ever say why they recommend NOT going up to a Mag 9?

I've been running a Rio 3100/1000 GPH since the day I got the skimmer 5.5 years ago...
 
I am curious to see if the higher GPH makes a difference. I also would like to know why they don't reccommend the higher GPH. Does anyone on here know? I am not to savvy on skimmers, so I don't know why a bigger GPH pump wouldn't be more effective. I use a CA pump that throws out nearly 1000 GPH for my sealife systems skimmer. I wonder if I go with less flow it will work better.
-Chuck
 
It says in the instructions that the gate valve is only designed to allow 700gph. Also, in the instructions, it details how the baffle, air valve, and other mechanics of the system were designed to run on a specific flow rate and that "tweaking it" could throw it off balance. They were very adamant about this topic so they must know what thier talking about. Plus, one of thier selling points was that it could skim just efficiently as the bigger boys could with less pump power.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION!!!!! I just got off the phone with another member and he said something that stuck in my head. I started having these problems about a month ago. About a month ago, I got tired of my 3 seio's slowly pushing my sand bed around. The seio's were positioned about 3 inches above the sandbed pointed towards the front of the tank. My skimmer worked fine at this point. I was getting tire of having to constantly flatten the sand back out. But under this arangement, I never had detritus on the dirt. I moved the seio's to about 7 or 8 inches above the sandbed to alleviate the sandshifting problem. I now have quite a bit of detritus on the sandbed. Tomorrow I am going to vacuum the sandbed, stir things up a bit, and reposition the seios to thier original position. Im wondering if this is why the skimmer quit working. Was all the detritus being allowed to settle on the sandbed opposed to being blown around the tank and eventually getting skimmed out? I will definately post an update tomorrow afternoon and let you know if this resolves the problem! I think this may be the cause of my heartache! :lol:
 
If you can get someone local to your area, ask them to come over and look the skimmer over. I'm pretty far away, but if you were willing to bring the skimmer and pump here we could try it out in my sump to get it figured out. I ran an EV-200 w/ Mag 12 for roughly 2 years and it was great.

I don't think the flow of your Seios affected the skimmer. If your skimmer isn't do the job it is supposed to, I'd expect more detritus to gather on the sandbed since it isn't being pulled out of the water.

For now: 1) Get a filter sock (actually 3), and have your tank drain into that. Change it out every 3 days, or less. Turn off your return pump when feeding to avoid having the food go down the drain and into the sock, where it will stick and rot slowly. 2) Do a large water change immediately, and again in 4 days. This will get your water back into relatively good shape. Lots of people don't even run a skimmer, but must do water changes to keep up. 3) Contact someone local to help you figure out what is going on with the skimmer. It seems this can't be resolved remotely, so you'll need some human contact. :)
 
I ran a AC 150 on my tank with a modification. At first I ran the mag7. After doing some research, it was said to use the mag9, but with mods. I pulled the gatevalve, placed a ball valve after the pump to fine tune it. It did do great. I put the mag7 back on it only cause I had need for the mag9.
I originally posted this on RC as while back. Trying to find the thread, but no luck (cant search this rainy Saturday)
My handle on RC is Puffer Daddy if you want to try. Cant remember too much more about it.
 
When did you post it? I checked back one year, and it didn't come up. What forum might it have been posted in?
 
Marc,
Ive been running my ER for over a yr so I know it's been before then. Maybe 3ish ago? The only forum it could be in are reef discussion or "other equipment". Im still trying.
 
This is all I could find, from 2002.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102664&highlight=Aqua+C
 
I upped the pump on my EV-180 from a mag 7 to a mag 9. The first few days it was on it skimmed very very wet and pulled out a few gallons of water. I have the gate valve all the way open and the air valve turn almost 100% off. Since the first few days, I notice it is pulling out an amazing amount of stuff. I tend to not get a ton of skimmate but the bubble tower will be covered in gunk in a few days. I could probably open the air valve up a bit a get a bit wetter skimmate.

I was about to turn in my 180 until I upgraded to the mag 9 pump. I am very happy with it once I got past the first weekend.
 
Bigbert96-
I don't know what size tank you have, but I've been running the PM Bullet 1 powered by a mag12 for a few months (on a 120) and I love it. I do suggest buying or making your own waster collector that has the autoshutoff feature to prevent it from overflowing. I spoke w/ Precision Marine a few times on the phone and they had great customer service.

Sharon
 
I have the bullet 1 on my tank, powered by a mag 12. I also extended the riser neck, so it is now 5 inches taller. It does a great job on my tank and does not take long to get really dirty
 
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