eBay 130$ SCA-302 skimmer review

M

mmiller40

I picked up this skimmer due to a huge post on another forum and the price.

A few observations;
1. Well packed in a new designed box with antitamper seals.
2. At first I thought the lid had clear plastic on it that was kinda scratched off. It turned out to be glue. There is sloppy glue on many places of the skimmer. I don't think the acrylic was welded using Weldon, more of hot glue as it peeled easily off with my nail.
3. This thing is small. Significantly smaller than my Euroreef RS80 (ER5-2) that I hope to replace. The collection cup is half the capacity and the neck a little slimmer.
4. The pump is a PH2000 needle wheel (atman?). The impeller had two covers. One twists off and the other is GLUED onto the pump! It should screw off to replace the impeller if needed but it's been purposely glued. :(
5. The pump states 42 watts but only pulls 12.5 watts per kill-a-watt. Thats less than half the sedra running the euroreef pulls (26watts).
6. This thing will be a PITA to pull apart and clean. Took me 15 to put it together. Would be faster if I used a wrench on the plastic screws.
7. Very flimsy. I see how they can sell it so cheap
8. The water height adjustment tube needs a o-ring or something. It is waay to easy to move. If you bump it you will move it.

Overall, not that impressed. I'll likely pull it out and return it unless it shows a large improvement over my current skimmer. IMO probably a decent budget skimmer for a 75 gallon or less. Can't beat the price


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It's not bad for a bubble magus clone. Actually a good deal. Just not a 180 gallon skimmer. I would recommend it for anyone with a small tank on a budget. I ran my return in between both skimmers and letting them run head to head. It will take a few days to "break" it in I'm sure. Then I'll run each a 24 hour period and do results. After that maybe I'll get the NAC77 outta the box and compare.
 
I think there is a 120 version of the SWC maybe its a copy of that one. The appearance is identical

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I wonder if they changed suppliers on who is putting these things together. I have the SCA-303 model and it seems to be well built and actually pulled some pretty good amount of skimmate. I am running a similar size reef octopus now and i'm not gettting near as good of results, but possibly i don't have it dialed in right yet, not sure but it has been two weeks.

edit: oh and my pump wasn't glued at all. If you plan on keeping i would ask them to send you another because that should not have been the case.
 
I'm using the same one and I like it very much. The quality is not top notch, but it's not bad either. I like it because it's very quiet and it sure pull out some nasty stuff on my 90G.
 
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