Unbelievably disappointed.

I'm terribly disappointed in the skimmer I've received. Not really the skimmer itself, but the pump it came with and the incredible joke the pump "modifications" were. The skimmer is a Euro-Reef rs180 with a genx 4100 pump. This pump had some mods done to it. I have no idea what, but whatever they attempted to use to seal it back up was completely shotty. I understand this pump is a few years old, but this is rediculous. The pictures are self-explanatory. You can see where I've already had to patch their work and now you can see the rust from more of the "goo" they used to patch the hole in the back. I've now had to cover the entire back area of the pump with an epoxy in an attempt to seal it. The damage to my corals is irreversible and i'm really disappointed as I've lost and am losing some one of a kind corals.

 

Oh no thats is pretty awful. i would be gutted in your position. Do you think its stray voltage that has killed your coral or do you think the sealent they used is not aquarium safe?
Was it a 2nd hand purchase off ebay? I'd be totally doing a paypal claim on the grounds its not what you paid for.

Its such a shame aswell, you had such a nice trachyphillyia too

 

that sucks.

 

It might be from the rust he mentioned=metal poisoning,but yea that sucks,you got ripped off,I swear people need to know when somethings just need thrown away instead of selling on ebay,craigs or whereever as it's happened to me to(probably cause i'm always looking for a cheap deal)

 

Well, I am at a loss, or I am not quite getting what you are saying. Are you saying the pump somehow killed or damaged the coral? How long did you have the pump running in the tank?

 

The skimmer has been in the tank since August (I believe) and because of the incredibly massive upgrade the skimmer was (in terms of pulling out skimmate) I figured the coral health would increase. Unless you didnt see the rust on the back of that pump, I don't really understand how that pump wouldn't kill my corals? It seems like the pump surgery was covered up with a glue or silicone of some sort that it really easily pulled away at this point. I had both stray voltage and now metal in my tank which both would quite easily contribute to coral death. I contacted the original owner of the skimmer and it appears as if this skimmer is a mere 20 months old. I believe that they should seriously consider revising their modification design as it seems to me 20 months is not a sufficient length of time for the proper operation of a pump or sealant.

 

Froc im sorry to here of your troubles. Did they say they would make it right?

 

That stinks, but I wouldn't have put any pump in my tank that looked like that!

 

I emailed the company today. I try hard to do what's best for the health of my tank inhabitants and spend a lot of hours maintaning optimal conditions (as all reefers should and I'm sure most do) and when you purchase a product that was made by a well-know company you expect good results and ease some of the concern surrounding your tank. Maybe I was just unlucky (which is likely the case), but I when I started losing some of those brain corals I nearly shut down the tank. Some of you have experienced tank crashes for no apparent reason and I really feel for you. At least I know what went wrong. The cost of possibly having to replace LR, skimmer, livestock and water might just shut this tank down after all.

 

Upon initial inspection when I got it, the back looked pretty good. How long have your pumps been running without maintenance? This was only in there for about 2 months. The epoxy and silicone were from me adding to the back because I was already nervous about the back of the pump, but this is how they come from the manufacturer (as far as I have found) because they have to make modifications to the pump.