AquaC EV-180 owners feedback needed

I need a new skimmer and I have someone with one of these and a magdrive 9.5 selling at a great price. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance

D.

 

Not bad skimmers, but use a lot of electricity. I think I'd take some of the the approx.. $90 per year in electricity it will use, and get something more efficient and less finicky.

 

It's just fed by a pump, yeah? What makes it finicky?

 

It's fed by the pump, but it is very inefficient. The Mag 9.5 is nearly 100W, so, it uses a lot of power and produces a lot of heat.

As to being finicky, they were really good in their day, but the injection skimmers always required a lot of cleaning and maintenance compared to modern needle-wheel skimmers. I know people still complain about needle wheels, but when they came out, compared to the other skimmers on the market, they were a godsend.

The AquaCs are good skimmers though, don't get me wrong. So, it depends on the price really, but I think there are benefits to more modern skimmers. The AquaC's are also supposed to be more "plankton friendly" than needlewheel skimmers though. So, it may be a bit better, if you like to maintain a population of live-food in the tank. It's a theoretical thing though, I'm not sure how big of a difference there is in practice.

 

Price is great, $100 for skimmer with pump. He has a quiet one 3000 pump in which I haven't heard of along with a mag 9.5. I have read the skimmer requires a pump that kicks between 7-800 gph in which the quiet one does. I have also read some believe the skimmer works better with the mag. So, I have to figure out which is really best for the skimmer.

I do like the thought of not having a needle wheel that slices all the pods I do plan on seeding once I set up the new tank soon.

I like the footprint compared to what I have, the collection cup drain in which I don't currently have along with the fact it can be mounted externally. So, for a bill having those 3 things available is diff worth it. And, sometimes old school just works. It would be interesting for me to try it out and have some personal experience with this style of protein skimming.

 

I wouldn't get it bro, I have it from the deal I got with it on the tank and it sucks. It works GREAT for like 3 days, then stops skimming till you clean it, and trust me, you're not gonna wanna clean this thing every 3 days, its a mess. I'm saving up to replace it ASAP, I'll sell ya mine for $50 plus shipping with a mag 7

 

I got mine for 50 bucks with a mag 7. It's still new to me but I've yet to have a complaint. It's been running for a week now and still pulling nasty stuff out. You can get decent new needle wheel for a little more than 100 bucks and you won't have proble a for awhile. Now that I have mine if the pump fails its 100 bucks for a new one so I have that lingering in my head

 

Most people have a lot of good things to say about this skimmer. Hmmm.... Maybe I'll just keep my ol euro reef.

 

The mag 9.5 on that skimmer will pull no more that 60w when hooked on the skimmer. The back pressure will reduce the wattage big time. More likely it will be around 40-50w but don't remember off the top of my head. On my EV400, my Mag 24 only pulled 125w. My Ma 36 on my EV1000 only pulled 170w. It is a great skimmer and had a lot of advantages over needle heel skimmers that I don't have time to get into. I feel you would need a 8" needle wheel skimmer to outperform the EV180. It can be truly a beast once dialed in.

 

The Mag 7 is too small of a pump for that skimmer. The Mag 7 will work but it is not optimal. Best performance from a Mag 9.5 or Eheim 1262. My advice is buy a used Eheim 1262 as they are bulletproof. You can always buy replacement parts for eheimparts.com. Also pumps on these skimmers last longer because they have more water running through them for cooling than a needle wheel.