Euroeef ???

[1newfish]

what makes a euroreef rc 250 worth $1,000?

[chewie]

The same thing that makes a coralife super skimmer worth $125.

Quality.

[1newfish]

chewie, you are right the coralife is low quality and low cost but $1,000 dollars for a skimmer. What makes it that much better cost wise?

[bdif]

Nothing... Continue your search and you will find a happy medium.

[Jim_S]

Its really hard to say.

Is there $1000 worth of product there? Well, IMO, skimmers are VERY, VERY overpriced.

With that said, if you want the top-of-the-line stuff in this hobby, you often end up paying quite a bit extra. By that I mean that ER, Deltec or whoever else aren't lowering their prices anytime soon (maybe ER might on some budget models, but not their RC line). So if thats the skimmer you want, thats what you have to pay unfortunately.

The ER RC250 as well as the Deltecs and H&S (all pretty much the same barring some minor differences) are pretty much built better with nicer pumps then any of the other RC skimmers on the market. They will outperform the budget skimmers stock, have good customer service. If you value these options, then $1000 is what it costs to buy them, but usually the price increase does not equal performance gained.

However, there are other options out there, and the budget skimmers on the market today are MUCH better than they were even 2 years ago. But then you are supporting some slave factory in China to cut costs down, and thats a whole new topic :)

Jim

[Justin/TiV]

I think a very well working well priced skimmer is an ASD. I have one of the recirculating models....kicks tail

http://www.aquaticsystemsdesign.com/index.php

[sjm817]

You can buy a "budget" ER and get good performance, quality and the same support. You can get an RS250 for less than 1/2 the price of an RC250. The pump is not super quiet like an Eheim, it is in sump only, but it skims like a beast and actually pulls more LPH than the RC250.

[viggen]

I own a RC-500 (it was a 12-2 which I corverted to a RC-500) & it has almost always been a great skimmer!! What ****es me off about it is I spent $450 to replace the Dolphin SP-800 pumps that came with the skimmer & used the GenX4100's which ER modded for RC mode. About a year of use later both pumps crapped out on me (within 3 weeks of each other) & now ER wants about $750 (-10% discount + shipping) for 3 replacement Eheim pumps to give me similar performance. This is why I personally will not support their company due to how short the life was on the pumps & how expensive they are to replace however the newer skimmers with eheim pumps should last longer. My little poorly built ASM G3's pump has worked for 3+ years now w/o any issues!

One thing that the ASM G3 & my ER do have in common is VERY noisy pumps!!! If you do decide to get a ER skimmer I would definantly get one with Eheim pumps because they are FAR superior to GenX in quality which equates to much longer life & also QUIET OPERATION :)

That being said if I had $1,000 to spend & if I could use a external skimmer a Dart powered skimmer is what I would use.

If it had to be internal I would look at what one of the small companies like protein-skimmer.com sells.

If the RC250 is worth it.... I don't know! ER is suppose to release 10 in dia skimmers in the near future, I would wait on those personally.

[sjm817]

The Gen-X pumps were a poor choice for external use. From what I have heard, they run too hot when run externally.

[HaroldT]

Euro reef makes good skimmers.

[viggen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11670214#post11670214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sjm817
The Gen-X pumps were a poor choice for external use. From what I have heard, they run too hot when run externally.

yea.... unfortunantly that was the case & many of us threw money away :(

[j tavares]

octopus more bang for the buck