refurbing my skimmer

[Sk8r]

I mention this here rather than in the Equipment forum because new to the hobby folk are in the process of weighing costs and advantages.

My skimmer is a frothy foam type, a very nice Eshopps, which has some age on it. And it stopped making foam. Despite its age, I could still order the exact internal pump that powers it, and despite a hoary pink encrustation of coralline, it could look like new if I used a bath (I used vinegar and water; and the new thing is citric acid: see the post on same)---that removed the crust without a scratch.

A new impeller comes in the pump; (that's one part that can wear in a pump.) And replacing the pump required removing 6 bolts on the base, two bolts in a clamp holding the old pump, and a central screw in a bubble chamber atop the pump, plus a hex retaining ring holding the base of the chamber. Pop in the new pump, do the retaining ring and all the bolts, and fire it up---good as if it had just come from the maker.

At 1/3 the cost of a new unit. It should go another 10 years doing a great job.

When estimating the overall advantages of one purchase over another, one really good question is---what wears out on it; can you get parts; can you get parts years from now, and does it require any really complex assembly, ie, can you do it yourself? This took a small pair of pliers to get the bolts moving--and to unscrew the retaining ring, nothing more. Sometimes the least expensive equipment you can buy is not the least expensive in the long haul.

 

[billdogg]

^^^What Sk8r said, x 1000^^^

It's why, when I was setting up my current system (now 8 or 9 years old) that the decision on what return pump was super simple for me. An Eheim 1262. Not the fanciest by a long shot, but absolutely bulletproof. In fact, I have and use 2 of them. One of them is at least 40 years old and i use i for my frag tank, the other I bought new with the new setup. I've replaced the impeller in the old one once. I clean them both about yearly just because. I expect to replace the impeller in the new one in another 10-15 years, assuming I'm still in the hobby at age 75. And I'm quite certain there will be impellers available when the time comes.

 

[Sk8r]

I use an Iwaki for my basement sump---noisy as a 737 taking off, but unstoppable. It's run for 13 years without a hitch---has an all-metal impeller---, and the noise doesn't matter down there.