Sorry I have not updated, but I was waiting for a final resolution before posting.
As I said before, they had told me twice, by two different people that the stones with the orangy/red rings were the medium pore ones and that I should have gotten the ones with the blue ring. I ordered another set and they sent the same ones with red rings. I was pretty upset. I called them back and told them about it and they apologized saying that somehow they messed up again. They told me the stones are not even in the same section of the warehouse, so it is not like they are sitting on top of each other and the wrong one was taken. I place a third order and it was not sent for a couple of days. I called to ask and they tell me they did not get a CC info from me, so they could not send the replacement stones. I give them the CC info again and they sent them again only to find out they sent the ones with the red rings
AGAIN and no return label for the other others to be sent.
Once again I called and spoke this time with Janis, the customer service manager. She tells me she heard about my problems with the stones and she would take care of it personally. She would personally fill the order and send me the correct stones with the blue rings and add the return label to the entire thing so I can send the other 2 sets. Two days later I get an email telling me they have not shipped out yet because she is looking into the issue more to make sure there is no mistake this time. They had told me the manufacturer had sent them many boxes of stones that were mislabeled, so when they put the bar codes to them they mislabeled them the same as the manufacturer did. That is why I kept getting the wrong ones sent. Monday I got this email below:
Dear Dr. Perez Dimaggio:
I apologize for the confusion and delay. We have a wide variety of fine pore diffusers with different fittings, so I needed to looked through all the different types to understand what you have. According to what you ordered, you have received fine pore diffusers. The CPVC fitting on the fine pore diffuser is affixed with a red epoxy glue. This is not to be confused with the medium pore diffusers which have a red plastic ring affixed with a white epoxy glue. I have attached a photo to this email of the product you have received (ALR150CP) so you can compare it to what the fine pore diffuser with a CPVC fitting looks like. If all your product matches the photo, you have the correct items and we will have to work out what you want to return for credit.
The Reef Forum probably led you to believe you had the wrong product since they mentioned a red ring versus a blue ring. Blue plastic rings are affixed to fine pore diffusers with polyethylene fittings. Red plastic rings are used with medium pore diffusers. And red epoxy glue is used to attach CPVC and stainless steel fittings to our fine pore diffusers.
If you are still concerned about the effectiveness of the fine pore diffusers in your application, please contact Robert Willis at 877-347-4788 or via email at [email protected]. He is a very experienced technician and can help ensure you have the correct product.
I have the call tag ready to be sent to you for the return of the diffusers you do not need. Please let me know how many you plan on returning and if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Janis Garrett
Now, what really irritated me about this last message is that after the entire 3 week run around, 2 orders, and $190 later is that they are trying to turn it around and blame me for it. I never once mentioned any reef forums anything to them in my conversations. I simply said that I wanted to know if the right ones were sent based on the larger bubbles I was getting. Nothing more and nothing less. I also spoke with this Robert person to know if maybe for some reason I was using them in the wrong way or if maybe I had them underpowered or overpowered causing the larger bubbles. I will say simply what he told me and you can gather your own conclusions based on the answer:
Q: Why are my bubbles so big when other people using the same stones are getting much smaller bubbles?
A: If this other people are not at the same altitude and all the same barometric conditions as you, then you cannot compare them because they are all going to be different.
Q: If I have the stones underpowered, should I get bigger or smaller bubbles?
A: The less air you run in them, the smaller the bubbles. The more air, the bigger the bubbles.
Yep, I know what you are thinking because it is the same I thought too with a little anger mixed in as well.
:doubt:
Now, my skimmer has actually being producing a lot more skimmate than my previous becket based aerofoamer 848 with an iwaki 100. That skimmer made foam, but it never overflowed. This one continues to overflow new foam all the time. The stuff is nasty black almost and for the first time ever I can say the skimmate stinks to no end. So, at the end of the day if I was to ask myself the question of whether my total investment in $ in this skimmer was worth what I am getting out of it I would ahve to say
yes without a doubt. If the next question is that am I getting as much, more, or less than if I had spent 3-4 times the same amount buying a Deltec, H&S, or bubble king I would have to say that I don't know since I ahve never had one of those.
HOwever, based on what I ahve seen in other people's systems running them I would say I am getting pretty similar results at the very least.
Now, after all is said and done (not really as I am waiting for their return label to get my credit for the stones) if anyone was to ask me if I would recommend going this custom route to anyone I would say hat is entirely depends on your patience factor.
