Frustrated with Tunze 9001

[StrangeDejavu]

Anyone else have this skimmer? I can't get this thing to skim for the life of me. When I first installed it months ago, it had a decent foam head and skimmed well. Shortly after, nada. No matter what depth I set it at or what mods I make to it, there seems to be only two settings on mine: bubbling water with no sign of any kind of foam head, or overflow the cup with pure water. I was unhappy with the hose and valve that came with it so I replaced it with a black airline hose and a different ball valve. The old hose was so rubbery it would detach from the inside of the pump as soon as you touched the skimmer. The other aspect of it is endless microbubbles that never stopped, despite running for months. At this point, the only thing it's good for is oxygenation. Even the cheap, wooden airstone BioCube skimmer worked better and more consistently than this thing. :confused:

Any tips to get this thing working? I'd hate to think I wasted $100 for nothing.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

The little foam insert that they sell will stop the micro bubbles. I think that they now include it with the new models being shipped. That being said, I just made one out of some coarse floss I had laying around & it served the same purpose.

Also, I had mine 2 inches higher in the water than where the water line was for about 2 months. It initially broke in within a couple of weeks, but then Ivwas dealing with a white slime outbreak & when that subsided, I had to take it out and thoroughly clean it. When I put back in, it took a long time to break back in. After a couple months, it's back down close to the water line mark on the skimmer.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

The little foam insert that they sell will stop the micro bubbles. I think that they now include it with the new models being shipped. That being said, I just made one out of some coarse floss I had laying around & it served the same purpose.

Also, I had mine 2 inches higher in the water than where the water line was for about 2 months. It initially broke in within a couple of weeks, but then Ivwas dealing with a white slime outbreak & when that subsided, I had to take it out and thoroughly clean it. When I put back in, it took a long time to break back in. After a couple months, it's back down close to the water line mark on the skimmer.

Does it matter which insert? I have one with a cutout meant to go around the impeller section, and another that's just a solid square.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

I just patterned it after theirs, put the piece with the hole on first, then other piece on over top. They wanted like 8 bucks plus shipping for it, so I just made my own. Are you using it now? It stopped all of the micro bubbles for me.

Plus, I had to make very small adjustments to the skimmer height to get production, didn't take much. The other thing to check is make sure the plate under the skimmer cup is installed in the proper orientation, if it's upside down it won't work right. The center lip should be up

 

[StrangeDejavu]

I just patterned it after theirs, put the piece with the hole on first, then other piece on over top. They wanted like 8 bucks plus shipping for it, so I just made my own. Are you using it now? It stopped all of the micro bubbles for me.

Plus, I had to make very small adjustments to the skimmer height to get production, didn't take much. The other thing to check is make sure the plate under the skimmer cup is installed in the proper orientation, if it's upside down it won't work right. The center lip should be up

I'll double check the plate when I install the foam today but i'm 99% sure it's in the correct orientation. I did install it wrong at one point but do recall flipping it.

How is your pump oriented? Out of the box, the impeller is facing away from the magnets. The manual calls this "Contact foam skimming (delivery state)". I flipped the pump 180 degrees so that they were facing the magnets, which is the second orientation in the manual, referred to as "Standard skimming". I'm not sure it makes much of a difference but figured i'd ask.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

I have mine facing the front, into the clear cover. I think that's why they include the 2 different foam inserts, the one with the hole if you have it set up like me & no hole if it's like you have it. I don't know that it would make a huge difference in production which way the pump is oriented. Mine works good again now after the looong break in. I have it set to give me about a cup of skimmate a week. Pretty dark, but these nano skimmers will never get a very thick/dark skimmate. I get darker than tea colored tho.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

I have mine facing the front, into the clear cover. I think that's why they include the 2 different foam inserts, the one with the hole if you have it set up like me & no hole if it's like you have it. I don't know that it would make a huge difference in production which way the pump is oriented. Mine works good again now after the looong break in. I have it set to give me about a cup of skimmate a week. Pretty dark, but these nano skimmers will never get a very thick/dark skimmate. I get darker than tea colored tho.

Thanks, gonna switch it up and see if it helps.

Here's my skimmate the first week I added it. A nice, dark color. Just wish I could get it to work like it did those first few days.

 

[mcarroll]

You could also try calling Roger or dropping a thread in their vendor form here if you want additional support. :)

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

Yep, that's what mine looks like. I bought it used/like new. I think the guy that had it before me couldn't get it to work right & the plate was upside down when I received it and was constantly either overflowing or not producing, that's why I brought that part up. Once the plate was flipped, it worked good till I had the slime issue. That crap coated everything. I don't know why once I cleaned it, it took so long to get back to normal, but I had/have been dosing a lot of bacterial supplements & surmised it just took longer to get a good bacterial coating inside the skimmer built up. The center tube in the cup took a long time to get cruddy again after I cleaned it, but it's finally all brown & gunky again. I don't clean that off, just a quick rinse when I clean the cup

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Foam insert is in and the microbubbles are completely gone, woohoo! Glad you brought up the insert because I forgot about those. I also flipped the pump and it's looking like it's thinking about producing a foam head which is going to be more progress than i've seen in months.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

Foam insert is in and the microbubbles are completely gone, woohoo! Glad you brought up the insert because I forgot about those. I also flipped the pump and it's looking like it's thinking about producing a foam head which is going to be more progress than i've seen in months.

Nice! Keep me posted. I've screwed around so much with mine that I could probably make it skim in the toilet right about now!! Lol

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Update: Few minor adjustments and it's skimming beautifully. Just in time for the tear down and move... :rolleyes: Oh well, i'm happy the thing is working now. Thanks again!

 

[mcarroll]

Great to hear when things work out! :)

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

Glad to hear it! I now know not to turn the pump around! Thanks for testing that! lol