Red Sea Berlin protein skimmer please help!!!

[Brandonn]

So I got a Red Sea Berlin skimmer for free. I know it’s old but my aquarium is a 20 gal reef with a 5 gallon sump, what exact kind of pumps do I need to run this? How would I run the air lines? Would I need to stick the skimmer in my sump or could I have it next to it and run the plumbing into the sump for the inlet and outlets? I want to make this thing work . Please help me out

 

[Big G]

Bump

 

[jda]

Get a pump in the 300-500 gph range. I am just going off of memory. Those do not work all that well, but it might be OK for a super small tank.

 

[Brandonn]

What about airlines?

 

[Brandonn]

Get a pump in the 300-500 gph range. I am just going off of memory. Those do not work all that well, but it might be OK for a super small tank.

What about airlines and where the lines tap into on the skimmer

 

[dwest]

What about airlines and where the lines tap into on the skimmer

It’s a Venturi skimmer. The airline (probably 1/4 “) is connected to the Venturi inlet as the larger water tubing goes into the skimmer. I believe yours is capped somehow.

 

[Brandonn]

It’s a Venturi skimmer. The airline (probably 1/4 “) is connected to the Venturi inlet as the larger water tubing goes into the skimmer. I believe yours is capped somehow.

Mine is capped , what do I do about that?

 

[dwest]

Mine is capped , what do I do about that?

Can you unscrew the cap with a pair of pliers?

 

[jent]

I used to have this skimmer. From experience I would highly suggest you just throw it away.

To answer your question the skimmer is venturi driven. It requires a high pressure pump to push the water through the venturi, so I would do something AC. I personally used a panworld pump on mine.

The skimmer is very hard to tune. It would take a lot of adjustment to get it skimming effectively. Once adjusted it would easily overflow with changes in the aquarium. Since it was an external skimmer overflowing usually meant a mess. I never felt like I got effective skimming with this skimmer.

 

[Brandonn]

Can you unscrew the cap with a pair of pliers?

Yes I unscrewed it and it came off,

 

[Brandonn]

It w

Can you unscrew the cap with a pair of pliers?

it’s a black plastic bolt that screwed in.

 

[Brandonn]

I used to have this skimmer. From experience I would highly suggest you just throw it away.

To answer your question the skimmer is venturi driven. It requires a high pressure pump to push the water through the venturi, so I would do something AC. I personally used a panworld pump on mine.

The skimmer is very hard to tune. It would take a lot of adjustment to get it skimming effectively. Once adjusted it would easily overflow with changes in the aquarium. Since it was an external skimmer overflowing usually meant a mess. I never felt like I got effective skimming with this skimmer.

How do I set
Up the airlines on it ? On the inlet area there’s a black plastic bolt right above on top where the inlet hose is at.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Did you ever get this thing figured out?

 

[jent]

The venturi is at the inlet on the bottom of the skimmer. Although this required a very high powered pump to drive correctly. I ended up using an airstone to help augment the poor venturi performance.

As I mentioned above, I had nothing but misery with this skimmer. It was very difficult to get tuned and working well and required a very strong pump.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Oh i got the pump lol, pressure is non issue. got skimmer for free along with 90g tank and custom acryllic refugium but all the plumbing was disconnected yesterday when i was loading it up. Im the type of person who only learns from own mistakes so im not convinced until my own misery…

venturi is a similar idea of skimmer type like overflow has weir, bean, etc… so if i google venturi will that be helpful? Doing it either way and now im uust really sitting here talking to myself.

 

[Kashyyyk1]

Oh i got the pump lol, pressure is non issue. got skimmer for free along with 90g tank and custom acryllic refugium but all the plumbing was disconnected yesterday when i was loading it up. Im the type of person who only learns from own mistakes so im not convinced until my own misery…

venturi is a similar idea of skimmer type like overflow has weir, bean, etc… so if i google venturi will that be helpful? Doing it either way and now im uust really sitting here talking to myself.

 

[Kashyyyk1]

Hey there, I have this exact skimmer, I can help you set it up. Won’t be hard. It works well! Especially for being free.
I found this page as I was looking for another pump as mine finally wore out and I couldn’t remember the gph for this unit. 300-500 I see.
Mine is so old the label wore off.
But yes I’ve had this skimmer for almost 20yrs.
Email me and I can chat with you about it.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

I will send you PM

 

[Rmckoy]

Did these not require the old wooden air stone inside ?
I have had 2 of these I received with a load of other stuff with a used tank .
They went in the trash as they were missing parts , I didn’t have a ac pump large enough

I did think of using a needle wheel pump but again . They are old and not efficient at all .

fwiw . I used cheap coral life skimmers which were decent for the time .
they worked great if you didn’t mind micro bubbles in your display tank

next cheap skimmer I would recommend is bubble Magnus
Many here like them . Except me …..

 

[Kashyyyk1]

Did these not require the old wooden air stone inside ?
I have had 2 of these I received with a load of other stuff with a used tank .
They went in the trash as they were missing parts , I didn’t have a ac pump large enough

I did think of using a needle wheel pump but again . They are old and not efficient at all .

fwiw . I used cheap coral life skimmers which were decent for the time .
they worked great if you didn’t mind micro bubbles in your display tank

next cheap skimmer I would recommend is bubble Magnus
Many here like them . Except me …..