Skimmer Q&A Thread

[spartanman22]

I'm not sure if this topic is addressed somewhere in the 167 pages of information, but I did a quick search and didn't see anything relevant come up.

Are protein skimmers additive in capacity? For example, on a 120 gallon AIO vs a 120 gallon sump. Would 3 x Tunze DOC 9004's (rated at 65 gallons) give me equal TOTAL skimming capacity as one Simplicity 240? I know I threw brands out there, but this isn't meant to be a brand comparison question, more of a stacking or additive ability of skimmers.

 

[Sojiiro109]

This is the official R2R Skimmer Q&A Thread where the answers to your questions are as concentrated as skimmate!

We will do our best as a community to answer questions you have concerning protein skimmers so ask away!

Thank you!

Howdy! I have a RSK900 from RedSea that's about 4 months old on my new tank which has no livestock outside of the copepods that I'm seeding with. Everytime I feed phyto, I tell ReefBeat to turn the ReefMat and skimmer off and hence the problem. When the skimmer turns back on, 10/10 times the cup overflows with water even though I've set the over skimming protection on to the highest level. Also, the air silencer gets about an inch of water inside that I have to empty out. Any ideas, solutions or workarounds? Thank you fellas.

 

[REEF24]

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on my Red Sea skimmer because I can’t figure out what’s going on.

I originally had an RSK-1200 DC pump that was stalling and wasn’t pumping strongly enough. Red Sea replaced it under warranty with an RSK-1500 pump.

After installing the replacement pump and reprogramming the controller, everything seemed great. The bubbles were perfect, and the skimmer was working exactly as it should.

Here’s how things went:

* Day 1: The skimmer worked great but overflowed, so I adjusted it.
* Day 2: After adjusting it, it collected a little skimmate.
* Day 3: The bubbles suddenly dropped way below the neck, and the skimmer stopped performing properly.

Since then, I’ve tried troubleshooting everything I can think of. I took the skimmer apart, thoroughly cleaned the Venturi, removed any excess debris from the skimmer, and reinstalled everything. Unfortunately, I’m getting the same results.

One thing I noticed is that I have to turn the water level adjustment dial almost all the way to the + setting just to get the water level close to the collection cup neck, regardless of what percentage the pump is running at.

There are no leaks in the Venturi hoses or anything else that I can find.

I also tried something else that I found interesting. With the skimmer unplugged, I turned the RSK-1500 impeller by hand, and it seemed to rotate freely without much noticeable magnetic resistance. I then did the same thing with the impeller on my Bubble Magus skimmer, and it had a much more noticeable, choppy magnetic resistance with distinct resistance points as I rotated it.

I’m not sure if this is normal for these two different pumps, but the difference stood out to me.

To rule out other possible issues, I installed a plug-in Bubble Magus skimmer from another tank, and it’s working fine. The bubbles rise properly to the neck, so I’ll include a picture for reference.

My main questions are:

1. Is it possible for a brand-new RSK-1500 pump to go bad after only three days of operation?
2. Could the controller be the problem, even though the pump initially worked perfectly? Could it be limiting the pump’s output or failing to drive it properly?
3. Is the difference in magnetic resistance when manually turning the impellers a sign of a possible problem, or is that normal between different pump designs?
4. What else should I troubleshoot before assuming the replacement pump is defective?

I’m stumped because everything worked perfectly at first, and then the performance dropped off dramatically within a couple of days.

Has anyone experienced something similar with an RSK-1200 or RSK-1500? I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have dealt with this firsthand. Thanks!