Skimmer Q&A Thread

[Passedyouby]

HI everyone! I vertex omega 150 that i built a small stand for and moved the pump UNDER the skimmer instead of next to it and used a few elbows to route the water up and into the pump. Im afraid this modification has reduced the intake of the skimmer. Is this how the bubble flow is supposed to look? I feel like the bubbles should be traveling lower into the body, or is this normal?

 

[reeftivo]

These skimmers are designed and tuned to the pumps output directly into the body of the skimmer. If you change the back pressure, you change the performance.

 

[Passedyouby]

These skimmers are designed and tuned to the pumps output directly into the body of the skimmer. If you change the back pressure, you change the performance.

Totally agree. Suggestions to improve performance somewhat? I considered adding an air pump to help push air through the intake but dont have enough experience with skimmers to understand the signs a skimmer tells ypu. Such as in this case i would believe its starving for air, but could totally be wrong

 

[reeftivo]

no so much starving for air as back pressure. the flow of the pump is restricted too much with the angles so the flow up and down, then out of the skimmer is slowed. it only takes a tiny bit of restriction to mess up the balance of a skimmer. There's not much you can do with a skimmer that has been shoe horned in like that. the effluent (output) looks like it is adding to the backpressure being so close to the wall of the sump.

my only suggestions would be to either get a different sump, or re-plumb the skimmer back to it's original set up/ shelve it as a back up and look for an internal pump skimmer.

 

[ChadmRoman]

Hi all I bought a simplicity 120 for my RSR250. It’s been running now for a couple months. I messed around with the water level inside and out of the skimmer and can only get it to produce foam in 7” of water. The problem the skimmate only collects in the neck of the collection cup. Tried raising and lowering the level inside but no matter what it just won’t reach the cup. Any pointer I can try to get this working correctly?
Here’s what I followed provided by simplicity

step by step instructions for fine tuning the performance of the skimmer:

1: With the pump at 100% and the wedge pipe arrow to arrow (wide open) slowlyclose the air valve.
2: While slowly closing the air valve, keep a close watch on the level of the foam and bubbles in the skimmer body.
3: Make very tiny changes (open and close) until you get the absolute peak height of the bubbles in your skimmer body.
4: Next, very slowly turn the wedge pipe valve (black knob) either direction.
5: When the bubbles start to reach the bottom of the collection cup, stop.
6: Wait 60 seconds and then make minor adjustments to keep the bubbles near the bottom of the collection cup.
7: After 10-15 minutes, you should start to see larger possibly brown bubbles forming at the top of the bubble column / foam head.
8: After 1-2 hours, the bubble column should rise and you should have a foam head that is at or near the top of the collection cup where you will start to collect skimmate.

 

[ksed]

Clean out the air inlet of the Venturi and also remove the impeller and check on the inside wall of the pump for calcification.

 

[reeftivo]

Hi all I bought a simplicity 120 for my RSR250. It’s been running now for a couple months. I messed around with the water level inside and out of the skimmer and can only get it to produce foam in 7” of water. The problem the skimmate only collects in the neck of the collection cup. Tried raising and lowering the level inside but no matter what it just won’t reach the cup. Any pointer I can try to get this working correctly?
Here’s what I followed provided by simplicity

first skimmer?

only my opinion but i feel those instruction are poor at best.

always best to start out in the middle of the recommended skimmer water level running wide open air, wide open effluent (water out) and let it run for several hours (even overnight) before making any further adjustments. the instructions are promoting results before production residues have diminished and a stable slime coat has even started to develop.

always good to double check the air intake/venturi (where the airline attaches) and make sure there is no carbonate build up or any small snails or detritus that may have gotten into the intake. you may not have much, if any junk built up since you've only ran it for 2 months,. But you never know!

i run any new skimmer of mine wide open mid recommended level for a day. I then should be able to see the air/water line in the body where the fine turbulent bubbles break out into the larger rising column of bubbles. i then will close the effluent off enough to where the air/water line is an inch or so just below the collar of the cup on my skimmers. after that i monitor the foam head and make adjustments as needed either with the standpipe/dial or the air. i used to play around with the air intake on my skimmers but don't do that much anymore. I have had much better results with sump level and air/water line adjustment.

good luck and happy reefing

 

[Triple.T]

Hello all, getting my first saltwater tank setup and I'm having an issue!

I bought the Tunze protien skimmer

My problem is, no matter what I do I can't get it to sit properly in my tank because of the rim. It sits tilted forward way to much and goes past the fill line this way! Can I take the rim around my tank off, Is this possible?

Has anyone run into anything like this? Maybe build a model on the bottom to make it sit level with the water?

Heres a picture for reference, sorry about quality I took it with my phone.

 

[LadyMac]

I’m glad I found this thread! So I have this skimmer:

The pump is a Rio 800. It doesn’t have an O ring

But I couldn’t find it on the schematics so I’m not even sure if it is supposed to have one. (Surely it should? ) My issue is microbubbles. Tons of them. But they don’t come out of that area on the pump. They come out here:

And out of the bottom of the pump. Is there anything I can do for this pump? Money’s so tight right now that I can’t buy a new pump and definitely not a new skimmer.

 

[reeftivo]

I’m glad I found this thread! So I have this skimmer:

The pump is a Rio 800. It doesn’t have an O ring

But I couldn’t find it on the schematics so I’m not even sure if it is supposed to have one. (Surely it should? ) My issue is microbubbles. Tons of them. But they don’t come out of that area on the pump. They come out here:

And out of the bottom of the pump. Is there anything I can do for this pump? Money’s so tight right now that I can’t buy a new pump and definitely not a new skimmer.

proprietary set up with the air intake designed into the mold of the pump cover. a new pump like a sicce would cost a little money. so if money is tight, i would suggest taking that volute cover to home depot or lowes and matching up an O-ring that will fit. you are probably losing intake velocity because the pump is drawing in water from around the missing o-ring and throwing some micros back out.

 

[reeftivo]

Hello all, getting my first saltwater tank setup and I'm having an issue!

I bought the Tunze protien skimmer

My problem is, no matter what I do I can't get it to sit properly in my tank because of the rim. It sits tilted forward way to much and goes past the fill line this way! Can I take the rim around my tank off, Is this possible?

Has anyone run into anything like this? Maybe build a model on the bottom to make it sit level with the water?

Heres a picture for reference, sorry about quality I took it with my phone.

only thing i can think of may be to get one of those maxi jet pump sure flow magnet conversions and maybe gluing it to the back of the dry side magnet of the Tunze. it would add another 3/4 inch extension out in the tank

 

[nkyreef]

Hello all, getting my first saltwater tank setup and I'm having an issue!

I bought the Tunze protien skimmer

My problem is, no matter what I do I can't get it to sit properly in my tank because of the rim. It sits tilted forward way to much and goes past the fill line this way! Can I take the rim around my tank off, Is this possible?

Has anyone run into anything like this? Maybe build a model on the bottom to make it sit level with the water?

Heres a picture for reference, sorry about quality I took it with my phone.

I had this exact same problem when I had it mounted in a rimmed 20 gallon. I luckily had an extra Tunze wet side magnet that I stuck to the magnet on the skimmer and it allowed it to clear the rim. If I remember correctly the magnets had to be stuck together a little offset not directly on top of one another. I didn't have much of an issue with it leaning forward as the glass was fairly thin and the magnets were strong enough.

 

[Maltese]

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!

I own a Bubble Magus Curve 7 protein skimmer in my 100g tank for 8 months now. The first days the skimmer was skimming perfect but after month trouble begins. The skimming output decreased and I begin to try to solve problems. I increased the depth of the skimmer ( Suggest water level for exterior of protein skimmer around 25～27cm) I tried it for a month no result. Did it deeper and tried to 30cm and try no good skimming. The problem is the neck of the skimmer gets really black but in the cup nothing. I clean the protein every month dismantling it to pieces and the cup every day. My nitrates explode. I'm really frustrated, and I don't know what to do. Does any help please?

 

[Seanybaggs123]

Best bang for your buck for a 135 gallon reef with moderate stocking and a 40 gallon sump?

 

[nkyreef]

Debating whether to upsize my skimmer. Redsea 525xl (approx 110-120 gallon) and plan to load up with livestock. Currently have 6 fish and a bunch of inverts. Right now have a RO 110SSS that was used in my smaller tank before the upgrade. Thinking of the RO 150-INT Regal. Any other suggestions? I wonder with the variable speed DC pump if the speed could be slowed instead of completely off during feed modes? During that time the sump back fills and my current skimmer has to be shut off to keep from overflowing.

 

[Questiongurl]

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!

Hi everyone,
I'm getting a new JBJ 65G rimless tank. I'm trying to decide which protien skimmer to get, the tunze doc comline 9004 dc (60g light bioload/20 g high) or the awuamaxx hob 1.5 (60g light/90g heavy bioload) . I don't Kno what my bioload will be or how to estimate it based on what inhabitants I'd like so your recommendation will be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

[MyTankSux]

Initial thoughts on my Regal 300 ext. After about a month and a half, I am extremely impressed. Best skimmer I've used so far..... I cant give a true review yet because my tank is really new, and its only been a short time. Only a couple small design flaws in my opinion. Very solid build. There is a bit of a hiss from the air intake on the two highest speed settings for the pump, but I would expect that from any skimmer pulling this much air. If the skimmer holds up well in the long term, it will definitely be a 9-10/10.

 

[MyTankSux]

Debating whether to upsize my skimmer. Redsea 525xl (approx 110-120 gallon) and plan to load up with livestock. Currently have 6 fish and a bunch of inverts. Right now have a RO 110SSS that was used in my smaller tank before the upgrade. Thinking of the RO 150-INT Regal. Any other suggestions? I wonder with the variable speed DC pump if the speed could be slowed instead of completely off during feed modes? During that time the sump back fills and my current skimmer has to be shut off to keep from overflowing.

You could manually turn it down while feeding. My 300 ext has a feed mode, but that completely shuts off the pump for 15min or 1 hour. I'm almost certain you could program it to run at a variable speed if you had it hooked to a apex controller or a hydro wave engine / controller.

 

[Wolters_88]

Got a Tunze 9001 that I left open completely for the first few weeks like people said and then closed it off and tried to open it to the point it starts making bubbles. Only issue is I can’t seem to find any point to which it makes bubbles. Ya hat am I doing wrong?

 

[reeftivo]

Got a Tunze 9001 that I left open completely for the first few weeks like people said and then closed it off and tried to open it to the point it starts making bubbles. Only issue is I can’t seem to find any point to which it makes bubbles. Ya hat am I doing wrong?

airline in body of skimmer may have not have been connected. i had a 9001 that came shipped that way.

i'd contact Roger (rvitko) on the Tunze forum first before you try taking the skimmer apart. Good luck and sorry for the PIA. I know how you feel