RedSea Max's microbubbles

[ted01]

Hi

I have just toke a pic on the skimmer and my tank. You can see the waterish bubbles start coming up to the neck and the 6 holes that i drilled. I also put the air hose to the power center.

Please feel free to throw suggestions and commands...

[mandelbloom]

Looks good ted! You just motivated me to drill the holes in mine Looks like its producing a pretty good skimate now. I too just routed my hose to the power center.....the cooling fan is louder than the hose now so now no need to stick it in the cup.

[ted01]

Yes, i am excited because i see it work (start skimming) and have less bubbles coming out from return pump. It also a relief to see RedSea response to me and not end up talking to an answering machine. I'll wait for a few days and post another pic. Now, I doubt if i will touch anywhere near the skimmer as long as it is not overskimming or end up with a cup of salt water.

 

Off the topic here, my blue tip anenome is not opening so far since i move it from my nanocube almost 5 days now. Not sure why, any suggestion? It is pretty healthy in the nanocube.

 

Ted.

[mandelbloom]

Hmm...its an Anemone? How long has the tank been up again? They are pretty sensitive you may want to keep it in the nano for a little while longer.

[ted01]

ahhh! my tank is up for less than 2 weeks, even with old rocks, it still could be too new for it... i'll try to move it back for now then.

[adamskit]

Stevie T,

 

I guess great minds think alike... I installed a Tunze 9002 yesterday and man is this thing working for me!!! I know that I was the original proponent of the RSM skimmer mod but it still didn't satisfy me. Your gonna like the 9002. Easy to setup with minimal modification (I had to trim the skimmer cup edge so it wouldn't hit when the skimmer when I opened the hood). Other than that I now have a skimmer that works like it should. Dark green tea skimmate! You even get the added bonus of silence and I have tons of room now so I can build a media reactor.

[mandelbloom]

My Bubbles are much better this morning. I noticed one of the media bags was ever so slightly impeeding flow now the water level reaches just a hair below the top of the pumps. I do have a question though, could the Hydor Korallia 2 be putting of a lot of heat? I had left it off for the night after fixing this and notices my temps dropped a lot more than normal. Could have been because the pumps are more submerged now though.

[StevieT]

Stevie T,

 

I guess great minds think alike... I installed a Tunze 9002 yesterday and man is this thing working for me!!! I know that I was the original proponent of the RSM skimmer mod but it still didn't satisfy me. Your gonna like the 9002. Easy to setup with minimal modification (I had to trim the skimmer cup edge so it wouldn't hit when the skimmer when I opened the hood). Other than that I now have a skimmer that works like it should. Dark green tea skimmate! You even get the added bonus of silence and I have tons of room now so I can build a media reactor.

 

Awesome, I acautally got my Tunze yesterday. I can't believe how much room I am going to have. I am still in the customization stage and should have it in tonight. I mounted a magent on the back of the skimmer so I can mount it anywhere (instead of right bellow the intake grate)

 

I am going to make a baffel near the intake so I can direct the intake and the detritus into filter floss or sponges. There still seems to be lots of room for a fuge and some chaeto. Pics will be up on my thread soon.

 

I am glad to hear it works well for you, does the noise of the bubbles go down after a while? I only had it plugged in for a few mins before I started modding it. I didn't like the bubble sound but i am sure it needs to be tunned and broken in. How loud is your Tunze?

 

anyone need a Red Sea skimmer? Thing works like a champ!

 

My Bubbles are much better this morning. I noticed one of the media bags was ever so slightly impeeding flow now the water level reaches just a hair below the top of the pumps. I do have a question though, could the Hydor Korallia 2 be putting of a lot of heat? I had left it off for the night after fixing this and notices my temps dropped a lot more than normal. Could have been because the pumps are more submerged now though.

 

 

No, the Koralia does not produce that much heat. I have never noticed it in my tank, the lighting causes most of the heat in the tank. Did you compare the difference between turning the Koralia off at night and not turning it off at night?

 

I would think the skimmer pump creates way more heat, the motor in the korilia is not very big.

[mandelbloom]

Yea thats the next test is turning it back on tonight to see what happens. It could very well be that now with the water level being a little higher in the back the fan cooling is much more effective now that I think about it. I left the Korallia off today so we will see how hot it gets during the day. The skimmer is working pretty well for me. Everyday I get a little bit of wet green skimmate in the collection cup as well as the nasty gunk on the cup neck. Noise is a non factor my fan is as loud as the skimmer. I still have some noticable microbubbles but better than before now they are hard to see if I am a few feet away, hopefully that will contiute to improve. Honestly I think some of them are coming from the algea blooms I am getting on the rocks during the day.

[mandelbloom]

On a side note, with all the talk of extra room in your sump. What are you opinions a a uv sterlizer such as this(below) in a tank of this size.

 

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...mp;pcatid=16748

[snake plissken]

Hey - who has pix of the tunze 9002 installed in the RSM? i would love to see how it looks and details of the mounting.

MY RSM skimmer produces a TON of gunk but none of it ever makes it to the collection cup. it all stays in the neck and is a PITA to clean out. i have not tried any of the mods yet that y'all have posted. I may have to give it a shot.

 

some pix show the air tubing connected to the side of the skimmer collection cup while others go in thorugh the top of the cup (actaully drilled a hole in the lid as opposed ot the cup itself)

any advantage either way?

[StevieT]

Hey - who has pix of the tunze 9002 installed in the RSM? i would love to see how it looks and details of the mounting.

MY RSM skimmer produces a TON of gunk but none of it ever makes it to the collection cup. it all stays in the neck and is a PITA to clean out. i have not tried any of the mods yet that y'all have posted. I may have to give it a shot.

 

some pix show the air tubing connected to the side of the skimmer collection cup while others go in thorugh the top of the cup (actaully drilled a hole in the lid as opposed ot the cup itself)

any advantage either way?

 

look at my signature for my thread. Page 12 or so has my tunze installed with lots of pics

[Moolsfishh]

I've only had my stock RSM skimmer running for a few days thus far and the tank is FULL of microbubbles with both powerheads running, however the bubbles subside dramatically when I run each powehead singularly. Why is this??

My setup is stock at the moment (apart from the fact that I cut the large black sponge in half).

The water level in my fourth chamber is appx. 0.5" above the underside of the pumps (when both are running) so I know they're not running dry.

After reading a few RSM threads (StevieT, etc.) I have been planning to take the white bio-filters and carbon out of the fourth chamber, but the prospect of disconnecting and re-connecting those two powerheads from the bulkhead is too much for me to face on a Sunday morning (P.S. Did anyone else find these powerheads REALLY hard to connect?) - do you think this will help with the MB's though??

 

Cheers.

[HankB]

After reading a few RSM threads (StevieT, etc.) I have been planning to take the white bio-filters and carbon out of the fourth chamber, but the prospect of disconnecting and re-connecting those two powerheads from the bulkhead is too much for me to face on a Sunday morning (P.S. Did anyone else find these powerheads REALLY hard to connect?) - do you think this will help with the MB's though??

 

We have nothing in the chamber under the pumps because it struck me as a PITA to have to remove them to get to that stuff.

 

We run the stock protein skimmer a few hours daily and I'm surprised to find that it actually skims. Our tank is a bit over three weeks old and we have no fish.

 

The only other mechanical filtration we're running at the moment is the black sponge - cut down to a bit over an inch - and some polyester floss. The sponge sits in the bottom of the inlet chamber with the floss on top. I was surprised to hear that others were changing their floss every few days but have found that it picks up a lot of crap in a few days, so we're doing that too. I watch the level in the pump chamber and when it starts to drop, I know it is time to change the floss.

 

Keep us posted on your results.

 

-hank

[markruth25]

I agree with Urchin, you should give your tank some time before trying to skim. Once you are ready for skimming, give the skimmer a couple weeks to break in, then start calling Pinky to complain that the MB producing piece of sh!t doesn't work. If you are persistent enough, they will give you another piece of sh!t to waste your time with until you get fed up and buy something else that actually works (Tunze nano 9002).

 

Unfortunately you will have to modify the hood to make it fit.

PS. You will have to endure months of smack from the lucky few(probably RSM employees) who have a properly working skimmer (liars) as to why you can't seem to get your masterpiece of modern technology to work.

 

Hi I have a Red Sea max, your tank looks great. I see you don't use both powerheads what is the other pump

 

Thanks

[markruth25]

I have to disagree with that. You may have gotten a bad skimmer street, most that run the RSM see their microbubbles go away after a few weeks, month tops.

 

Ted- do what UH has said. The bubbles will go away over time, you just need to break in the system. After you skimmer starts working and your sponges fill up with junk the bubbles will go down.

 

Very few microbubbles, running since August 2007:

 

 

Hodge-

 

I like the looks of that. I was worred how much the Tunze would stick up but by the looks of that, it's not too bad. I may have to go that route. I could see painting the skimmer cup black would mask it a bit more. Nicely done!

 

I am very confused. I have been running my Red Sea with only 1power head for the last year because of b ubbles. My skimmer has the new type pump. I have just fitted the new water skimmer gate and the bloody bubbles have returned. No air in the foam no blockages, even when I have one pump running I still have bubbles, my water level is spot on, so I am very confused.

Also your adaption to the skimmer. On my skimmer the air inlet pipe goes down to the bottom of the pump. Where are you putting your new pipe

 

 

I have had my RSM running for almost a year now and the skimmer works very well. I don't use any of the media or foam blocks from the original setup. I recently did a mod to the skimmer where I added a piece of 1/2" vinyl tubing to the skimmer exhast port to force all of the bubbles upwards. This worked really well along with drilling 6 small holes in the skimmer cover. Here is a diagram that I mocked up for you with the tubing attached. Hope this helps.

 

I am very confused. I have been running my Red Sea with only 1power head for the last year because of b ubbles. My skimmer has the new type pump. I have just fitted the new water skimmer gate and the bloody bubbles have returned. No air in the foam no blockages, even when I have one pump running I still have bubbles, my water level is spot on, so I am very confused.

Also your adaption to the skimmer. On my skimmer the air inlet pipe goes down to the bottom of the pump. Where are you putting your new pipe

[StevieT]

Dump the stock skimmer, get a Tunze 9002

[nkUnleashed]

It took my RSM about 4 months for the micro bubbles to die down, but even now there are always a few in there, so Stevie T's advice is probably the best.

 

They seem to be minimized when I keep my water level all the way to the top mark in the back and up to the bottom of the trays in the front. Also rinsing out the sponge every week, and making sure the return pumps are level and tight helps.

 

In my case, the stock skimmer is skimming really well for me so I haven't upgraded. (Right now I'm sticking with all stock hardware, mostly out of spite. )

 

I've seen a lot of stuff about adding baffles or modding the stock skimmer, and I confess, I haven't tried any of them. Pinky at RSM also recommends using Red Sea Max's salt mix (of course), and using liquid additives (instead of powders) to maintain the right surface tension in the water. But again, just upgrading is probably the best in the long run.