Tunze Skimmer Frusteration

[KMitch]

Grrr... So I've owned several skimmers before and had best sucess with a Remora. I recently got my grubby little paws on the Tunze 9002 Nano Doc Skimmer lightly used for my Solana.

 

Its been running for about 3 weeks now (and should already be sorta broken in from a previous system....) but I have the microbubbles from hell and cannot get constant skimmate production... I either fill the cup in a matter of mins or get nothing. Small tweaking only, it'll be set in a good place for a day or so, get some dry skimmage, and then POOF! water filled cup. Microbubbles are a constant, and it is in chamber 1 so it's clearly making alot of bubbles for them to work their way through until the return. Water level stays pretty constant and is at the water level mark.

 

Read through the Reef Central Tunze section, no help to be found there. About ready to trade it in for a remora...... (though I dont know how well that'd work since its HOB...)

[smarsh]

I had the same bubble problem when I got my Tunze. I spoke with George at Tunze USA and he gave me a variety of reasons it can make bubbles:

Algae Blooms, Red Slime Remover, Vitamin Supplements, even new carbon. Anything that can change the oxygen saturation in your tank can cause a skimmer to do this. In my case I had put Red Slime Remover in there. once the chemical had been removed, the bubbles stopped.

With tuning it in, there is a fine line between mine skimming really wet or not at all. Finding that sweet spot was hard, but Im finally there. Are you keeping the water lever lined with the water mark on the skimmer?

Hope this helps.

[supernip]

i'll trade you a remora w/ preskimmer box and drain fitting for your tunze =D

 

but if you want to keep trying with the tunze, it sucks in and exits from the bottom. make sure that the plate is snapped all the way on. And keep the water level constant or the thing will suck balls. Also, because it sucks from the bottom, if you have a lot of flow down there, you get microbubbles. It should really be in more stagnant water for it to work well.

 

let me know about that remora though! it's a $210 value new!

[KMitch]

plate is snapped in all the way? The piece that sits on the top is not really on there very tight because of the way the airline tubing is routed but its not something that can snap on....

 

No chemicals besides calcium, i have purigen and carbon in the back but that shouldn't do it either.

 

If I knew how to run the remora HOB I'd probably switch back to it just since it was quiet, worked perfectly, and I didnt have to twist some stupid blue knob that is really located very inconvienently! But I've invested in the skimmer and the special skimmer cup for the Solana so I figure I need to give it a run.

[supernip]

the bottom plate. im not sure why you couldnt run a remora HANG ON BACK. Is the water line too low for a remora?

[StevieT]

I understand that top part not being tight. I recenlty zip tied mine down since I was sick of looking at it sticking up. My Tunze went in and started working right away. I rarely touch the knob and most users have the same experience. I do know that if when dialing it in, do very very small turns.

 

3 Weeks should be long enough to get a slime coat in the body of the skimmer. As said, check the bottom plate, it snaps in the skimmer body via two plastic "fingers", make sure it is tight.

 

You may have a bad unit... I don't hear too many issues like this with the Tunze, it should be pretty much plug and play. The skimmate should be tea like, wet, i have only had dry skimmate in the neck of the cup.

 

Also, are you water levels constant? That water line does matter to an extent. Worse comes to worse, take the skimmer apart and check all hoses. It is an extremely simple design so it wont' be hard to know what is going on inside.

[supernip]

I understand that top part not being tight. I recenlty zip tied mine down since I was sick of looking at it sticking up. My Tunze went in and started working right away. I rarely touch the knob and most users have the same experience. I do know that if when dialing it in, do very very small turns.

 

3 Weeks should be long enough to get a slime coat in the body of the skimmer. As said, check the bottom plate, it snaps in the skimmer body via two plastic "fingers", make sure it is tight.

 

You may have a bad unit... I don't hear too many issues like this with the Tunze, it should be pretty much plug and play. The skimmate should be tea like, wet, i have only had dry skimmate in the neck of the cup.

 

Also, are you water levels constant? That water line does matter to an extent. Worse comes to worse, take the skimmer apart and check all hoses. It is an extremely simple design so it wont' be hard to know what is going on inside.

 

 

i had a horrible time with my tunze skimmer too but i ran bb with a lot of flow and didnt have a constant waterline =(

[KMitch]

Based on the pics from the guy who I purchased from, it should work no problems. The bottom plate is on completely but still an abundance of microbubbles.... i mean it looks like a freaking snow globe!

 

The remora's return would cause the water to fall a few inches before it hit my water level in the rear chambers, so i'd hear that! Although I guess I could just force the water level in the back up way high to defeat that.

[supernip]

you could just add in some foam to soften the water or have it go into chamber two. I have the preskimmer so it isnt as far as a drop.

 

but try your tunze for a bit longer. Perhaps put some foam on the bottom of it. it shouldnt affect performance too much and will trap microbubbles

[KMitch]

I have virtually loaded up the second chamber with foam and filter pad in an attempt to stop the madness! If it wasnt for the fact that if i turn the skimmer off the bubbles stop I'd blame something else for it!

[StevieT]

I blame the cup

 

and monkeys

[jeremai]

New water can cause bubbles, too. Some salts have added surfectants that increase the surface tension of the tank water. That's the only problem I have with my little Rio skimmer, but I guess it's not the skimmer's fault.

[bodythief]

The 9002 has a bottom plate. dang i had it for a while i forgot. it must have dropped off. mines works fine without it, but it doesnt when the top plate is off. anyway to get the top plate to stay on all you have to is pull the airline down from the bottom. really the only thing you can do is close the screw all the way and slowly tweak it. i mean slowwwww..... i adjusted mines like once an hour to get it just right. (it may not take that long o just kept forgetting about it) also check where the airline connects to the pump theres a white piece in there make sure its line up right. mines was off and it wasn't skimming good with a lot of micro bubbles. mines doesnt create much micro bubbles but enuff to irritate me. im going to try to add filter floss in chamber with the skimmer.its worth a try.

[KMitch]

I am blaming the monkeys too!

 

Use Oceanic salt, dosing vodka starting yesterday (which if anything should increase skimming effeciency, inverse of my problem), and tropic marin bio-calcium.

[supernip]

try stopping the vodka for a bit.

[dtfleming]

MMMMMMMm never had a problem with my Tunze 9002. Stop dosing like supernip suggested.

[KMitch]

I just started the vodka deal yesterday so its not possible that is that cause of 3 weeks worth of frusteration..... :/

[supernip]

worst comes to worst, nips got that remora =D

[KMitch]

lol nip's should go into sales!

[supernip]

nah imma use it if anything. stop dosing for a bit though. it might be messing with the bubbles

[Mikey451]

I have the same skimmer with the same problem. My bubbles aren't too bad but they're there. If I figure anything out, I'll be sure to post it here.

[wicked_reef]

I also had the microbubbles issue when I first got my Tunze 9002 skimmer. This is going to sound somewhat of a weird solution, but I used some black pantyhose and wrapped it over the skimmer. After about a day, no more microbubbles. I understand the frustration with the air/water mixture also. It takes me more than an hour to get it right sometimes.

 

One more thing... I've found that the quickest method to find the right air/water mixture is by turning the blue screw all the way in and then turning it out 3 full turns... from there, make slight minor adjustments to find the right setting.

 

Hope this helps!

[Mikey451]

I also had the microbubbles issue when I first got my Tunze 9002 skimmer. This is going to sound somewhat of a weird solution, but I used some black pantyhose and wrapped it over the skimmer. After about a day, no more microbubbles. I understand the frustration with the air/water mixture also. It takes me more than an hour to get it right sometimes.

 

One more thing... I've found that the quickest method to find the right air/water mixture is by turning the blue screw all the way in and then turning it out 3 full turns... from there, make slight minor adjustments to find the right setting.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Does the pantyhose go over the collecting cup or is it cut off before it gets to the cup?

[hollow]

I have alot of beef with this skimmer it can be a PIA some times. I actually own 2 now in my attempt to troubleshoot them. Anyways I had quiet a few bubble problems with mine so heres what I did. Took out the skimmer, cleaned it vigourously with ROD water and let it dry in a bucket for 2 days. Pulled out the air hose and cut it ever so slightly, put the air hose back in and pulled it all the way to the bottom so the top stays tigheter. Used a small bit of foam at the bottom corner where I was having bubbles leak out. USed 2 large zip ties (black) to secure the bottom plate and the top plate. It was driving me crazy always having the top slide off. I have it positioned right at the water line. I used StevieT's custom collection cup.

 

I'm not sure why this time all my bubbles have finally stopped because I've messed with the thing so many times I've lost count. The conspiracy theory in my head was that somehow the superglue i was using didn't have full time to dry or something and somehow managed to get into the skimmer body.

 

 

*** A note to Tunze for future models. Have the top lock into place like the bottom. ***

[er1c_the_reefer]

i had the same problem with mine. the pump inside the skimmer has adjustable flow. try turning it down a little and see what happens.