DansTundra Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Take the cup off, adjust the blue screw till you see bubbles just bellow the top. My screw is almost half way open. Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 oh, so without the cup on the bubbles should be reaching at the top of the skimmer? i thought i set the skimmer at MAX but i dont think mine goes that high... i'll have to see when i get home.. how high does the bubbles go up the riser of the cup typically? oh and how often are u expected to clean the whole unit? Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 well i got home and tried to play with the skimmer - i have it on the maximum it can go and the bubbles still don't reach the very top, they only get to around the rim and burst.... im getting discouraged with this thing as it still isn't doing anything and its been 1 week and 2 days... am i supposed to see some progress here or should i get worried? Link to comment
SouthFlorida_Tron Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 1 week? Laf.... Give it 2 more weeks to actually build sludge for foam to grab onto, another suggestion is stop playing with it like an erector set, give it a chance to get going... Link to comment
StevieT Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I think this will help other that may read so I will post here as well: You're over thinking this, just let it do it's thing. The more you mess with it the less effective it will be. Don't measure the bubbles when the cup is off, that is pointless. Have them about 1/2 up the tube, when the cup is on. Bubbles will then rise up and hit the director piece. If you have nothing in another few days after putting them there then raise them up. At the least you should be able to collect a cup of water and would tell you to back them down slightly. Skimmate is going to depend on bioload. If you can't at all get the bubbles to come up to the director piece then there is something wrong. You have a pinched hose, clogged hose, bottom plate fell off, or pump is not seated correctly. You should also get it out of the water some. Having it at that line is too high IME. 1/2" below works better. SO in conclusion, if you turn the knob all the way open and the water line is below the white line on the body and there is no bubbles in the tube, something is pinched and trouble shoot from there. Stop messing with it so much, skimmer are not plug and play and do not like to be adjusted frequently Let it slime up Poop = skimmate I just looked at my skimmer with the cup off and the bubbles are at least 1/2" down into the body. If they were all the way at the top I would have a cup full of water in about 1 minute. Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 NOTE TO SELF: never put the magnets within reaching distance of eachother... i learned the hard way yesterday as my FINGER got caught between two of them! holy christ that hurt!!! i thought i was going to lose a finger! never have i been around magnets so powerful :x Link to comment
rhino31 Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 maybe it's just me, but I absolutely hate this skimmer. I've had it for nearly a year now, and never ONCE have I gotten it to produce consistent skimmate. I'm going to go with stevie's recommendations above as one last shot, but if it doesn't work the thing is getting chucked, and the aquaticlife skimmer is going in chamber 1. maybe I'm just retarded, but def not happy with the 9002 Link to comment
SouthFlorida_Tron Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 ive come to accept that its a different design than most skimmers, but its very effective, ive dialed mine in nicely. the skimmate wont ever be sldge like big cone skimmers but more like a brown tea, yet the bubbles and foam i can build in the cup is tremendous now thats its dialed.... hey, if your water is clean, isnt it working?.... lol Link to comment
StevieT Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 I don't know if I have ever gotten consistent skimmate with it, but it does produce a tea like skimmate. It all depends on what is going on in the tank, how much I feed and how many fish I have at any given time. Try it higher up, about 1/2" bellow the max level line. I always go more when it was there. Constant water levels are also key. Meaning an ATO. And if running filter floss keeping that changed as it will mess with the ATO as it clogs. Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted December 18, 2011 Author Share Posted December 18, 2011 maybe it's just me, but I absolutely hate this skimmer. I've had it for nearly a year now, and never ONCE have I gotten it to produce consistent skimmate. I'm going to go with stevie's recommendations above as one last shot, but if it doesn't work the thing is getting chucked, and the aquaticlife skimmer is going in chamber 1. maybe I'm just retarded, but def not happy with the 9002 i got rid of the aquaticlife for this skimmer. i didn't like it all, it was so inconsistent. ill see how it goes in the next few days. hopefully i start seeing something ;p Link to comment
NU2REEFIN Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 I have the Aquaticlife in my Biocube and after I did the air intake tube mod (immediately after I got it) it runs awesome. I pull it out and clean the pump and the air intake line every 4-5 months and love the results. Link to comment
rhino31 Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 yeah the aquaticlife I hear is more stable with being in chamber one, and I want to try running chaeto as well. just not at all happy with the 9002. I will say this though my pump died, and the folks at tunze replaced it in a heart beat, so their customer service is great, just frustrated with the skimmer Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 welp, it worked for about a day. lol. now its back to producing either WATER or NOTHING ;p BLAH Link to comment
maxwell Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 daang fluffeh, I can get a cup of water with my biocube skimmer and everyone knows they are a p.o.s. Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 daang fluffeh, I can get a cup of water with my biocube skimmer and everyone know they are a p.o.s. Unless something dramatic happens with this skimmer, I very much regret spending 150 dollars on a skimmer that hasn't pulled anything from my water Link to comment
Red Sea Reefer Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Has it even been running 2 weeks? Did you try the airline mod? I hope it works as I have one for my tank after it cycles. Link to comment
(oYo) Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 It's never going to work for you because you never let it work. You keep forcing it to do some magical thing and at the first sign of anything you either worry or you think you are smarter than anyone here that has given you advice. Stop touching it stop touching it Every time you mess around with a setting you completely make it stop working. Have you ever through it was you not the skimmers in your life that are not working? If you have foam hitting the top of the lid and there is no skimmate guess what, you have no skimmate to collect. They are not magical devices that you turn on and the fill up a cup of goo. But since you see nothing you go and adjust it and you start back at ground zero. Just turn it off, it's never going to work with this kind of ownership. Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 It's been running for more than 3 weeks. No foam is touching the top of the collection cup ever. I didn't touch it the past week and .... No skimmate. Do my fish just don't poop? This skimmer is not effective if they are pooping. Link to comment
(oYo) Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Run down your bioload You claimed that you were getting skimmate You claimed that you were getting water in the cup Impossible to get the above without foam touching the top of the cup How often do you do water changes? Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Run down your bioload You claimed that you were getting skimmate You claimed that you were getting water in the cup Impossible to get the above without foam touching the top of the cup How often do you do water changes? I think that whatever 'skimmate' ive collected is just the water that is splashing when the bubbles burst down in the collection cups funnel. i do 5 gallon water changes once a week i have 2 clowns, 1 benghai cardinal, zoas, various lps and a couple sps corals. i feed rods fish food twice a week. and do non frozen food the rest of the week. it seemed like it was actually going to work once as the bubbles looked more 'foamy' and not just popping. some people tell me to run the bubbles halfway up the colleciton cup and others say to run it at the lowest point of the funnel? Link to comment
(oYo) Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 If you open the valvle all the way, have it at the proper water level and can not get foam in the tube, send something to Tunze to troubleshoot Regular water changes do remove your bioload Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted January 24, 2012 Author Share Posted January 24, 2012 I thought I'd update this thread as I believe my issue was resolved. For all of those people who kept badgering me that I WAS DOING SOMETHING WRONG which caused the skimmer to not be skimming - I guess I wasn't doing anything wrong as I contacted Tunze and they sent me two replacement parts - the lid and a new nozzle. I changed these parts out on saturday and within an hour it started FOAMING FOR THE FIRST TIME I am so glad someone told me that I wasn't doing anything wrong which made me be proactive in finding a resolution, otherwise I would have been sitting here convinced that I was the problem. I'm very happy now that it's skimming. After replacing the parts the skimmer is working completely different than before. Roger at Tunze believes it was probably a defective nozzle. thanks for all those who tried to help me out! Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 This skimmer is garbage, I'm going to sell it . Anyone want this ?? Link to comment
Red Sea Reefer Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Great advertising!!!!! Im always looking to spend good money on garbage. My tunze is quite and works great. Where did you buy yours? Link to comment
Fluffeh Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 This is my second unit. Link to comment
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