RSM 130 stock skimmer question

[oneinamillion]

Is there a switch on the pump or is it plug and play? I just got my entire tank ready and running and now that my tank has cycled, I tried running the skimmer and it won't work.


I know a lot of people are running the Tunze, is there anyone out there with a stock rsm 130 skimmer pump theyd be willing to sell me??

 

[David Shaw]

All the stock equipment on the 130 feed through to the power box and are on/off controlled through there.

 

[Monkeyboy]

I'm pretty new to this hobby but changed a few things out of the 130. One of the best mods I did was the skimmer upgrade to the tunze 9002. It's alot quieter than the stock and produced skimate alot quicker aswell.

This is just my opinion.

 

[David Shaw]

Yup, he aint wrong

 

[oneinamillion]

Okay so i took apart the skimmer and somehow it started working.

Now my question is, i'm new to skimmer and everything so.. the collection cup is about 1/2 full with water and lots of bubbles are overflowing from the hole. What is the problem here? too much water?

 

[David Shaw]

Nope too much air. Too much air in the skimmer will make the skim mate produced watery.

Adjust air input screw on the skimmer slightly to reduce the air going in. Make very minor adjustments and then leave it for a while to settle in, then keep adjusting until you find the right spot. The skim mate must be thick and not watery.

It is a hell of a fiddle with the stock skimmer, noisy too.

Research the 9002 Tunze as an alternative once you see how you get on with the stock one.

 

[oneinamillion]

Nope too much air. Too much air in the skimmer will make the skim mate produced watery.

Adjust air input screw on the skimmer slightly to reduce the air going in. Make very minor adjustments and then leave it for a while to settle in, then keep adjusting until you find the right spot. The skim mate must be thick and not watery.

It is a hell of a fiddle with the stock skimmer, noisy too.

Research the 9002 Tunze as an alternative once you see how you get on with the stock one.

Oooh okay. We're getting somewhere now.
Where is the air valve on the stock skimmer? Please tell me i dont have to pull the entire skimmer out. haha
I do have the "air hose" sticking out, is it somewhere on there?

 

[David Shaw]

If memory serves its a blue screw somewhere near the bottom of the air tube.

 

[Reefmack]

The air valve on my old 130 model was a gray plastic valve on the black airline that connects below into the skimmer pump. The valve should be above the water line somewhere.

 

[Reefmack]

Old picture that shows the air valve on the stock 130 (pre 130D model) skimmer - it may look different now.

 

[oneinamillion]

Thanks.

Would it be this thing right here:

How do you adjust it? I dont see anything I can really turn..

 

[oneinamillion]

.

 

[oneinamillion]

speak of the devil, you posted at the same thing and now i know why it's a problem. There's no freakin cap on the valve.


Does anyone know what that piece is called? or where I can get a replacement..

 

[David Shaw]

Looks like that's the problem for sure.

 

[Reefmack]

Just get a cheap plastic air valve at an LFS. With the old 130 skimmers some folks actually got better skimming by replacing the stock valve.

 

[Reefmack]

By the way - what are those 2 lines going into the skimmer cup? Is that the setup on the 130D skimmers?

 

[David Shaw]

I was wondering that. They weren't there on my stock skimmer.

 

[Reefmack]

I think it was a used tank? No idea on the purpose of those 2 lines.

 

[oneinamillion]

I wanted to make sure before I drive out the an LFS and get an air valve, so what i did was cover the air hoses with my fingers and tested different restricted air flow levels and it is not changing. If i block the air hose entirely though, no bubbles.
I did however fidget with the skimmer's height and when i pulled the skimmer up about 1 inch the overflowing stopped. This may be due to too much water in the tank? I filled it up all the way to the black rim.

I think the hardest part about starting a reef tank is calibrating everything and getting used to all the equipment.

Regarding the two hoses:
The 2 hoses are a mod that the previous owner did. I only wanted to post it up with instructions and pictures and a how-to only if it worked well which I haven't been able to test yet. Basically as you can see there are 2 air hoses drilled and bent and goes into the protein skimmer body. At the end of those hoses are airstones. In the other end (coming out of of the RSM's back), the two air hoses are connected to check valves and an airpump. This mod gets constant air flow deep into the skimmer's body and creates crazy bubbling.
Even without the stock skimmer pump on, the airpump setup alone causes really good bubbling, just lacks the height to reach the collection cup.
The previous owner is a professional reef person and called the stock skimmer on the RSM a "toy skimmer" haha

 

[Reefmack]

A "toy skimmer" is a good term! That's what I thought of my older 130 model skimmer. The airstones were one mod that I didn't try, but I recall one person did (in Canada) and it didn't seem to help much. But he may have had too small of an air pump. The stock skimmers are very water level dependent, with a high water level in back usually being the best. The replacement air valve should help as long as the skimmer pump is working well.