Yes, more skimmer questions..

[thebiggster]

Geesh - you guys made me switch my options back to seeing avatars, but there have been changes! End of that topic hopefully. Biggster - what's that vehicle in your avatar?

That's my Ricer Racer.............lol

Nah unfortunatley it not mine

BTW It's a Early 80'sToyota Corona with a kicking body Kit

 

[Reefmack]

Ricer Racer - funny!

 

[MatthewJ]

After 6 days, I've finally emptied the skimmer. I have about 1/3 a US cup (or 79ml) of skimmate. FWIW, that's roughly equivalent to what's shown in the thebiggsters pictures. I had pictures, but managed to delete them before uploading. Anyway...I have nothing to compare it to, but this is as good as I've seen my stock skimmer working. Is 1/3 cup skimmate good enough for 6 days of skimming? My tank would probably be considered lightly loaded...
29 gallons
2 clowns, fed twice daily.
1 emerald crab
8-9 hermits
4 turbos
1 peppermint shrimp
8-9 coral frags

 

[Reefmack]

Mathew - IMO that amount sounds pretty decent to me, for a tank the size of ours, especially in a tank with a light load. Good to see your stock skimmer is working for you!

 

[redseareef]

Matthew,
That sounds darn good to me too. Just remember that these little skimmers react alot more to water changes then larger skimmers do. Everything is magnified alot more due to their small size.
I really like mine so far. It's a little testy, but I think all these small skimmers are in these small tanks.
Heck, I change 5 gallons a week. Change my carbon out 1-2 times a month and vacuum out the back compartments too. And I still get some good foaming and skimmate in the cup!!!
I am pretty happy with the results. I will be testing a Euroreef nano skimmer here shortly. We will see what it pulls out compared to the Max skimmer!!

 

[mzreenie]

"I have a Resun 450W 1/4HP compressor which is feed by a Tunze Turbella 1000/2 powerhead/pump. I'll get some pics for you of the plumbing, it's pretty basic though all in 3/4", from memory I have 6 elbows, 2x600mm & 2x200mm Rigid Risers, 4 hose barbs & bout a dozen joiners. The pumps & chiller are attached with 19mm(3/4inch) Vinyl Tubing."

I know this thread is not about chillers, but I will soon be purchasing one for my RSM 130D. This plumbing stuff has me very nervous. I thought I would just need to attach some plastic tubing to the chiller and use the parts that came with the RSM, but this sounds complicated. I would love to see pics of how to connect a chiller to my RSM. If anyone has any pics, could you post them in my thread, or PM me with them? Thanks

 

[thebiggster]

MatthewJ

Good to hear that your skimmer is working for you now 80ml is a pretty good effort for 6 days...

Just remember to keep an eye on the water level & I think you will be right.

 

[redseareef]

MZ,
I will post some pics later today. It's pretty straight forward and simple!

 

[MatthewJ]

well, I think the next few weeks will be more useful as an indication of future performance. My skimmer was basically non functional for at least 1 week prior to giving it a good cleaning and removing the carbon.

 

[redsea reefer]

hey everyone, i was thinking of cutting off about a half a inch off the bottom of the skimmer body to raise the water level in there. does that sound like a good idea or wasting my time..... what do you guys think, worth a try or will i be doing this after :smack: i am also waiting for the new surface skimmer

 

[Reefmack]

To be honest, I'd wait for the new surface skimmer. One or two others have done this, but I can't remember if it helped that much or not. I think LaurentSeattle had done it, or was thinking about doing it, quite a while ago. Maybe someone will jump in that has done it and leave a post.

 

[redsea reefer]

i think your right, i should wait for the new surface skimmer first. i was also thinking of buying the tunze 9002 also, you run that model right. is it easy to install.

 

[Reefmack]

Good decision - you can't undo sawing off the bottom of the skimmer! Yes, I'm running the Tunze 9002 now, but I have it in my sump in the cabinet. Several have put it in the back of the RSM, and I don't think it's very hard to install. Maybe if you set up a new thread on the Tunze in the RSM you'll get some good answers on the install. I think it's easier to do if you get one of the newer released models that comes with a magnetic mount, but I'm just guessing on that.

 

[redsea reefer]

OK, thanks reefmack....

 

[jackpe]

In actual fact the Tunze I received has the magnet mount on the side (the short side as oppsed to o the back, making me wonder how people actually mount them. anyone know? do you have to unstick the mount from the side and restick it to the back of the skimmer?

 

[Reefmack]

I know some, including me, have either carefully removed the magnet from the short side and glued it on the long side (or bought an extra pair of magnets). Then they've hung it on the back wall of the filter section with another magnet on the outside. Mine only came with the goofy brackets so I bought a set of magnets from Tunze. In the end I went back to the old mount since that was a more sturdy a mount in my sump. The lip on my 10g sump made it too hard to get the magnets to adhere well.

 

[LaurentSeattle]

Yes, I cut a bit of the skimmer bottom: The "mod" is easy and this indeed helps the foam to climb higher and therefore does improve skimming. However, the improvement is quite small...

 

[redsea reefer]

Hi Laurent, i was thinking of cutting half a inch off. how much did you cut?

 

[redsea reefer]

hey reef mack, do you think its worth it to try the new 130d skimmer pump. it costs 75 dollars, but i think i remember that redseareef is having the same problem with the new skimmer also.

 

[Reefmack]

redseareef has the 130D and obviously already has the new pump & fitting. I wouldn't order it unless you can confirm that the 130D pump & fitting will fit the 130 skimmer - $75 is a lot to spend to find out that the 130D fitting won't work on the 130 skimmer! The pumps appear to be the same, but the fittings appear to be at least slightly different (at least the air inlet). An email to Red Sea may let you know.