9002 Major MicroBubble Problem

[DadofReefs]

Running the 9002 in a Red Sea Max.

We've had the skimmer for just over two weeks. It ran fine for a while with some slight microbubbling but nothing major.

For some reason now all of the sudden the microbubbles are literally filling the tank to the point they seem to be agitating the fish.

We've tried adjusting the Venturi output and we've played with the position of the skimmer relative to water level but we can't seem to get rid of this mass of bubbles without shutting off the skimmer completely.

Last night I took the skimmer out of the tank, took it apart, and reassembled it. Still no relief.

Roger, I talked to you on the phone last week (I ordered two pairs of magnets from you). I mentioned that the skimmer arrived with a broken piece of plastic inside of it. The piece looked like some kind of interior hose hanger.

One thing I have noticed is that the top and bottom of the skimmer don't seem to seat well. The hose seems to push against them at either end. First the top wanted to keep coming off, so I removed the bottom, took out the pump and pulled the hose down to get the top on good, then the bottom didn't want to seat as well.

One thing I don't see is any mass of bubbles in the rear chamber of the tank. We do see some bubbling being pulled down the thermometer chamber, but not any real mass like we see in the tank. I suppose the powerhead is just breaking up these larger bubbles we see getting pulled down the thermometer chamber, but we can't find the origin of them on the skimmer.

Please help. The skimmer was working great and we're frustrated.

Greg Gibson

 

[wartskin]

Greg I will also email Roger about this issue as well and see if we can get it resolved for you asap. I apologize for not being able to help you further when you called but Roger is the man to go to when I can't get a question answered.

 

[killa B]

I am having a similar problem with my Nano Reefpack 200. The protein skimmer after 3 weeks of being installed IN my 26g tank, started blowing small bubbles. There was always some, but recently it started blowing a lot more. If I shut it down the bubbles go away, so I also tried changing the water level and removed and disassembled it to find no problems (that I saw anyway) reinstalled and the same problem.

 

[wartskin]

Killa B

Just tag along with this thread and Roger and I should be able to get any problem corrected for you.

 

[DadofReefs]

Rodney thanks for your assistance.

One thing, lol, I notice I keep referrring to the thermometer chamber - I mean the heater chamber in the back of the RSM. The heater chamber is next to the flow heads in the RSM.

greg

 

[Philwd]

Killa - my reefpack will do the same if the media in the media chamber blocks the output. It will start to suck air and blow tons of bubbles. After a couple weeks the floss gets so much junk it gets clogged up.

 

[rvitko]

The floss on a 3165 needs to be kept very lightly packed and changed at least weekly.

If the bubbles are coming from the 9002 skimmer the most likely culprit is an additive, expecially stress coats, algae killers, dechlorinators, amino acids, vitamins. The bottom cover should clip in securely, if it does not I would check the cord routing. The top cover is mainly held on by gravity and the tension of the air hose. I will be checking in when I can but tomorrow Interzzo starts and my time online will be very limited until next week.

 

[DadofReefs]

Roger - the only thing we are adding to the tank right now is Brightwell A/B calc/alk supplement. We were using this prior to the bubble problem when the skimmer was working ok.

I completely disassembled the skimmer this afternoon, pulled out the hose and pump, backed out the venturi..basically took everything apart. I checked all the hoses and pump for any blockage or leaks. Couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

Reassembled the pump and made sure everything fit snugly and securely together.

I put it back in the tank and made sure to adjust the water level line so it was about a half an inch above the water.

We are STILL getting mass amounts of bubbles. It's frustrating because the skimmer seemed to work fine for a week or so and we were very happy.

Unfortunately now it's useless. We can't run it because there are so many bubbles it agitates the fish. I know there are people running this skimmer in our exact same setup successfully so I have to be suspicious that something is defective in our skimmer. As I mentioned, there was a broken piece of plastic inside the unit when it arrived. I thought it was a hose hanger of some sort, but I guess it could have been something else. I don't see anything inside the housing that is obviously broken so I'm not sure where it came from.

Please help. We would like to get this thing working.

Thanks,

Greg Gibson

PS - our magnets arrived today, thanks.

 

[killa B]

Thank you but the 3165 is working great. The macro bubbles are coming out of the front of the 9002 skimmer. The only things I add to my tank is B-ionic and food.

 

[DadofReefs]

Ok - in a last ditch effort to troubleshoot we took the skimmer out of the rear tank chamber and mounted it in the front display area so we could make sure the bubbles were leaking from the skimmer and not the result of a flow issue.

As you can see from the pictures, we have significant micro-bubble leakage around the bottom of the skimmer.

I once again completely disassembled the skimmer and put it back together. I thought at first that maybe I had put a kink in the air hose the last time I put it back together, but I made sure the hose didn't bind anywhere this time. Still no luck.

At this point I would just like to get the skimmer replaced. I've spent enough time trying to troubleshoot it.

Thanks,

greg

Bubbles escaping from the bottom. The cloudiness in the tank is from the hundreds of bubbles being released in the tank.

Another view:

 

[killa B]

That is exactly what mine is doing, today I had to shut it down because the bubbles got so bad.

I did read a post on an other site, someone els had the same problem, His fix: take the skimmer apart use worm water on the hose to make sure its sealed, and he lined the bottom, front and back holes with a carbon pad. haven't tried it yet. still waiting to find a better fix.

 

[rvitko]

I really think that will go away in time. When new the pumps are stronger than they should be for ideal operation, this intentional so that when the pumps accumulate the normal amount of debris and biofilm they are at optimum and the performance doesn't drastically decline. You might check if this problem gets worse as daylight hours progress as this would indicate oxygen saturation and there are different fixes for this. A high KH also aggrevates the problem. The skimmer looks correct and free of defects.

 

[DadofReefs]

We received the replacement skimmer and I figured out that the broken part in the other one was the piece that holds the pump in place.

The new skimmer is over-skimming even with the venturi closed all the way down. Right now we're getting a lot of water in the cup with the Venturi closed. I assume this will go away with time.

We're also not seeing much relief on the bubble situation. Still lots of bubbles getting spewed into the display and the new skimmer still shows the same leakage around the bottom as the previous one.

We're trying to let it just run and hope that this is part of the break-in period, but we're concerned about the bubbles agitating the fish, which is a problem we had before.

 

[wartskin]

Greg when you have a chance please call me at
512-833-7546.

 

[DadofReefs]

Hi Rodney - the skimmer is running much better this morning. Bubbles have greatly diminished so we are hoping we were just going through the skimmer break in.

Thanks,

greg

 

[DadofReefs]

Skimmer is running great today. The bubbles are greatly diminished and we have a nice dark green skimmate in the cup.

Thanks for your help guys!

 

[wartskin]

Good to hear. Let us know if you have any other questions.

 

[killa B]

Bubblies have been at a minimum, today I did a water change and now I cant even leave it on there are so many bubblies coming out if my skimmer. I took it out of my tank made sure everything is ok, no problems found. Any help at all with this?

there are no additives and skimmer is already broken in.

 

[rvitko]

Just for the sake of argument can you set it up in another tank at a local shop or at a friends.

 

[kfick]

Some salts like Reef Crystals have 'vitamins' and other addatives that can change the surface tension of the water. If I do a water change with Reef Crystals, my 9015 will overflow for a few days unless I turn it down.

After 2 days things are back to normal, so you might just want to give it some time. Did you recently switch salt brands?