9010 now skimming decent, but ....

[Husky_1]

Roger,
I am not sure if you remember me, but I have been in the forum a few times complaining that my 9010 was not skimming properly. The last fix that we did was to replace the nozzle. I reported that skimming was better afterwards, which it was, but then performance diminished again.

The good news, I have figured out a way to get my skimmer to skim better. My volume and color of skimmate have doubled, and now with the air screw all the way open, I have to empty the cup once a day of wet medium green skimmate!!! This makes me very happy.


What I found the issue to be is that water is getting into the airline. One day i noticed that after I cleaned the skimmer the foam was not as high and took note of the sound the skimmer made without the cup in place. Apparently foam/water is entering the air intake when I empty the cup with the skimmer on. This seemed to help the skimmer for a few days, but then noticed that after about 3-5 days of emptying the cup with the skimmer off, production would slow down. So then I pulled the skimmer out, turned it upside down, and noticed water come out of the air intake. Now I empty this every 1-2 days as well as shut down the skimmer to clean and performance seems to have increased a good bit.

So my question is, how do we fix this thing so that i do not have to turn it off when cleaning the cup and not have to pull the whole body out of my sump every 1-2 days?

Thanks
Dale

 

[Runfrumu]

I noticed this too when I cleaned mine, salt would build anywhere the hose connected to a fitting. I started flipping the skimmer off when I clean the cup and also when I start it back up, I use a turkey baster and squirt some clean RO water into the part where the screw goes into and let the pump suck the water through the hose and rinsing any salt they may have gotten in there.

I've also wondered if using a different type hose would help some, like using a vinyl instead of the rubber hose it comes with. The only issue I can think of would be kinking.

 

[rvitko]

The way it is supposed to work is that water is sucked in through the air intake when the cup is removed, this should clean any salt build up. Granted you are sucking in salt water but it should remove large crystals in the line. The water should not stay trapped inside it should be sucked through the silencer in a few hours and purged. We used vinyl tubing for over ten years, it is inferior to silicon, it hardens and becomes brittle and the fittings become loose and then water is constantly seeping in. On older models the silencer had to be replaced periodically and this was not an easy DIY project. It was like working on a Japanese car, you needed small hands or a lot of grace and luck to complete the repair. My guess would be that the airline may be too long or looped in such a way it is acting like a P trap and some water is staying in the line, but normally it should quickly purge when the cup is put back in place.

 

[Husky_1]

Thanks for the explanation Roger, my findings seem to be a bit inconsistent with the unit automatically purging. Do you have any suggestions that could help this unit act properly?

 

[rvitko]

I might check that the silencer is properly installed, it should be glued into the skimmer it may have broken free and in doing so it may have some holes from where the glue softened the plastic and tore away. The hose might be too long if it is longer than you feel is necessary to comfortably attach to the pump and work with the skimmer you could trim it. Make sure the sponge is always below the top of the pipe and possibly lower the water level in the sump a half inch or so if it is very high.

 

[Husky_1]

Thanks Roger..BTW, where is the silencer? Is that the plastic tubular piece in between the air intake hole and the air line running to the pump.

 

[rvitko]

Exactly, it acts like muffler allowing the air to expand and eliminates the whistling and whooshing noise.

 

[Runfrumu]

my silencer broke free the first time I cleaned mine. Do you recommend gluing it back in place? I get alot of sand build up in the bottom of the silencer, in the white cap part, could that be a sign of a leak?

 

[rvitko]

That would likely indicate a leak, if you send me the body I can replace it but it isn't really easy to do. You could try to remove it and repair it but it can be very frustrating. You would need to find and repair the leak first, what I would do here is replace the silencer, being glued in is not so important, they glue them mainly so the hoses can't be accidentally pulled free.

 

[Runfrumu]

What should I use to seal any leak with, just some silicone? If I can find the hole in it, I'll fix it myself and save you the trouble.

 

[rvitko]

Silicone would work, if you find that it does have a hole I can also send a new one but the main difficulty is threading the tube through and getting it plugged in to the adjustment screw.

 

[Runfrumu]

I took the skimmer out, ran water into the hole where the blue screw goes, and pinched off the hose that goes to the pump and the only place I can see it leaking is around the white cap, water runs out of it pretty quick, the main silencer body seems to be fine so I am going to glue it back into place.

Should it leak water around the white cap?

Edit* Took the white cap out, gave it a couple of wraps of teflon tape and put it back in and now it's not leaking.

The cap leaking didnt seem to make the skimmer not skim good, as it has always been pretty consistent and keeps my tank very clean, but if it was degrading it some, it will be cool to see what the 9010 can really do now.

 

[rvitko]

I am happy to send a new cap, we have them, just let me know.