9410 or 9011?

C

cpllongjk

Active member
Roger,

I am looking for a tunze skimmer to replace my bubble magus nac6. My current skimmer gives me tons of issues due to the mesh wheel. I am always having to pull the skimmer apart to fix the mesh wheel. My current tank is 50g main display with a 20g sump. I also run biopellets and plan on having a heavy fish load in a matter of months.

I am looking at the 9410 and 9011. Please keep in mind that noise is a huge concern. My tank is virtually silent and the most noisy thing in my tank right now is the hum of my fan that blows air out of my stand. I would the next skimmer I get to complement the rest of my tank.

What are the main differences between the two? I notice they use a different pump but they look to be at or near the same price point and cover the same size tank.

Thanks for your help,

Jared
 
Jared,
Get out of my head. I was just eyeing a 9011 last night due to lower wattage than the PM Skimmer I picked up.


lol
 
Lol... The big reason why I want to go with tunze is their great customer service. I have never encountered such great customer service anywhere in reefing. How much wattage difference are the skimmers?
 
I believe he pump on that skimmer is the ehiem 1260. Not positive though. Keep in mind that the PM skimmers design are 5 years old or more.
 
Sorry to get off track Roger. Jared (cpllongjk) was the one I bought the 6055+7096 from so we converse a good bit now.
 
I think Roger is traveling to Germany, which may delay his response a little.

I am a noise fanatic, so your silence criteria appeals to me. I have gotten rid of many pieces of expensive equipment because they did not meet my noise criteria.

I recently wrote a short review of the 9410. Great Skimmer.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2038546&highlight=brief+review+9410

The skimmer is very quiet compared to other aspirating impeller pumps. You can get some splashing noise on the outlet, but this is pretty easily fixed. The pump is super quiet in terms of vibration, but it is not dead silent. You can hear some air draw noise. My tank is very quiet and you can barely hear the skimmer with the cabinet door closed. If I turn the skimmer off, the tank is nearly silent.

The 9010 (and I assume now the 9011) is an ULTRA QUIET skimmer in my experience. If your first criteria is silence, I recommend the 9011.

I decided to go with the 9410 because of the power and I liked the filter bag option. I also really like the foam extractor which works amazingly well on the 9410. The 9410 is a significantly more powerful skimmer than the 9011.
It was a tough call for me because my display is ~60 gallons and I the 9011 would definetly have been sifficient.

I am happy with my choice. I probably would have been happy with the 9011 too.

good luck.
 
I don't leave until Thursday. :)

Anyway, the 9011 is the quietest, but the 9410 is stronger. If noise is your main criteria, go 9011, if performance is also important, the 9410 is about 25% stronger. It is also louder but not a lot, it has a needlewheel which by nature of how it works is imbalanced and causes some vibration, 9011 is a venturi skimmer so this is eliminated.
 
How often does the venturi need to be cleaned on the 9011? And what about the over skimming protection on the 9410. I think this feature would be nice as I've had skimmers cause problems in the past with over skimming.
 
Both skimmers utilize the same cup, when the cup is full, skimming stops. The 9410 has a middle chamber where a change in surface tension sends water through the air intake and cuts it off, avoiding those water foam overs that happen with certain additives and medias. When the surface tension returns to normal, skimming starts again.

The venturi generally needs cleaning every 6 months, in either case, depending on calcium levels and KH the pump needs to be removed for cleaning every 3- 6 months and the 9011 pump, the venturi is attached and cleaning is part of that process.
 
rvitko said:
Both skimmers utilize the same cup, when the cup is full, skimming stops. The 9410 has a middle chamber where a change in surface tension sends water through the air intake and cuts it off, avoiding those water foam overs that happen with certain additives and medias. When the surface tension returns to normal, skimming starts again.

The venturi generally needs cleaning every 6 months, in either case, depending on calcium levels and KH the pump needs to be removed for cleaning every 3- 6 months and the 9011 pump, the venturi is attached and cleaning is part of that process.
Click to expand...

Just to be sure I understood correctly. Does that mean that both kimmers will stop when the cup is full but only the 9410 cuts off when adding additives and medias?
 
Correct, both skimmers use a cup that when full doesn't allow air to escape so the backpressure pushes back the foam column. 9410 has a "phase chamber" where water will rise if there is a surface tension change that would cause the overreactive watery skimmate seen with some additives and medias and the water then chokes the air flow.
 
rvitko said:
Correct, both skimmers use a cup that when full doesn't allow air to escape so the backpressure pushes back the foam column. 9410 has a "phase chamber" where water will rise if there is a surface tension change that would cause the overreactive watery skimmate seen with some additives and medias and the water then chokes the air flow.
Click to expand...

So technicaly they both would shut off with the additives and media just that the 9011 would have to wait till the cup fills in order to shut off. Still better than not shutting off at all and pouring it all back into the tank.
That sounds awesome, cant wait
 
rvitko said:
The venturi generally needs cleaning every 6 months, in either case, depending on calcium levels and KH the pump needs to be removed for cleaning every 3- 6 months and the 9011 pump, the venturi is attached and cleaning is part of that process.
Click to expand...

I know this is going to be a really daft question, but how do you actually clean the venturi? :( I actually do not know exactly which part of the skimmer is venturi? (refer to the diagram on Page 8 of the manual).

Very sorry...
 
On page 92, the parts labeled 6 and 7 come apart for cleaning. That is the venturi, you only want to use vinegar and a soft brush, scratches can render it useless.
 
Thanks Roger. I always use cotton balls and white vinegar. I am curious to know why scratches make these parts useless.

Thanks
 
Venturis are fairly precise and unforgiving, they utilize the Bernouli principle which is the water passes through a narrowing and builds up pressure and then enters into a widening where the pressure drops and a vacuum is created that draws in air, scratches can create an eddy in the flow and reduce the efficiency or stop it from working at all.
 
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