Bubble King Skimmer Club
- Thread starter JohnL
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slief
RC Sponsor
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LOL.. I feel your pain! I have the same pump on my Supermarin although it's never been a big issue for me I too had the same suggestion The new RD3 230's can be disconnected from the controller. From what i understand, that is in the works for the smaller RD3's too. I am not sure when that will be included with them but I think it's supposed to happen late summer or this fall.
Since my Supermarin 250 has the same RD3, I just bring a little container of vinegar next to my sump and another with fresh water and clean the pump there. Not a big deal but it would be nice to be able to bring it to the sink without having to unmount the controller. In my case, I can unmount the controller in less than a minute so that isn't a huge deal for me but the convenience or being able to disconnect the pump sure would be a plus.
Thank you very much for the kind words! It's still a work in progress but I know I can have a positive impact. The support side is the easy part for me. The service side and making sure we have enough of the right spare parts is the bigger challenge but that is happening so that I have the tools I need to insure that should something fail, service is exceptional.
Hi slief. Can you help me figure out the proper settings on my double cone 200 with the RD3? I got it for my well stocked 190 3 weeks ago and I don't think I'm getting the best performance. I've used it at sump depth of 9.7, 8 and 7 inches and power settings in the low 30's to full blast. I can't seem to get anything other than light tea colored skim and a ton of big foam bubbles in the cup. Is there an ideal water depth and power settings for these? Thanks
slief
RC Sponsor
Hi slief. Can you help me figure out the proper settings on my double cone 200 with the RD3? I got it for my well stocked 190 3 weeks ago and I don't think I'm getting the best performance. I've used it at sump depth of 9.7, 8 and 7 inches and power settings in the low 30's to full blast. I can't seem to get anything other than light tea colored skim and a ton of big foam bubbles in the cup. Is there an ideal water depth and power settings for these? Thanks
Ideal would typically be about 7.75-8.5" deep. I'd probably run the pump betweem 30 and 38 watts. My guess is that your tank doesn't have as much in the way of dissolved solids as you may think which is why you are getting lighter skim. You are also running it on the wet side which will cause the lighter skim. Then again, the foam in your picture above looks pretty darn good to me.
I would suggest trying the settings you were using when you took the picture and either open the wedge pipe up a bit or lower the sump level 1/4" and see what that does. That should darken the skim up a bit. A bit more about your system might also shed some light. Are you running filter socks and any other mechanical filtration? You say you have a well stocked 190. I assume the display is 190 gallons? What do you have in your tank as far as stock?
Looking at your photo, that actually looks like it's working pretty darn well as far as the foam it's making.
Tank is a 190 and the sump has about 35 gallons of water in it. I run bio pellets and filter socks. About 15 fish including 3 tangs and a blue throat trigger, a gig and med coral stock. I feed very heavy but maintain low no3 and no4. Salt is steady at 1.025. Does that change your advise at all or maybe I'm just tweaking to much and my current setup is fine?
slief
RC Sponsor
Tank is a 190 and the sump has about 35 gallons of water in it. I run bio pellets and filter socks. About 15 fish including 3 tangs and a blue throat trigger, a gig and med coral stock. I feed very heavy but maintain low no3 and no4. Salt is steady at 1.025. Does that change your advise at all or maybe I'm just tweaking to much and my current setup is fine?
Yea, you don't have much load at all... Between the filter socks, the light stock load, bio pellets etc, there isn't much for that skimmer to remove. You can dry it out a bit my raising it up some or lowering the sump level but I like the foam you are getting. You just don't have much in the way of DOC's for the skimmer to remove at this point.
slief
RC Sponsor
No. The Double Cone 150 is rated to about 90 gallons and would be pushing it with a heavy load on a 120 gallon display IMO. I'd lean towards the Double Cone 180 unless your display size is a 90 gallon and the overall volume is 120g. The Double Cone 180 currently includes the RD3 pump too which makes it far superior as you have much greater control. If you stock load will be light, it would be a different story. While these skimmers are really efficient, the 180 should be fine for your size tank and load plus you gain the upside of having higher o2 levels and gas exchange from the larger skimmer which would be of benefit over a smaller one. This assuming of course that your display is 120 gallons and that you will in fact have a heavy load. If you have a really light load on a 120 display than you could get away with the smaller Cone 150.
I got a skimmer stand but there is water coming out through the airline tubing hole. See the picture. Also because the water is getting in the airline tubing and causing the pump to make the water bounce up and down in the skimmer.
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slief
RC Sponsor
That airline tubing hole you are referring to is on the wedge pipe. The wedge pipe controls the rate at which water exits the skimmer and sets the water level inside the skimmer. The wedge pipe is typically flooded to the height of the water level inside the skimmer. A little bit of water exiting that hole is not an issue and is normal. Water should not be getting into the venturi air line. That line is sealed and routes from the skimmers air intake and goes to the silencer at the top of the wedge pipe. If you are experiencing surging, your skimmer is likely new and not broken in or you don't have it adjusted properly.
If you are sure water is getting into the tube, I would inspect the rubber tubing for a hole but I doubt that water is getting in to the airline tube.
bayoupr
New member
With that amount of water leaking through the air line hole in the wedge pipe (appears to be a good stream and not a little bit), this will make the skimmer hard to keep dialed in. Looks like the air hose is being kinked up causing the water to stream out. Not sure about the issue of water in the hose, unless somehow the hose is not hooked up to the bottom of the air silencer and dropped down. I would pull the air silencer off and make sure the hose is connected to it.
slief
RC Sponsor
Water should not be in the airline tubing. If it is, the hose is either kinked, not connected properly to the silencer, a possible leak in the hose or you don't have the volute set properly. What model skimmer is this? Did you buy it new? It sure looks new. How many turns out on the volute are you? How deep is your sump level?
I agree. Looking at the photo, it does look like the hose is kinked. It could be that it's not connected to the silencer as you pointed out. I too would suggest removing the silencer and checking to see if the hose is connected to the bottom of it. While I was at it, I would remove the hose completely and double check it for any holes and then put it back in. I can't be certain but it appears as though that wedge pipe is completely closed instead of being open. I think the hole for the venturi line should be on the opposite side if the wedge pipe is open. That could have something to do with the surging and why water is coming out of that hole. With the wedge open all the way, I am pretty certain that the venturi hole should be oriented closer to the pump so the line has a straight path to the pump. If that is the case, I would open the wedge pipe all the way removing the wedge pipe completely first to verify it's orientation. I would then raise the sump level or lower the skimmer enough to get the foam level inside the skimmer to the point that it's producing skimmate. I like my sump level set such that my skimmer produces dry foam with the wedge pipe completely open and wetter foam with it slightly closed. I never set a skimmer up so that the wedge pipe needs to be closed all the way to get it to produce.
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Its the double cone 150 I purchased it new. I opened the volute up allot more and it solved the water surging issue. I have allot of bubbles coming from the wedge pipe now but i'll give it a break in period. With my old SM 250 I had the volute open 1.5 times I now use a new one with a RD speedy pump but these small skimmers don't come with that option. Thanks for the help i'll let you know how goes in a few days.
Adam
Adam
slief
RC Sponsor
Great to hear! How many turns out are you on the volute now? Like you I also have the SM250 with the RD3. The RD3 makes tuning the skimmer a dream. I had an Alpha 300 before it with two Red Dragon 1500's with the adjustable volute and having two pumps to dial in from a volute is double the pain.. Not that the adjustable volute is much trouble once you get a feel for it but two makes it infinitely more adjustable. I much prefer the RD3. How many watts are you running your RD3 SM250 at and what sump depth? I'm at 38 watts and 8" depth. I was running at 9" but decided to lower my sump level for reasons having nothing to do with my skimmer.
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