Dear Richard
I was hoping you might be able to provide guidance concerning my Tunze 9006 protein skimmer.
I have had it installed since late November 2010. It took a long time to start producing foam. Because I have no experience with protein skimmers, I do not know if it is performing efficiently. Currently, it produces about 50ml of tea-coloured skimmate every week. Since the instructions say that emptying the cup should be weekly, and also that the skimmate should not be too dark, this did not worry me before. (Cleaning of the skimmer cup seems to knock back the production of foam considerably - is this normal? And what frequency of cup cleaning do you recommend?) But recently I have read that people empty their skimmer cups every day or so, and so I am now suspecting I am not getting the best performance from it.
The system is 240L, with a large 24hour lit refugium, and has been running since about June of 2010. Although nitrate and phosphate are undetectable, as you can see from the picture below I have many different types of macro and micro algae growing in the tank. Waste water in water-changes is also slightly discoloured (despite use of carbon).
Presently, I think that either there is more performance left in the skimmer, or the considerable amount of Chaetomorpha is inhibiting it. It was initially intended that the system would use a mud filter without a skimmer, and ran this way (albeit without the mud) fairly successfully before the introduction of the skimmer.
Currently, the air screw-valve of the skimmer is open approximately two extra turns, from what the instructions initially recommend.
The skimmer does produce micro-bubbles, but situated where it is this does not cause problems.
Lastly, the skimmer does sit in the first compartment of the sump (please see picture below). The flow here does not splash, and is split between a trickling main drain, and two syphon bypasses (using the Eheim tubing & taps etc), and runs at an estimated 900lph. Could the situation of the skimmer be severely impacting its performance? Visually, the flow around it does not appear to be different from what the skimmer would be subject to as an internal skimmer.
Any help that you, or anyone else could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Yours
Joe
I was hoping you might be able to provide guidance concerning my Tunze 9006 protein skimmer.
I have had it installed since late November 2010. It took a long time to start producing foam. Because I have no experience with protein skimmers, I do not know if it is performing efficiently. Currently, it produces about 50ml of tea-coloured skimmate every week. Since the instructions say that emptying the cup should be weekly, and also that the skimmate should not be too dark, this did not worry me before. (Cleaning of the skimmer cup seems to knock back the production of foam considerably - is this normal? And what frequency of cup cleaning do you recommend?) But recently I have read that people empty their skimmer cups every day or so, and so I am now suspecting I am not getting the best performance from it.
The system is 240L, with a large 24hour lit refugium, and has been running since about June of 2010. Although nitrate and phosphate are undetectable, as you can see from the picture below I have many different types of macro and micro algae growing in the tank. Waste water in water-changes is also slightly discoloured (despite use of carbon).
Presently, I think that either there is more performance left in the skimmer, or the considerable amount of Chaetomorpha is inhibiting it. It was initially intended that the system would use a mud filter without a skimmer, and ran this way (albeit without the mud) fairly successfully before the introduction of the skimmer.
Currently, the air screw-valve of the skimmer is open approximately two extra turns, from what the instructions initially recommend.
The skimmer does produce micro-bubbles, but situated where it is this does not cause problems.
Lastly, the skimmer does sit in the first compartment of the sump (please see picture below). The flow here does not splash, and is split between a trickling main drain, and two syphon bypasses (using the Eheim tubing & taps etc), and runs at an estimated 900lph. Could the situation of the skimmer be severely impacting its performance? Visually, the flow around it does not appear to be different from what the skimmer would be subject to as an internal skimmer.
Any help that you, or anyone else could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Yours
Joe
