Is my 9005 skimming right?

[777artinv4]

Hello there,

i bought a used 9005 about a year ago to put inside my 20G long. It look brand new after i cleaned it in vinegar.

In this tank i have some ricordeas, mush, hammerhead, zoos, candycane, sun and 3 fish (2 clown and 1 green chromis) that i feed everyday with frozen food. Everything looks healthy in there and my parameters looks good.

Since i installed the skimmer i've never seen much in the collection cup. The skimmer gives a nice headfoam but it doesn't go all the way up. I've tried running it without the blue screw in the air intake and nothing in the skimmer has changed.

I just read a thread where about testing for leaks in the air intake but before giving this a try i would like to know if normal for a skimmer that size not really skimming in 20G of water.

Thanks for your precious time.

777artin

 

[rvitko]

Three things can cause reduced performance on a 9005. A broken or fouled venturi nozzle, an undersized or damaged impeller or a leaking or clogged silencer. In the other post you read, he had sent in the pump and we could rule out the first two. The first two though are the most likely culprits. Usually what I see cause poor performance is a few small problems acting cumulatively. The skimmer is dirty or at least the venturi is. The water is laden with sediment or there is too much flow near the skimmer, and the impeller is a bit undersized, all of these things will add up to cause poor performance but the skimmer would still function if only one issue was present.

 

[777artinv4]

Hello Roger,

this morning i took my skimmer out to give it a good clean. The venturi nozzle looks good, took apart the pump to clean and everything looks good.

Is the silencer that clear plastic tube inside the skimmer? If so then there was a small piece of what looks tome me a piece of calcium about half a dime in diameter in there. I took it out.

I also did the air leak test and it seams good.........no leak there.

I put the skimmer back together and put it back in the tank. I'll give it a few days and come back at you.

Thanks for your help, very appreciated.

777artin

 

[rvitko]

OK, keep me posted.

 

[777artinv4]

Hello Roger,

here are some photos of my 9005 running after 24hrs.

I also put this fts so you can see the bioload in there.

Is it normal that i don't have more skimmate then that from the 9005 in this 20g long tank?

Bioload : 1 green chromis, 2 moroon clowns, 1 clam, 1 small sps, about 40 mush, 3 rics, 1 small candycan, 1 hammer, yellow polyps, 1 CB shrimp, clean-up crew.

I run an aquaclear 300 modded as fuge with cheato and a 6025 pump.

Is it a good idea to put my 9005 in another tank to test it. I have access to a 65G with a good bioload. I was offered to put my 9005 instead of his skimmer to give it a test ride.

Thanks again for your time, very appreciated

777artin

 

[rvitko]

I think the test in the 65 would be worth while. The 20 looks nearly sterile, I see no algae growth, this leads me to believe the tank is exceptionally clean, maybe very new? The foam head and the way it is spilling over looks fairly normal but there may be some deficiency in air flow from a leak in the venturi or undersized impeller. I emphasize these two issues because US impellers are handcut on a lathe from the larger 50Hz impeller, if they are cut to much the flow and pressure are reduced. The venturi can break loose of the main impeller housing in shipping or if not properly primed before gluing and this drops the pressure and air flow.

 

[777artinv4]

This tank has been running for over 2 1/2 years now. It looks clean because i just moved it and i took time to clean the tank.

On the fts shot, the light was out since it was around 10 am here when it took it.

I'm going to put the 9005 in they 65G and see what's going to do.

I'll post back in a few days.

Thanks again.

777artin

 

[rvitko]

We will figure it out and get this solved, thank you for your patience and keep me posted.

 

[777artinv4]

Hello Roger,

i've put my 9005 in the 65G and it started skimming after 15 minutes.

Now this morning the skimmer has about 1/2" of green / wet skimmate in the cup and the 9005 isn't skimming much.

I've put a video of it in action.

Here's the link if it isn't appearing here : http://vimeo.com/13183134

<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13183134&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13183134&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/13183134">Troubleshoot Tunze 9005</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1855235">cabaretbiodegradable</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Thanks you again my friend.

777artin

 

[rvitko]

It is hard to say, 1/2" of skimmate, is about 50-100ml, which would be a pretty fair amount for 8-12hrs. 100-150ml a day would be about typical from my experience with the 9010. Also, the foam and movement of the foam appears normal, you can see the phase change where the protenaceous foam is separating from the bubbling salt water and rising. If you notice it hits the scum ring and breaks, this is normal and most of the reason that skimmers produce the most with a clean cup, On my 9010 I would get 100-150ml the 1st day, 250ml after 2-3 days and 350 ml for a week, the skimming efficiency was reduced exponentially as the cup got dirtier. It is not impossible that something is wrong with the skimmer, but I would lean toward the idea that your 20 is lightly stocked, and very clean and you have many filter feeders and likely a fairly established bio filter (rock and sand) and this is contributing to a low performance. Sometimes a system just equals out to where garbage in equals the garbage out and there is nothing left for a skimmer to remove, basically it is all used by the animals and plants. The key would be to see if nitrate and phosphate levels are rising, if so, we can assume the skimmer is not performing adequately.

 

[777artinv4]

Hello again,

yeah the skimmer took out about 75ml in about 1/2 day of very wet skimmate. The blue screw at the air intake is out.

But still my nitrates went up, arouns 75 ppm and i lost 4 sps, all this while having the 9005 in the tank and not skimming very much.

I told you i've clean the tank and i might have found my nitrite source, build-up in between rocks. I rearrange the rocks and the nitrates are going down.

But still i was wondering why the 9005 wasn't skimming much but as you tell me.......looks like it skimming right with a bigger bioload.

I do take care very much about my 20G tank.

I'll let the 9005 in the 65G and come back at you.

Thank you again for your time.

777artin

 

[rvitko]

I am concerned about that, the Nitrates should not go up, while any skimmer cannot remove nitrate and cannot remove debris trapped in rocks, it should remove wastes that become nitrate. Please give me an update after the weekend.

 

[777artinv4]

Yeah i had concern to about the nitrates.

This 20G Long has 1 6025 pump + a modded AC300. So i think it enough flow in there.

As i told before, there was some major build-up in the rocks and that has been taken care as now. Nitrates went from 75ppm to 25ppm with major water changes and haven't gone up. Before the rock rearrangement, after major water changes the nitrates were back up after 1-2 days.

I'll keep you updated after the week-end.

Have a good one Roger.

777artin

 

[777artinv4]

Good morning Roger,

so as of now, my 9005 has been running for a few days in the 65G tank set to wet skimming. It has pull out about 125ml of skimmate. My 9005 performes less than the SS3004 that was on this tank before the test.

The venturi looks alright to me, i did the air leak test again with a calibration recording microphone in there to better hear the leak.............as i am a recording engineer. No air leak in there that's for sure.

So it might comes down to a bad impeller. Is it easy to replace? I found 1 for 12$ at a canadian shop.

Thanks again for your time.

777artin

 

[rvitko]

You are in Canada? The impeller is fairly easy to replace. Can you PM me an email address and I will send you photos of some things to check?