is this 9010 junk or is it just mine?

[RONCGIZMO]

Thanks Rum..I'm looking into a few right now.

If you look at my main complaints:

I get some foam in the chamber but it don't even try to go up the neck.

the air adj. seems to do nothing (I did check the line)

I get nothing coming out from the output tube.

I get micro bubbles coming from the bottom of it.

I really don't think I was asking much of this so-called skimmer
was I frustrated? yes, very much so, but more so when Roger told
me he saw this post and past it up to me that was a total lack of concern for his costumers, unless they kiss his @$$ he don't want to help. It's funny I've been reading more tunze posts and it looks like I'm not the only one that bought one that don't work well. In my honest opinion I think they are built cheap or as cheap as they can.
maybe even made in china and put together in Germany. The box is a very thin plastic (I can buy enough plastic for $5 to build the box at retail no less) and the cup in thin plexi, drop it once and you're done. Think about this...Maxi-jet pumps, we all have at least one we use, some cure rock with an old one they had for years or mix salt or maybe run in tank for many years, try that with a tunze...read some posts who had it for a month or two and clips snap in half or the barrings are shot or bad gaskets..You don't expect that out of German engineering do you?

 

[smatter]

Calling it junk in your preamble set the tone.

 

[RONCGIZMO]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11392863#post11392863 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smatter
Calling it junk in your preamble set the tone.

It is was it is...If he don't like the fact that I called it junk, he needs to deal with it...that was my impression then and it still is.

 

[MarkPo]

I don't find you particularly rude, but I've done a lot of work with angry customers, and I generally ignore the emotional content and focus on the technical issue. Saying you wanted to return it may have suggested that perhaps you were done trying to get it to work, and that you were already emotionally convinced it was junk.

My 9010 runs at the waterline or a bit below, depending when my top off has last kicked off, but runs in about 4" when I do water changes. Not for long, but seems to run fine.

When I say the bottom plate is loose- I'm talking about part 7 on page 34-35, "Cover for aspirator". The part with the suction cups on it- You do have the suction cups on, and the skimmer is level, right? I find if mine gets too far out of level, the venturi starts to suck water, and I get no bubbles.

We can see the water isn't exiting the riser pipe- And the bubbles, definately not. Can you tell me where the water and bubbles are exiting the skimmer?



I had the top come loose in shipper as well, you can reach in and push the side out, it'll "snap" and be tight again.

The "snap" together allows the skimmer to be assembled with no screws or such, and disassembled for cleaning/modding/etc.

 

[RONCGIZMO]

Thanks mark, But I checked all of that... the water was coming out of the stand pipe, it was just coming out slow, the bubbles just remained in the chamber looking like simmering water with foam on top.it's in a tight spot so I can't see the underside or back unless I take it out of the sump

let me ask you something tho..tonight I had a very short power outage were talking 1 second or so (just a flash) now this thing sounds like a mack truck! and the water looks more like it's almost boiling now but still no skimming action on the riser tube in the cup
nothing was changed just power off/on.

 

[MarkPo]

Do you have a five gallon bucket or something we can run it in for a bit, so we can see what's happening?

If it only looks like it's boiling, that doesn't sound like it's pulling as much air as it could be... I wonder if I'm on the wrong track because of the excessive micro-bubbling and what looks like low flow from the picture. If you close/open the air screw all the way, does anything change?

If not, it sounds like your skimmer had some rough handling in shipping, (Which we've already seen, you said the top was a bit loose, right?) and the venturi air line might be loose. If you remove the bottom cover (Number 7 on page 34), the pump should slid out. There is a rubber "gasket" looking thing that should be on the pump, with the air line running to it. That's where it's probably most likely to come loose, although you can check the other end as well.

 

[RONCGIZMO]

Air line looks ok, I read some posts before I made this thread however the air adjustment makes only a small change.

the micro bubbles also stopped.

I'll try the bucket thing when I get home from work, can you tell anything with fresh water? or should I mix some salt?

 

[MarkPo]

I don't think fresh versus salt will matter for what I'm looking for.

When you say the air adjustment makes only a small change- If you close it all the way, you should have no/almost no bubbles. If you open it all the way, you should have a lot of bubbles. But only moving it a turn or two might have only a small amount of change on a new, un-broken-in skimmer. If there is only a small change from all the way open to all the way closed, we have a clue as to the problem.

The purpose of the bucket test is to see where the bubbles that end up in your display come from. Based on the photo's, they weren't coming from the sump kit pipe. If we can find where they are coming from, we can focus on that area as a problem. Almost all of your water should come out the tube, with a very small amount out of a hole in the back. Anywhere else is a problem.

You mention noise from the skimmer- Normally, this is a very quiet skimmer, noise would indicate something wrong with the impeller or pump.

I wonder... if the whole pump came loose in shipping, would that cause all of the above issues? This has me curious, if I had any days off, I'd consider driving up to New Jersey to take a look.

 

[RumLad]

Don't be fooled Ron. This guy is from the outfit you bought it from. He's trying to get you to hold onto the skimmer for more than 30 days and void your return claim

All joking aside, are you going to try and salvage this thing?

 

[RONCGIZMO]

lol Rum, I might keep it for two reasons...1: I don't like to get beat by a device..2: if it's as bad as I thing it is (at this point) I'll have every right to give my opinion on it as well as the CS I got from tunze ( If I own it)
even if it sits in my junk box in the end (my 350 is not going to effect tunze in the least) then I'll buy a CSS 220 for under 200...lol

Mark, thanks again..I need to go to a friends house and wire up her wireless for her..if I don't get back to late I'll put this in a bucket and take some shots...if not I'll bring it to my buddys coral farm and toss it in a sump and take the pics there..

 

[RONCGIZMO]

Mark, I just got back from my friends house,,,
I'll bring the thing to my buddy's Coral farm
tomorrow (or today I should say) and snap off a
few shots in one of his sumps..Thanks again for
all your help.

 

[RONCGIZMO]

Okay, this is what I got...Sorry about some of the bad pics, they looked great on that small camera screen...but this is the best of them. also just so you know, I had it sitting at the fragging station inside a rubbermaid container that is plumbed into about 2000 gallons of saltwater that tank holds all the grow out coral mounted on live rock and has a very high bio load.

This is as good as the foam gets..we also opened it up checked the impeller and made sure the air line was good (again) and everything was sitting in place nice and tight.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11216096@N00/2121904946/" title="DSC02022 by rvc03, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2087/2121904946_a7458d8219.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC02022" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11216096@N00/2121128035/" title="DSC02021 by rvc03, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/2121128035_222f01a7c9.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC02021" /></a>

This is the back. Is this normal? the skimmer has a drain in front why have one on the back too? am I missing something?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11216096@N00/2121905048/" title="rear drain by rvc03, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2188/2121905048_b12abe2378.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="rear drain" /></a>

The front overflow:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11216096@N00/2121127955/" title="overflow 1 by rvc03, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2183/2121127955_2041447b8d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="overflow 1" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11216096@N00/2121127835/" title="overflow 2 by rvc03, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2331/2121127835_cff739302d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="overflow 2" /></a>

Top with no cup on at it's best.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11216096@N00/2121904564/" title="DSC02025 by rvc03, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2018/2121904564_cecf9bda0b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC02025" /></a>

one more.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11216096@N00/2121904464/" title="DSC02024 by rvc03, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2270/2121904464_23a5458ebb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC02024" /></a>

 

[glalderman]

man...don't know what to tell you...I have good flow out of riser...and no water out that hole...I am using the foam extractor but got just as good of results with the 9015 cup...

flow from riser:

72 hours of gunk pulled from a 120g (150g system total) moderately loaded tank...haven't even got my SPS in the tank yet...

Greg

 

[RONCGIZMO]

Wow Greg, If mine worked within 75% of that I wouldn't be complaining one bit...you got what you paid for, I got a seaclone with tunze's name on it.

 

[KimmoS]

These are the first pictures that I have seen of a 901x skimmer producing good skimmate! Mine makes just enough foam to fill the riser tube and it collects less than 100ml of very light skimmate per a day.

From ongoing threads here in RC I have collected few pointers with what I'm going to try to improve my skimmer's performance (9015).
- Check if any excess plastic is found in the venturi
- Check if the venturi performance is related to what direction the the air tube connector is pointing
- Restrict flow from the hole at the back
- Use a 9010 collection cup with my 9015

RONCGIZMO, without the cup your skimmers internal water surface looks very disturbed, mine has even surface of bubbles. Almost like your pump is blowing straight up and missing the deflector at the top.

glalderman, does the foam extractor have a bit shorter riser tube than a 9015 collection cup?


... can't figure out how there can be so much variation in the performance between these skimmers!

 

[MarkPo]

Greg's looks more like mine usually does. IMO, you're not pulling nearly enough water.

- Grating on pump intake all the way open? Should be a sliding cover over this, pump drawing water next to riser tube? Grating tight, internal insert seated correctly (I messed this up the first time, and don't like how it works, but figured it out eventually. Items 1, 2, and 5 on page 34, peice 2 fits snug on pump intake?)
- Impeller seems clean/spinning freely?
- Pump seated well- Not drawing water from inside the skimmer body?

 

[RONCGIZMO]

Yes to all.. I pulled out the pump and cleaned it made sure the output was in the hole when I put it back in I also made sure the prop was ok, at that time. the grate is wide open. what up with that hole in the back?

 

[glalderman]

The only issue I have with mine is that if it powers down it won't restart...just makes clicking noises...Roger told me there was an issue with a few impellers being a tad too long and sent me a new one ASAP....I just have been too lazy to pull the skimmer out and replace the impeller...and I haven't shut down the skimmer...next time I shut it down or the power cycles at the house I will put in the new piece...


Not sure about the difference in the reaction chamber sizes between the 9015 cup and the foam extractor...but here is a picture of mine running before I replaced the cup with the extractor...

again I believe this was either 72 or 96 hours of skimmate...I am sorry you guys are having trouble with your skimmers...don't know what to say...I love mine...it works great...I didn't have room for a big skimmer and was limited to something about the size of the 9015...and even then with the cup it was a very tight fit...that was the reason I got the extractor...

 

[glalderman]

KimmoS...did some research...on the extractor compared to the 9015 cup...and came up with this:

"The extractor is 1" shorter so you get a bit wetter foam. They are fairly comparable but the extractor is better able to wet skim."

Which seems right as I had to turn the air-screw in about 1 turn to dry the skim a little bit to my liking...


Greg

 

[smatter]

glalderman, looks like you maintain a constant water level in the skimmer compartment of your sump, why not 86 the sump kit and just use the mounting hardware or a magnet? The 9015 cup is a lot easier to clean than the extractor and that specimen cup.