Royal-Exclusiv / Vertex Cone Skimmer Club

[solRNY]

hey chris, i had a similar issue, couldnt choose between a 200 and 250 for awhile, finally just settle on the 250 for the extra capacity, and then i had another thought, just another $200 i can get a larger body and a extra pump, stupid me, so...

<-- soon to be owner of a 300

gl with your decision

 

[Haxer]

What is the neck size on the Alpha 300 ? Also would this be too much skimmer for a 220 DT with 70 G sump, with a possible upgrade to a 300 DT in the future ?

 

[eran]

So, I am having issues. I had the skimmer sitting in 8 3/4" of water and there was a nice head formed and I had been skimming pretty wet. I unplugged the skimmer and now the thing will not form a head again. I have left it running for close to 6 hours to see if it fell because I had feed earlier. But it is still not forming a head. I then moved it down to just over 9" of water and still the same thing. Not sure what to do.

 

[eran]

well, I woke up this morning and all is well. I might have had a small bit of dry wall mud dust fall in my skimmer tank and that might have caused the issue. Dunno

 

[eran]

let me take that last post back. When I looked this morning it was just starting to form a small head but wasnt all the way to the top. well, there is now no head and just bubbling away. what is going on. Nothing else has been done to the tank. any ideas???

 

[HeneryH]

I know it has been said here that the skimmer performs better once a good slime coat has formed in the neck. My skimmer got to the point where there were what looked like mud chips lying in the bottom of the chamber. While they mostly sink, some were outflowing from the discharge pipe into the fuge.

How often do you disassemble the skimmer and give it a good cleaning?

 

[Jeremy B.]

eran - Let the skimmer slime back up and you'll be fine. Depending on what you cleaned, and how well you cleaned it, it could be like breaking it back in again. Also, if you're really oversized it will take longer to come back up.

 

[solRNY]

i have to say PA and josh have the best customer service! I ordered on friday @ 2:00 and got this baby today monday! superb shipping!

question i have is what is the right most hole used for? its seems that it can be removed

 

[slief]

i have to say PA and josh have the best customer service! I ordered on friday @ 2:00 and got this baby today monday! superb shipping!

question i have is what is the right most hole used for? its seems that it can be removed

Its in case you need need to relocate one of the pumps to the opposite side of the skimmer. Remove the plug, attach the pump and fill the vacant pipe with the plug.

 

[solRNY]

Its in case you need need to relocate one of the pumps to the opposite side of the skimmer. Remove the plug, attach the pump and fill the vacant pipe with the plug.

thanks for the info, wonder why its not welded on like the other two pipes...

has anyone tried recirulating with the extra pipe?

 

[Wilberheim]

I recently bought an alpha 200 and it has been running in my system for about a month now. I have little bioload ( no fish yet ) I do have a lot of corals tho all SPS. I like the skimmer it just dosen't seem to work consistantly all the time. At least once a week without touching anything or even being around the tank it will overflow violently to the point of pushing the lid off the collection cup. Opening the wedge pipe does nothing to calm it down and I have to unplug it for a couple hours for it to calm down.

It is sitting in 8" of water on a stand. I am not dosing anything or feeding the corals. Wedge pipe is about 3/4's closed to get it to skim just below the rim on the collection cup. The water level in the sump does not change either.

Help would be great becuase this is getting old...

thanks

 

[Jeremy B.]

A couple of things have got to be happening......

-Wedge pipe is more than 3/4 closed, and you just can't tell, thus running a much higher water level to get the skimmer to skim (you have no bioload in the tank, the skimmer won't work).
-Sump level is varying somewhat, even 1/4" - 1/2" will make a difference.
-Something is getting in the water to cause the reaction

There has to be a reason for the oveflow. It's physically impossible for the skimmer to just overflow for no reason (the pump can not speed up and slow down). I would recommend going back and checking these things. In all honesty, you have essentially no bioload on the system. This tells me that you need to run the water level really high into the neck to try and get the skimmer to work. 3/4 closed in 8" of water would not get the water level that high, which tells me it's probably closed more than 3/4. Having said all this, it's probably running 3" or so from the top of the neck, which is entirely too high.

Let me know what you find out.

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[Jeremy B.]

thanks for the info, wonder why its not welded on like the other two pipes...

has anyone tried recirulating with the extra pipe?

The injection pipes shouldn't be heat welded or glued in, all three are removeable, although a tight fit, so becareful when doing it.

 

[Wilberheim]

A couple of things have got to be happening......

-Wedge pipe is more than 3/4 closed, and you just can't tell, thus running a much higher water level to get the skimmer to skim (you have no bioload in the tank, the skimmer won't work).
-Sump level is varying somewhat, even 1/4" - 1/2" will make a difference.
-Something is getting in the water to cause the reaction

There has to be a reason for the oveflow. It's physically impossible for the skimmer to just overflow for no reason (the pump can not speed up and slow down). I would recommend going back and checking these things. In all honesty, you have essentially no bioload on the system. This tells me that you need to run the water level really high into the neck to try and get the skimmer to work. 3/4 closed in 8" of water would not get the water level that high, which tells me it's probably closed more than 3/4. Having said all this, it's probably running 3" or so from the top of the neck, which is entirely too high.

Let me know what you find out.

Thanks,
Jeremy

Thanks for the quick response, I plan on purchasing fish soon (like this afternoon). Every time I go to get em I am just a little to late and somebody else already picked em up. I also have the ozone injection hose installed which I will need to remove since I am not injecting ozone.

I have notiched when it does overflow it's more of a stream of water coming out the top rather than bubbles.

 

[Proline]

Check the impeller for fleck of junk stuck between the pins. That can cause a decrease in air volume which results in an increased water turnover. With the wedge pipe closed so far, you can end up with a scenario where the water backs up to the venturi line and the skimmer loses its air draw. BAM - flood.

HTH's

- Albert

 

[Wilberheim]

I removed the ozone injection hose and almost instanly had better foam...weird. I also bought a pretty good sized kole tang and im hunting for more fish now.

I am also changing up my system to old my filter socks to clean up the incoming water before it hits the skimmer, and hopefully it will stop anything large from gettting sucked in.

 

[redstile]

Looks great actually, the only thing that I would recommend you do is to slightly close (approximately 1/16 of a turn) on the wedge pipe, slightly raising the water level. Again, only 1/16 of a turn on the wedge to the closed position, and this will do the trick.

Hi Jeremy after your suggestion I have raise the level in sump, now is 25cm this is the picture and skimmate after three day cleaning, what do you think ?

ths

 

[Jeremy B.]

Looks good! The skimmer can only pull out what is there. It appears that it's still running pretty dry by looking at the neck, and dependent upon what's actually available in the system to skim out, this is no problem at all. I would be worried if the neck was still clean, and the cup was mostly empty.

 

[Jeremy B.]

We are pleased to announce that Vertex is offering a March sale on all Alpha cone skimmers of 10% off, plus free shipping!

Alpha 170 $699.99

Alpha 200 $809.99

Alpha 250 $1079.99

Alpha 300 $1259.99

 

[solRNY]

gota love PA!
so i got my alpha300 a week earliear than the current sale, talked to Josh about this and am estatic that he gave me the difference in credit! keep up the great service!