Tunze 9005

[Colossus067]

I recently purchased a Tunze 9005 for my 90 gallon tank that I started end of december 08. I was wondering if it is normal that it doesn't always skim? What I mean by that is bubbles are produces exept no skim comes out into the cup. It might happen for an hour or so, from ime to time. I respect the water limit and use it directly in my tank hang-on. I have about 11 fishes in there. My unit is cleaned as well...How much time should it take average to fill up the cup? A week, 2-3 days?

Thanks for your hel^p!

 

[rvitko]

It depends on the cause, any disturbance can cause skimming to stop for 1-24 hrs. These include putting hands in the tank, feeding, dosing, adding fresh water, doing a water change. If skimming stops after this it is normal, if it happens for no reason, it may not be normal.

 

[2006]

I have been running my 9005 for a couple weeks now and it is sensitive.

My tank is close to the kitchen and when I broiled steaks in the oven the other night and it killed the foam head for most of the night.

 

[Colossus067]

hummm thats exactly it, if I put food in, add water etc...it stops...is this considered to be a weakness on this type of model?

 

[rvitko]

This occurs to some extent with every skimmer but when you make a skimmer smaller you magnify the change that is created by additives, oils, etc. The 9005 is basically a 3 ft tall skimmer compressed into a 1ft high box. The bubbles and water pass through it roughly 3 times. When you do this on any brand of skimmer the effect of a change is 3 * what it would be on a standard 3ft high skimmer. It is not of much real consequence though as once things return to normal the skimmer picks up what it missed in the downtime. Even the 3ft high skimmer would see some interruption but it would likely be for less time.

 

[Colossus067]

Hey thanks for the info, very interesting honestly! One last question, will the skimmer skim less if I close the enclosure to 5%? Logicly I would think yes but Iwould like an expert to explain this to me

 

[rvitko]

It won't skim less most likely but it will have a slower response time. It may minimize the disturbance you are seeing now but it would take a longer time for a dead animal to be skimmed out. Basically in this set up, the skimmer recirculates most of the water internally so waste diffuses in by osmosis, this is slower than actively sucking in water from the tank.