Tunze depth with no line on skimmer

[mcoomer]

I just picked up a used 9002 for the little 20G that I have by my bench in the garage and have a question about initial setup. The water line marking is long gone so I wasn't sure how deep to place the skimmer. I let it run for a day then raised it so that it set pretty high in the tank. I opened the air valve all the way and then slowly lowered the skimmer over the course of a few hours until it was skimming very wet. From there, I closed down the air valve until it seemed to be pulling decent skimmate from the tank. In 12-14 hours I get about half a cup of light colored skimmate. I'm probably going to close the air valve a pinch more and call it good.

Does that sound about right? Is there a good number for the height from the top of the skimmer body to the water? I know it's not rocket science but I also understand that some products can be finicky and if there's a better way to do this I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[rvitko]

7-8.6" of the skimmer should be submerged, the ideal is 8-8.5". If you don't have a gurgling noise and it skims, the water level should be OK.

 

[mcoomer]

Seems that I'm pretty close. In 10 hours, from last night until this morning, the skimmer pulled out just under a half cup of skimmate. I think I'm going to turn the air valve in just a hair and call it good.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[thunt]

Hi

I've just bought a 9002. I've noticed several replies from Roger saying the ideal depth of the skimmer is for the water level to be 1/2" below the waterline marked on the skimmer:

"the marked water line is a maximum, the ideal is roughly 1/4" to 1/2" below that"

This differs from the above, which recommends immersion depth of 8-8.5". This would place the water line indicator below the water level.

The reason I ask is that due to a brace bar that runs along the back of my tank, placing the skimmer below the brace bar would mean that the skimmer is immersed to about 8.25" - i.e. the marked water line will be 1/2" under water.

The differing views above is not clear to me if this is going to be OK. Can you advise please? This is a UK version as I also noticed the US/Eur models have different pump power which affects the depth.

Thanks

Tim

 

[rvitko]

On the unit I checked here, the water line corresponds with 8" submersion. I do however see the catalog suggesting 7-8.6". This may be a difference from 50Hz to 60Hz models, the 60Hz model is slightly stronger and definitely won't work well submerged past the water line. If you here any gurgling or percolating noise, it is too deep, this noise would mean water is being drawn into the air intake and reducing air flow.

 

[thunt]

The water level is about 1/4" below the lid of the skimmer. That's well below the air intake so there is no water entering the air intake.

Would this be an acceptable level for the skimmer to function?

Tim

 

[thunt]

Can I also check that when you refer to the air intake, do you mean the hole at the other end of where the blue screw is, or is there an air intake hole lower down?

Thanks

 

[rvitko]

If it is skimming well and not producing noise, you should be OK, on US models that bit of extra power from the pump will suck in water by pulling it up between the cup and skimmer lid even with a roughly 1/4" gap.