Coral Box - DC 500 (what a mess?)

[DarthChaos]

Ok, so I ordered this skimmer....Coral Box DC500 - reviews seemed positive.

Got lost in the mail coming to me, but eventually made it today.

I go ahead and setup this bad boy, seemed pretty solid construction. Right away - I had nice big bubbles and skimmer was very quiet.

As I started making subtle adjustments....the intake door (that the long plastic adjustment screw goes into) falls off. Ok - no biggie.....then I noticed, the chamber door doesn't go up and down easily. I have to push down on it - and can feel it pop as it drops....then, as I try to adjust it and bring it up - the whole peice just slides right up and out? Really....

Well - then I try dropping the speed, see if that improves the skim that has now all but vanished. As I test different speeds, I notice - as I pass LEVEL 5 - the entire skimmer rattles. As I go up in speed, I get better skim, but now the entire skimmer is rattling and shaking rattling my entire cabinet.

Less than 5 hours - out of the box to OMG.

Is adjusting and tuning this thing supposed to be a colossal nightmare? I see they really advertise a "quiet" motor - but this motor rattles so much I can't even use it at higher speeds.

Any ideas? Suggestions? Help?

 

[DarthChaos]

Ok, so seems if I pull and manipulate the hose attached to the pump, I can relieve some of the rattling. After I did this and increased the pump speed, it immediately started generating some skim.

Thanks for the help

 

[Wilz]

you might want to try pushing the orange plastic piece where the air intake hose is attached to as far in towards the pump as possible. for the level adjustment gate, check which way round you have the gate, is the right angle part pointing towards or away from the skimmer body?