Tunze 9004 dc

[Ayeron]

So I just received my protien skimmer in the mail today. I am wondering since this is my first skimmer how high do you want bubbles in the skimmer .. this is how I have it now . Please let me know thoughts. I have no idea how high up they r suppose go. I have attached a pic. Thanks

 

[Ron Reefman]

That looks OK. I have the same skimmer in my 16g tank. How big is your tank?

The level of bubbles will change if the water quality changes, like after feeding the tank, or if the water level changes or as the skimmate starts to build up inside the center tube. The lower the water level is on the front grille, the lower the bubbles will be inside the skimmer.

The idea is to get bubbles about where you have them.Watch it for a day or two. If nothing is flowing over into the collection cup, raise the level of the bubble a bit. If you set it so the bubbles overflow into the cup right from the start, in a day they will have filled the collection cup with more water than skimmate. You want the stuff in the collection cup to be kind of dark and scummy water. And during the running, really thick skimmate will collect on the inside of the center tube.

 

[Ayeron]

I have a 25g display with 10g sump
This morning I checked and the was some not a while lot of nasty green smelly stuff in the collection cup. I suppose that's what I'm looking for. I have it running at about 45 percent according to the knob on the controller

 

[Ron Reefman]

If it's nasty, green and smelly, what's what you want! My wife has a MUCH better sense of smell than I do. She asks me to clean the skimmers before they are full because she can smell them!

 

[Ayeron]

Awsome easier than I thought it would be.
Thanks for your man I appreciate it. Ppl make it out to be harder than it seems when your reading.. and break in and viniger bath .. I decided to just put it in and see what happens . Some ppl were saying do vinegar bath so said dont. Alot of opinions.. anyway thanks for the help.

 

[Ron Reefman]

A lot of people make this hobby harder than it has to be. Like running all kinds of reactors and chemicals. My old 40g tank has filter socks, a small refugium and a skimmer... that's it!

 

[Ayeron]

Bro your tank is awsome I just hope mine will look like that one day.
I do a weekly 2.5 gallon water change top off daily with distilled water have a filter sock and 2 small live rocks and some media and now the skimmer. It's really not that hard.
I have had mine up for about 2 months and my lfs has been testing my water every week for me i have snails 4 red leg hermits 1 cleaner shrimp a sexy shrimp. But it's so small I've seen him 2x since I got him always hiding . A yellow watchman and 2 blk and white clowns . Witch are now a pair. I m hooked on the hobby. I plan to add some soft coral thos weekend. Not sure what yet still reading. But I'm glad the skimmer went easy.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Take your time. There is an old saying in this hobby:
"Nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank!"

That tank I showed was my old 40g which was 2 years old and had be reasonably well stocked with corals from my previous tanks. I've been downsizing a lot!

But right now I'm working on a replacement for that over stocked 40g. So I built a new DIY 90g (36x30x20) tank. It's been up and running for a couple of months now and it's quite ugly. And it will take many months to get the new tank anywhere close to what the old tank looked like. TAKE YOUR TIME.

This is the new tank. There is more rock & coral to go in, but it's in other holding tanks after being dipped in hydrogen peroxide to kill off a nasty macro algae. And the zoas and palys slime A LOT when dipped. And the slime is loaded with paly toxin. So after a 5 minute dip, I do a 5 minute rinse in a bucket of saltwater and then into a holding tank for 7 to 10 days while the dead algae dissolves and falls away from the rock. That means 1 or 2 water changes during those 7 to 10 days. I'm hoping to get the final (OK, semi-final) rockscape started today.