Tunze 9004 skimmer overflowing... HELP!

[nim6us]

Okay so I got my Tunze 9004 installed yesterday, took a little doing but once I installed the extender bits for mounting it worked like a charm. It's sitting at the water level recommended in the Tunze documentation, the water line is about 1/2 way up the intake grill.

I plugged it up, everything seemed okay but when I got up this morning I found the top lid had been lifted up and the nasty foam was bubbling over the top and running back into the tank... YUCK! I emptied the collection cup and replaced it, but I noticed the lid is still being pushed up by the foam and I'm sure it will just overflow again. Also I'm not sure if this is right, but the collection cup is almost completely full of water, there's only about a half inch of the center collection pipe that's exposed, the rest is all under water. From some videos I've been searching for that collection cup area has either no water just the foam, or it's only about half full of water.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong, maybe the air tube that hangs off the back needs to be tightened? I've got a couple guesses, but before I just start screwing around I thought I ask for advice from people with experience.

It's currently turned off for the moment, but any help would be appreciated.

 

[Water Dog]

Is it brand new? Did you give it a vinegar bath prior to installation? Sounds like it's just breaking it in. Give it a while to develop a slimecoat / biofilm over everything. If you want, run it with the collection cup off for a bit. It just needs time to break in and will settle down in due time.

 

[Reef man 89]

I have the same skimmer and love it. Is the waterline were the mark is on the side of the skimmer? Also mine does that if the air tube is all the way open? I have the DC pump and I only have it at 60 percent or it will overflow if it's any higher.

 

[nim6us]

Thanks for the info!

I did not give it a vinegar bath, however I installed it while I was doing a water change and rinsed it in the cycled water.

Also yes my the skimmer is at the right level, and yes the air valve is wide open. Now that I have some confirmation I'll close it off a bit and see if that helps.

 

[nim6us]

Wow! Yeah that was it! I had to tighten the hose down quite a bit but that was the culprit regarding the over flow.

On a side note I really love this forum! Everyone has been so helpful and the responses come very quickly. When I'm freaking out about something in my tank I consistently get quicker answers here than I do from manufacturers and retail support.

I'm only a few weeks in but I'm starting to really love this hobby, it's so awesome to find a community of people who feel the same.

Thanks again!!

 

[Reef man 89]

Yea glad that helped I did the samething.

 

[AdrianJ]

I have the same skimmer and same experience...but the instructions say the hose should be wide open?

 

[nim6us]

Re-reading this thread has brought back some memories. Funny now I’ve moved on to a much bigger tank with a much bigger in-sump skimmer and I’m just breaking it in this week. A little over a year has passed and I made SO many mistakes along the way.. but I learned from them.

Anyway, you don’t care about that you need help

So yeah I had that skimmer and it was a pretty good performer. In the end I had to keep the water line more about 1/4 the way up the grill instead of 1/2 way to get the best results.

As far as the airline what worked was almost completely tightening it shut until the skimmer calmed down and then slowly opening it a little more each day. I’d give the knob a small turn open and wait to make sure the skimmer was stable. If it got crazy I’d turn it back down and wait until the next day and try again. Conversely if it was stable after the adjustment I’d still wait another day before I made the next turn to open it more.

To be fair it’s probably because the skimmer was new and just had to break in. Took me a little over a week fiddling with it, but in the end when it was dialed in it worked like a champ!