Skimmers

[pmb_67]

Ok dudes and dudettes, here's the thing. I just set up my new tank (Rena 1.5 metre job, works out at about 400 litre capacity I reckon), got everything [twin heaters, twin Koralia pumps, twin XP2 filters - the shop didn't have the XP3 that should have come with it, but this was I get more turnover and am less vulnerable to one filter failing!] positioned, then tap water filled the tank for leak testing, turned everything on one by one, all was fine until I turned the skimmer - a TMC V2 Skim 600 - on. Two problems:

1) The skimmer leaked overnight. Well, I'm pretty sure it was the skimmer, in that no new puddle of water has appeared on the floor since I removed it and left everything else running, and it was dripping a bit... Now, is this just some sort of settling down thing while it finds the right water level, or do I have a dodgy example that should go back to the shop?

2) It's REALLY NOISY!!! I could just about tolerate the noise myself, but there's no way my wife will - she's already putting up with this beast of a tank taking up half the free wall space in the living room, so asking her to put up with the noise as well is out of the question. Some questions spring to mind:
a: Do I need to run the skimmer 24/7, or can I use another timer to have a quiet period say between 7 and 8am and 8pm and 11pm (which is when we're in the room usually) - or just turn it off manually when it's too noisy?
b: Will the skimmer be any quieter when the water is salted and the bubbles are presumably smaller? The bubbles are a bit large at the mo, much larger than I was expecting from what I'd read, anyway...
c: Are there any quieter makes of skimmer out there?
d: Any other suggestions?

That's all for now - would appreciate any help as if I can't sort this out then it looks like I'm going to have to just have a big old freshwater tank instead. Which would be nice of course, just not as nice as the vision of a beautiful marine tank I have in my head

Thanks in advance

Paul

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, wait you tried to run the skimmer without salted water? They can't physically function without high specific gravity and that's prolly why it malfunctioned and spilled water on the floor

A) Yes you can run it on a timer for convenience. If you do, run it "dry" for safety
B) Yes it will be quieter both with salt and after a few weeks/month as it builds up with gunk. What's noisy? (air inlet? powerhead? bubbles?)
C) In-sump models are always quieter, but obviously require a sump. I also hear the Tunze 9002 is quiet but that one's internal
D) Why do you want/need a skimmer? What livestock are you planning on that will require it

 

[pmb_67]

Thanks SkiFletch.

Heh, wait you tried to run the skimmer without salted water? They can't physically function without high specific gravity and that's prolly why it malfunctioned and spilled water on the floor

Don't worry, I'm not trying to run the skimmer on a freshwater tank - I was just following my LFS's advice and running the whole tank with tapwater (cheap) rather than RO + Salt (expensive and would have been one nasty salty mess yesterday morning). Oh, and the skimmer is leaky - I filled it and stood it in a dry bucket overnight, this morning it's sitting in a 1/4-full bucket of water

C) In-sump models are always quieter, but obviously require a sump. I also hear the Tunze 9002 is quiet but that one's internal

Sump sounds a good idea - but a problem cabinet-wise. Apparently the V2 can also run as an internal skimmer, but generally in-sump - to run internally in the tank I'd have to cut an even bigger hole in the lid than I'll have to for the piping with it fixed up as a hang-on.

B) Yes it will be quieter both with salt and after a few weeks/month as it builds up with gunk. What's noisy? (air inlet? powerhead? bubbles?)

As for the noise, it seemed to be a mixture of the air inlet and the actual bubbling bit - it was much quieter when I covered the inlet. But of course that stopped the bubbles... Wondering if I can silicone some airline tubing over the inlet hole then run that down into the cabinet so the air intake is at least a little more out of earshot?

A) Yes you can run it on a timer for convenience. If you do, run it "dry" for safety
D) Why do you want/need a skimmer? What livestock are you planning on that will require it

That's cool about the timer. I'm using a skimmer cos basically everything I've read / been told says I need one if I'm going the marine/reef route with fish and lower light inverts. I'd go full-on reef with SPS corals etc. in a year or two, but don't reckon I can get the wife to agree to the lighting and the lid being off the tank (she says the water noise at the surface makes her want the bathroom all the time!).

Thanks again, any more tips from anyone more than welcome

Paul

 

[cynos]

I use the exact same skimmer and mine leaks too, I've mine in the sump so it doesnt really matter.
Mines dead silent though, have you the silencer on it?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah it should come with a silencer... If not, stick a foam block over the inlet, that'll quiet it right down.

If you want to do a test, mix a cup of regular table salt with a gallon of water and do it that way. Will give you a nice high specific gravity

 

[pmb_67]

I use the exact same skimmer and mine leaks too, I've mine in the sump so it doesnt really matter.
Mines dead silent though, have you the silencer on it?

Silencer? What silencer? Time to dig through the box of goodies it came with, I think. Though that won't solve the leak

 

[cynos]

I use the exact same skimmer and mine leaks too, I've mine in the sump so it doesnt really matter.
Mines dead silent though, have you the silencer on it?

Silencer? What silencer? Time to dig through the box of goodies it came with, I think. Though that won't solve the leak

Yes its a small little barrel with 2 connections on the top
About the size of a C battery I think, clips in just where the bracket is that holds it to the tank, will take a picture when I get home today.
Can you fiqure out where its actually leaking from?
If you bought it local bring it back and try swapping it for another one

 

[SkiFletch]

yeah, by "leaking" do you mean it's overflowing the collection cup?

 

[pmb_67]

yeah, by "leaking" do you mean it's overflowing the collection cup?

I wish. Well, kind of, I mean I'd rather it weren't leaking at all... No, it's leaking from somewhere around the body - even turned off with the water level nowhere near the cup - I did wonder if it was just overflowing as I read the level can go up and down initially. I filled it and stood it in a dry, empty bucket overnight - no longer dry and empty come morning. Going back to the LFS today, hoping they've got another in stock )

Paul

 

[pengy666]

There is an airline supplied with the v2 600, no baffle thats only with 800 and up!

My skimmer its a V2 1000 imho one of the best on the market!!

If you got the tank in your bedroom or something its gonna be noisy, The V2's arent noisy really I think you just noticed it because you sleeping in same room as it!

Heres the 600 (i just sold)

 

[pmb_67]

Well, first off thanks everybody who's posted a reply. I've finally got a replacement non-leaking skimmer and it's sat on the tank fizzing away fairly nicely right now. And yes, it's quieter with much smaller bubbles as I added salt over the last week or so. It's not as quiet as I'd like, but I'm hoping it'll settle over the Christmas week (Happy Christmas to all, btw!). No silencer supplied, just a short length of airline with a weird two-piece plastic device attached, I put this on but it's not really reducing the noise at all. I'm assuming adding an airline flow valve to this would be a bad thing, reducing the skimmer's efficiency?

All is not, of course, simple in the world of pmb_67's tank set up. I had a concern with the first tank set-up that as the skimmer had to sit between the two light bars of my Rena Aqualife, I'd need to move it any time I wanted to take the back light bar out. Not too big a problem, as I don't plan to very often - I reckon I need to take the front one out to do water changes though as the gap between light tube and tank edge is pretty thin. I've now got the skimmer sat in the back corner, so no need to shift it when moving the lights... The main issue is wherever I put it, I'm gonna need to cut out a piece of the tank lid for the inlet and outlet pipes - kind of concerned this is a one-way trip and means I can't change my mind about the location...

Oh, and another thing - the way it's all set up now, I can't get the V2 Bubble Stop on the end of the outlet - which means right now the Koralia pump sat right next to the outlet (so the skimmed water gets pushed around the tank rather than flowing straight back down to the pump!) is blowing a lot of small air bubbles around the tank. This can't be good, surely? I'm told it's bad for any fish, as well as looking pretty unrealistic in the absence of any scuba divers in the tank...

Any suggestions? I stuffed a cut-down Fluval 2+ filter [I have one in my freshwater tank] sponge (a new clean one) up the end of the outlet partly to stop anything climbing up there, hoping it might also function as a bubble-stop kind of thing - but it doesn't. The problem with the Bubble Stop is that I can't clamp it to the side like I'm supposed to as it fouls the light bars - it was ok when mounted between the lights, I guess there was more room that way - so maybe I can somehow just tie it to the end of the outlet with plastic zipties. Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Paul