Berlin Red Sea...blah!

wontonflip

wontonflip

I failed Kobayashi Maru
Ok..I've read all the bad things about this skimmer, but I don't want to go out and shell out any more money for another one...at least, not right *now*...I want to get this thing working at least...I've read some posts from some people who did get it working. I know the quick fix is get a better skimmer, but that's not an option right at this moment...it's something I will do later down the line.

Anyway, I have a Berlin Red Sea skimmer, bought it used, and also got a brand new Rio 2500 to use on it. I have the skimmer in my sump, sitting in about 7 or so inches in water. I got it to work once where it pushed out nice dry bubbles with gunk. Then I had to tweak some things with the sump, and now I can't get it to work properly. I'm getting bubbles, but it's very very wet, and water comes up if I don't set the outputs just right.

The outputs have pvc on them, one dumping it its own compartment, and the other dumping into the fuge. I think my main problem is that the water level inside the skimmer is to the top. There are 2 small output holes as well before the main outputs. Should I cap those?? Water is coming out of them. When I did cap them, the water is so high that it had nowhere to go but out of the part of the skimmer where the top cup connects to the main body.

I can take a picture later if this isn't clear, but can anyone for starters give me tips on how to make the water level not so high? Or should it be high? Ungh. What a pain! But I don't want to give up on this yet. Again, I realize the quick answer is to just ditch this and get another, but I'm trying to avoid that at this point.
 
I'd say you seem to have answered your self already. I'd help but I never seen or had that type of skimmer and without a pic I'm not sure what it is.
 
Yeah....I think I've got it working. I have no fish, just crabs and snails, so my water wasn't too dirty (except a nitrates problem), but now, I've let it sit, and slowly, I'm getting my desired dry foam and mucky stuff creeping up : )
 
Cool glad to here you got it working. :) For me, IMHO anything that is made by RedSea is junk. But that's just me. I find there products to be cheap gimmicks, or stepping stone's to the new-bi that waste money and time. I started it with the "OH SO AWESOME PRIZIM" skimmer on a 90g tank. LFS guy said it was the "top of the line" skimmer. Maybe it is for a 5 gallon tank. It broke within a month, as did the second one. And neither of them ever worked, just kept me tinkering with me was all.
 
Yeah, at least I didn't pay $200 for it :) I got it used for $30 (plus I bought a rio 2500 pump for $50). So it's no huge loss on me if it broke. RIght now, I got it working so that it's slowly pushing nice dry foam out. Later down the line, we're going work out way up to a 150gallon some time next year. By then, we'll have done our trial and errors on this tank that we will be able to properly set up a larger more efficient tank. I'll have a better skimmer for that one!
 
i used a berlin on my 75 gallon, worked great just make sure to keep your pump and skimmer neck clean and it will kick butt. i took hose off pump and went to hardware store so i could buy fitting to plumb pump straight to skimmer connection and it work even better yet.
 
So question for you, D.French -- i don't know which berlin skimmer you have...mine is the classic one. On the output at the top, there are 2 extra fish tube sized connectors. I have water spewing out of it right now. If I cap it off, the water seeps out from the base of the neck area seal. Is that normal? Luckily the skimmer's sitting in a sump, so the leak doesn't matter. Is the rio 2500 pump too strong, maybe? I was told that pump was ideal for that skimmer. Any takes on that?
 
i had the classic also, with two drain lines coming from top of skimmer body, never blocked them off i let them drain wide open, i had mine in 8 inches of water in sump. just keep pump clean and it will work real good and if it slows down than your bioload is probally low and skimmer took care of most gunk.
 
also check were your airline is connected cause if your air flow is getting blocked at all your water flow will be to fast and pulling less air. i have to clean both my skimmers on both my tanks alot and even though its just air going through air line the end line were air enter into skimmer were air meets water salt creep will build up there causing skimmer not to work correctly, i had to use a small nail and shove it through almost breaking mine cause salt build up was so bad. running pump in vinegar and water in a small bucket or like i do irun the whole skimmer in kitchen sink full of vinegar and water for couple of hours and make sure to scrub clean cause acid from vinegar and using warm water will break up all that gunk. If you lucky just letting water run through that air line might dissolve build up alone.
 
I currently have just crabs and snails in the tank, so the foam has slowed down, but it is a nice dry foam, and definitely bringing up the gunk, as you can see by the pictures -- the output neck is yucky green (time to clean it I guess!) :)

Go here to see my skimmer in action:
http://www.nilad.com/wonton/tank/skimmer/skimmer.html

Ignore the background noise...husband was using his power tools...hehehe.

smskimmer2.jpg


smskimmer1.jpg
 
drain lines need to both drain downwards and make sure the screw on airline is opened enough to get more air in, if it looks like a tornado in there than its wrong.
 

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