Coralife 65 super skimmer problems...

[Cheeser]

ok so its been 72 hrs and my skimmer is still spraying micro bubbles into my tank.i made sure everythings tight. i know it needs to break in but im not sure if its ever gonna break in or maybe i have it set up wrong? i looked through the forums and made a few mods by raising the water pump higher and the box higher and raised the black pad a little. i think it still leaks from the box AND the water pump valve..
my tanks like 5 months old.
i dont know what to do? i dont wanna have to get a new skimmer.:pooh:

any suggestions?

 

[Cheeser]

been 4 days...still bubbles. i emailed coralife and they said that newer tanks have more 'surface tension'. what does that mean exactly?
is it just cuz my tanks newer it might b taking longer for the skimmer to break in? ive heard of people sayind there skimmer took like a week. should i just give it time?

 

[valasaraptor]

coralife usually run into problems like this....i bought the 65..and a month later it was still spitting out micro bubbles

 

[Cheeser]

ok well i sealed one of the leaks in the flow control with a thin coat of pvc cement.around the seam. and i shoved a piece of polyfiber in the return...
no more bubbles!!! =)

 

[Bertie]

Cheeser,

I'm trying to apply your instructions to my Tunze Nano, but can't quite understand your terms. I've never had a 'new age' skimmer before and I don't know exactly what you painted or where you put the PVC. I've been putting up with bubbles for almost 4 months now. Help!

 

[Cheeser]

can u tell exactly where the bubbles are coming out of?
mine were coming out from a seam in the flow control valve which is just above the powerhead....
i just filled the seam with a thin coat of pvc cement so nothing could escape.
the bubbles coming from the return i shoved a bit of polyfiber in the box just to help diffuse the bubbles a little better.

 

[Bertie]

Thanks, Cheezer.

The source of the bubbles is not visible, because the skimmer is in a black refugium, and the unit itself is opaque. I suppose we could put it in a spagetti pot and watch carefully. I doubt there is a crack in the seams. I can't even see any seams. The bubbles might be coming out of the input grid at the bottom, which would have to mean there is a faulty connection along the pipe from the air intake up at the top to the place at the bottom where the air mixes with the impeller. I was suspecting the bubbles were oozing out between the unit and the tube where the cup slips in, but that was only because that was the only place visible. I hesitate to take the whole thing apart because Tunze warned us of the fragility of the impeller system and the whole thing was so very expensive (for a 30 gal. skimmer, that is.)

Obviously, though, we'll have to take it out and hope the 100 lb magnet doesn't flatten one of our fingers.

Thanks again.

 

[Cheeser]

yeah man it was reall easy for me to pinpoint where they were coming from.. it would try to run ur skimmer in a bucket or something to where u might be able to easier see whats going on. but yeah skimmers are fairly simple devices. as long as there arent any obstructions in a line somewhere..... or leaks...

 

[Bertie]

Cheezer! Thank you!

Don't say skimmers are relatively simple, because Tunze told us that twisting our impeller off by 1 mm would wreck it, but sometimes their problems are.

We had the same problem you did, in a different form. We put our skimmer in the s'getti pot to see where the bubbles were coming from, but saw no bubbles, anywhere, because we were using tap water, which doesn't seem to bubble in a skimmer. But we took it all apart and cleaned the thing and the put it back into its black hole and turned it on and . . .

Lo! Bubbles erupting from the place where the top of the unit snaps onto the main body. With Ron on one side and me on the other we snapped down hard and
No bubbles coming out.

So ours wasn't even faulty. Just not very user-friendly.

Thanks again. What a simple hint - look for where the bubbles are coming from - and I didn't think of it in 3 months of stewing!

 

[Cheeser]

bad ass...glad to hear man...