berlin skimmer

[aceiswild7]

i hooked up my skimmer about 6 days ago and water seems to be flowing fine and the foam is sometimes rising but nothing has gone over the top into the collection cup and so the level keeps rising and dropping with nothing going out of the skimmer ... why is this not doing anything i cant imagine it is benifitting my tank very much this way
thanx the Q is what can be done to make it work .. also the air valve is open all the way

 

[mr . salty]

How long has this tank been setup??How many and what kind of fish do you have in this tank???There may not be anything to skim if the tank is very young,or there is not enough fish in the tank to produce excess waste...It also could be out of adjustment..Try turning up the air if possible...

 

[aceiswild7]

the air is turned all the way up
the specs are as follows
i have 2 big overflow bio filters
the skimmer (berlin XL)
a UV light 15 watts i believe
its a 125 gal tank with lots of live and base rock
9 yellow clown gobies 1 green one
powder blue tang
pair of daimond gobies
nox angel
coral beauty
flame angel
mandarin
2 shark cats (acclimated from brackish)
2 firefish
2 royal grammas
tamato clown
juvie emperor angel
3 small carpet anemones
3 pink tip anemones
sea apple
serpent star
canary blennie
swallowtail angel
4 worm gobies
i believe thats all and i apologize to you and the fish for those i miss
while this may seem like a crazy number of fish for such a new tank .... it is
but the filtration is great and the readings are great also nitrates are under 10 as of last week no ammonia or nitrite but i am bothered by the skimmer not doing anything
thanx

 

[b_ball12_99]

It is possible you are still in the break in period. Did you keep the skimmer turned down for 2 days before cranking it up? I rune the Berlin Turbo Hang On Skimmer and was getting about a cup of crud a week and it has started to drop as most of the waste has been cleaned out of the tank (I don't have a big bio load yet).

 

[aceiswild7]

no i started it turned all open thats what it said to do on the box should i turn down the input of air? or leave it open

 

[wastedincome420]

What size pump are you feeding the skimmer with?I use a rio 2100 on my Berlin skimmer and works great

 

[aceiswild7]

im using a mag drive 500 should i get a bigger one?

 

[jimi]

Yes, you definately should have a larger pump on it to make it function correctly. At least a mag 7, which is what I have on mine.

 

[aceiswild7]

ill get a larger one in a few days thanx for the advice
the manual said a 500 gallon pump would work but its not a problem

 

[aceiswild7]

i wanted to try an idea today and i hooked the inlet tube for the air into an air pump so that the flow of air would be increased it worked great a little to great though but i noticed it took out a lot of garbage that must have been stuck in the skimmer so i shut it after a few seconds but is that a good idea ? i cant think of any downside of it until i get the new pump

 

[@knight]

the red sea turbo upgrade kits are less expensive than a mag 7 pump and have an air injection system. you might look into getting one. mine ran about 65.

 

[b_ball12_99]

If you get the Berlin Turbo upgrade kit then you will need to call 1-888-redsea9 and have them send you the new 3rd generation propeller, they will have it to you in about a week.

 

[@knight]

the odd thing is, the pumps impeller and the replacement look identical, do you know what the problem is with the impeller?

 

[tangman99]

The first two impellors were too heavy and the pump would not always restart if it lost power. The pump is a hydor and is made overseas where it was designed on 220V standards. The 110V we have here just would not always kick it over.
The second generation impellor was made the same size, but a little lighter. That also did not work. From what I understand, the third generation impellor has slightly smaller blades so it requires less torque to kick it over. I've had mine in for about 3 weeks now and it has restarted fine. The first and second one only took a couple of time unplugging the pump before it would not restart requiring you to take the pump apart.
Tangman

 

[b_ball12_99]

The 3rd generation perpeller is the real deal. Can't have the venturi air intake wide open but it has always restarted for me. I've walked by several times and unplugged it and plugged it back up (sometimes waiting awhile) to make sure it restarted, hasn't failed yet.

 

[trillionaire]

I just go tmy berlin turbo yesterday. I hope I have the new pump.

 

[b_ball12_99]

You should call the number just to be safe. You can start with the one you have if you don't want to wait on the new one. They just started the 3rd generation propeller a few weeks ago so you have a high chance you don't have the 3rd one.