Coralife Super Skimmer 65.... anyone have?

[sjg22483]

Hi, recently my tank had a rise in nitrates and nitrites, I think it was because my other protein skimmer wasn't working properly. I got a Coralife Super Skimmer 65, and it seems to be a really good and efficient skimmer. HOWEVER, there is a little "bubble diffuser" cup on the output of the skimmer, and whenever I turn on the bubbles, the diffuser still lets lots of bubbles into my tank. Does anyone have this model, and any suggestions to reduce the number of bubbles? I have the skimmer hanging on the back of the tank. Any tips would be wonderful. I have had the skimmer running for 3 days, so I figure it still isn't completely broken in, but I don't see how breaking it in will reduce the microbubbles it spits into my tank. Thanks

 

[jcrim]

Do you have any sponge in the box??? I got the Super Skimmer 220 yesterday and it works great.

 

[chipmaker]

There sure has been aheap of this same info on this site over the last month but here it is again....
Rasie your pump up to within 1 1/2" or so of the top of the water level..Disregard the instructins telling you to put it around 8" below.....Pitch the bubble diffuser box and use a foam filter sleeve from a MAG3 or 5 pondmaster pump in its place, and make sure your outflow tube elbow and any additional tube you may have used is "at" or above water level, not under the water. Only open the red adjustment valve so the bubbles in the reaction chamber are between the red collection cup retaing ring, and the bottom of the funnel of the collection cup. If you do not have access to a foam type filter sleeve yu can use a block of foam like the diffuser box has in it, and just cut to fit on the elbow. I keep my elbow completely out of the water (about 1") and have only the foam sleeve extending into the water perhaps 1/2", and do not use a tube between the outleft end of outflow elbow and foam sleeve..... Zero bubbles produced, lots of nice dark green/black skim and quiet...
Also make sure your air inlet tube is free and unkinked and the outflow bleed

[hr]
is unobstructed.... IIRC the new setuyp instructions posted on Coralifes website has the pump set abut 3" into the water,. but the higher you can get it the better. I do not use nor is it needed that grey control valve, and simply cut a piece of the enclosed grey vynil tube so the pump was attached tightly to the inlet tube fitting, which put the pump approx 1 to 1 1/2" below the tanks max water level.
Odds are your skimmer came packed with an obsolete setup insturction sheet. New instructions are on coralifes site, which is basically as posted above with the exception of the bubble diffuser box elimination. I posted about that as 9 out of 10 folks like to get rid of it anyhow as its big and ugly....

 

[sjg22483]

Ok, so here's my problems...
when i was first setting it up, I left off the grey control valve, and no matter where I adjusted the red control nozzle, I had water pouring into the collection cup; so I think i need the grey control valve. I had called coralife and they had told me the same thing, to get the pump as close to the surface as possible, but since i still needed the grey control valve on it I was only able to get it to about 3 inches below the surface... however, set up like that (and with a valve to control the airflow that I installed), I was able to produce some really good bubble filtration, but with TONS of microbubbles overflowing through the "bubble diffuser" into my tank.
I had the sponges in the bubble diffuser, but it just kept overflowing, the water didn't flow down through the bubble diffuser hardly at all, as far as I could tell the microbubbles were going down to the bottom sponge, not going through, and then creeping up the sides of the diffuser so as to avoid the black sponge, and then falling directly into my tank.
So I guess my next step is this: I'm going to leave the grey control valve on; along with my valve on the airline, and ditch the bubble diffuser in exchange for the other sponge. I need some help though... I have no idea what it looks like. Can you buy them by themselves? If so, what do they look like, what brand works best, etc.... (attach a picture if you can or something) For now I took the skimmer out and am using my old one that doesn't work so well anymore, but I can tell that the new skimmer is much better than my old one as soon as I can ditch the microbubbles. Thank a lot for the advice!

 

[chipmaker]

Ditch that grey control valve as well, you will not miss it and it will work much better.....What/where valve on airline.There shold not be any valves on the air line, it can cause restriciton and induce problems.....Coral life warns about it as wlel as others that tired that route, that adding anyhting to the air line eventually bites you in the butt. Extend the air line if need be, or add another piece of it to the silencer, but do not add any restrictive devices to it.
Try garden and pond centers for the preformed filter sleeves, or you can get them online from sites that sell Danner MAG drive pumps. I have even seen em in Petsmarts stores in the ponding section.
You can make a foam filter but its m0ore trouble than its worth, and there are a few ways to do it. Block of foam material make hole in center to accomplish fristion fit(does not take much friction at all) and slip it up on over end of elbow.......make sure it has a bottom in it, with the bottom and sides being at least 1/2" of foam filter material...I found through experimentation that foam with a porosity rating of 30 pores per inch works great. You can get RENA filter pads called Filstar Foam 30's and usiing marine goop or super glue fashion them into a tube and glue on a bottom or buy a typical chunk of foam as used in the Aqua clear filters and whittle/cut you a sl;eeve from the chunk.You need about a 2 x 2 x 3 inch piece.
Once you initially install the foam pre filter sleeve you will notice some micro bubbles, but once the sponges breaks in so to speak they dissapear......

 

[sjg22483]

thanks, yeah, my store had suggested using the restrictor on the airline... I just used one of the things that go on air lines for freshwater tanks and split up airflow 2 ways... they're like a buck anyplace, but it's not important, I'll ditch it next time I try to set up the filter. There's a petsmart about 20 minutes from me so I might run over there later this afternoon to see what they have there, so the "preformed filter sleeve" is like a long tube sponge as far as i gather? sounds like it should work a lot better than the bubble diffuser anyways.
Also, I went on the coralife website and they said to use the grey control valve for the pump only while breaking in the filter... so I might leave that on for a few days then ditch it as well, hopefully by that time the water won't overflow so rapidly into my collection cup. Thanks a ton for your help with this, I'll let you know if i find the sleeve thing