Skimmer?Am I going crazy?

brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
Every so often my Berlin XL skimmer would stop working for a couple of hours.The bubbles go way down.Usually after feeding.I figured it was the food.But now I also added a etss devil.I got it tunned in pretty good and all of a sudden the bubbles dropped way down the cylinder.I looked at the Berlin and the same thing happened to that.I did nothing to the water No food was added.. Anyone else have this problem?
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Can't say I'd worry about it. Just about any sudden change in the water can make a skimmer do this. As long as over a longer period... say 24 hrs or so, you are regularly pulling out waste, then you're good.
Don't feel bad about upgrading for no reason... Berlin skimmers don't work very well. I'm in the process of replacing all of my Berlins with better ones.
 
brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
Can't say I'd worry about it. Just about any sudden change in the water can make a skimmer do this. As long as over a longer period... say 24 hrs or so, you are regularly pulling out waste, then you're good.
Don't feel bad about upgrading for no reason... Berlin skimmers don't work very well. I'm in the process of replacing all of my Berlins with better ones.
I am running 2 skimmers on my 210. etss devil and Berlin XL..I just threw in 3 silversides and now both skimmers lost all of the bubbles in the tube. Lets see if the skimmers correct themselves..I will keep you updated.Thanks
 
brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
Well it has been an 1 1/2 hours and both skimmers are not working properly...So do I have to adjust the skimmers everytime I feed them?
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
No, no, no, just give them a bit......the skimmers are competing against each other.....The more dominant or stronger skimmer will start to pull and the other will follow suit......
Hey SCSInet, what are you pushing your Berlin XL with?
 
brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
Well it started working again and 4 am this morning I emptied a 1/4 cup of green water.I probably have to make it a little drier..Now it is 7:20am and both skimmers are not working again..I did nothing to the tank.. :notsure: I did not feed them or stick my hands in he tank..Kind of strange....
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Originally Posted by acrylic51
No, no, no, just give them a bit......the skimmers are competing against each other.....The more dominant or stronger skimmer will start to pull and the other will follow suit......
Hey SCSInet, what are you pushing your Berlin XL with?
*shrugs sheepishly* I must admit, albeit a bit embarassed, that I am pushing them with Rios.
I got them cheap and didn't want to use them for anything else, so I stuck one on each of them. I'm also not using the XL version, I'm using a normal one. I am building induction skimmers these days that work better than the commercial Berlins, so I was planning to build a couple more and switch everything over. If you know what pumps I can use to make the Berlins work better, I'm all ears. I considered it before, using maybe mags, but it's cheaper for me to build the induction units than it is to replace the pumps, and the induction units run fine off cheap pumps.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Just asking SCSInet.....I had run the Berlin a while back and the thing was pathetic to say the least.....I gave the thing away, and the pumps they suggest using just don't cut it.....My buddy who I gave it to put a Mag on the dang thing, and it skimmed pretty decent.....Now he has a Little Giant on the thing, and it's even better....
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Originally Posted by brucewrs
Well it started working again and 4 am this morning I emptied a 1/4 cup of green water.I probably have to make it a little drier..Now it is 7:20am and both skimmers are not working again..I did nothing to the tank.. :notsure: I did not feed them or stick my hands in he tank..Kind of strange....

Just give it time.....Did you dial the 1 skimmer down to empty the cup?
 
brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
When it was working I opened the valve a hair so the cup wont fill up with water..Then I fed the tank 3 silversides and both skimmers stopped working again..:( This was at 8:30am and still not working.The Berlin is starting to make some foam...The Devil is all the way down..
 
brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
I think the silver side bait that I am using is making the skimmer shut down.I just fed them a varity of frozen no silversides and skimmers are working..
I bought the silversides from a bait and tackle store.Is there any difference?
 
brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
Well I found out that is suppose to have 8 small bioballs for the chamber and mine only came with 4.So I took 2 med size ones out of my wet dry and put them in the tube.It seems to work better producing a drier brown foam. I have to see where I can get 4 small bio balls for the chamber.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Yeah the bioballs are suppose to be there to break up the water.....I've read some people take them out and don't run them???? You might want to check out Coralife bio balls....I think they are the smaller type or possibly on the big auction site.....
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
In all honesty I haven't followed any mods for this skimmer......I think you'd need something alittle beefier in the Mag line to push the beckett.....The put some good head on a pump.....
 
brucewrs

brucewrs

Member
Originally Posted by acrylic51
Where did you find info on the mod for the skimmer?
I got them from another board with pics.If you want I will foward the e-mail to you.Looks like it would work..
 
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