To anyone with a Bak Pak Skimmer

[hiddenicon]

and are u saying that the cup shouldn't be full of water until i need to empty it?

 

[hiddenicon]

and last question is, is there nayway to make it quiter because its in my bedroom and i think i'll have problems sleeps. Could i turn it off at night or would that not be good?

 

[hiddenicon]

you there Viper?

 

[viper_930]

Don't raise it so much, just enough for some bubbles to flow over the top. The cup should be full of brownish/green water in a few days, not crystal clear. You put the muffler on the air intake, right? Is that th noisy part? That is the noisiest part on mine. You can put it on a timer to turn it off at night. It shouldn't make much difference.

 

[mike347]

I don't thing this will make anyone mad, but since you have a Bak Pak 2 as I have. I will post the site so you can get all the info you would like, it was a huge help to me at first. www.cprusa.com go to there message boards for any info on their products. Also caution, on the outlet tube that goes back to your tank that the sponge goes in. It can overflow the water in the bak pak if it gets clogged up. And if you have any good size snails they can block the tube as well, you will need a mod of some sort from the tank side to keep large snails from entering. The sponge works well for micro bubbles but after weeks of messing around and breaking in the Bak Pak you will not need it. The venturi should be open all the way for best results, Open all the way it creates slow water to reduce the micro bubble to zero and extends contact time with your cup. I have learned about my skimmer in and out and don't use any sponge or even bio bale. I use the back of it for other things; However, cpr does not recommend that you do that and if you are not careful to what you put back there you can clog it once again, so I won't mention anything until I take pictures of everything on mine and what I do to make it safe, sorry. The Mod for the outlet tube I used is a little complicated to actually explain but think of something like two Ty wraps going across the outlet tube or even two elastic bands so large snails can't enter but water can still exit regardless of particles that may go from the skimmer to the tank. Last Hint once you get used to your skimmer and learn tricks like keeping the venturi open and pump off the tanks glass to quiet it down look into buying the Preskimmer box it does wonders for tank surface water and keeping it super clear, but this piece also takes some time to get used to as you will find out the water level needs to be close to perfect in order for the overflow effect to take place. If you get it some day post it and I should have pics of everything by then to show you how I maximize all my cpr products. Good Luck

 

[hiddenicon]

Thanks Mike and Viper. The loud part is in the skimmer, where the small bubbles come out of the tube and the collection cup vibrates alittle. But if it makes me mad, i'll just turn it down. And just to let you know i woke up this morning and looked in the cup and it was half-way full of brownish water:joy:

 

[mike347]

Try air line tubing kinked in half under the pipe that holds the pump. So it would be under the pipe that sits on the lip of the tank on your right if your looking at the cpr from the front. Make sure the pump is not on the glass and keep everything level with a torpedo level it got rid of all my noise, but the white noise from the water. I could live with that but vibrating pump noises drive me crazy.

 

[hiddenicon]

i messed with things alittle bit and everything is better now:joy: thanks for the help Viper and Mike. I found that the skimmer was also vibrating the top of one of my filters making alot of noice also.
Off to the LFS soon get the next thing on my list hopefully, a BTA for my 2 false percs.

 

[hiddenicon]

last question about the skimmer. Where is the little sponge that comes with it suppose to go in the skimmer? I'm talking about the little sponge that came in the collection cup. Right now i have it in the collection cup but should it go somewhere else?

 

[viper_930]

I put mine in the upper part of the output pipe. It will reduce the amount of bubbles coming down into the tank.

 

[hiddenicon]

so you put it right in here?

 

[hiddenicon]

so you put it right in here?

 

[hiddenicon]

tell me if you can't see the pic

 

[viper_930]

Yup, right there.

 

[hiddenicon]

as you know, it's only about half a sponge so did you use that sponge or get a new, bigger one? and do you have an AOL screen name i could have?

 

[viper_930]

It is half a cylinder shape, right? I placed it on the upper part of the tube. My sn is LiLxViPeR930.

 

[hiddenicon]

yea your right on the shape and when you put it in there did it make it any quiter? and thanks for the screen name i'm IM now if your on.

 

[viper_930]

The noise stayed the same.

 

[hiddenicon]

how can you reduce the amount of tiny bubbles in the tank? i put the little sponge in the input tube put it didn't help with the really slamm bubbles:notsure:

 

[viper_930]

I don't know. Whenever I feed frozen mysid the whole tank fills up with tiny bubbles from the skimmer. But other than that, the sponge on mine stops some of the bigger sized bubbles coming out.