Good skimmer?

[jiggly75]

Hello,
I'm getting ready to buy a new skimmer for a 90 gallon tank. Anyone heard of the E.T.T.S. Super Reef Devil. My lfs highly recommended it.

[jiggly75]

well we bought this skimmer and i was wondering if anyone could help me. we have been running it about a week and a half. for the first week it would just foam a little well now it just over flows the cup and back into the sump the water goes, but the water is clear, not dirty smelly like it should be. we are trying to cure rock in our new tank and dont want any living things to die because our skimmer isnt working right. we adjusted it like the lfs guy said but then it does nothing for a few hours then it just crazy overflows again. all weekend we tried to mess with it, to no avail. we tried calling the manufacturer helpline but couldnt get a human. any body with experience with this would be very very helpful.

[jiggly75]

oh yeah one more question. when curing rock how many times a day are you supposed to be empting out your skimmate. i would like to know for future reference when its actually working thanks

[golfish]

I wish I would of saw this sooner. I used an ETSS Reef Devil II for a few years

best thing to do with these skimmers is to install the gate valve between the pump and the skimmer (not sure what the Super RD looks like). Later on you can buy another gate valve and install it after the skimmer, if you need it.

Mark

[jiggly75]

does it help having the valve between the pump and the skimmer???? i mean at this point ill try anything. but my question is what difference does it make. sounds silly i know but my husband takes care of the plumbing and mechanical stuff i do the research. is it a good skimmer when u get it figured out

[golfish]

What pump are you using? (I hope not a Rio 3100) sometimes the pumps will pump too fast or you have too much to skim so it just overflows. That's when you'll want to slow it down using the gate valve. I'm guessing your gate valve on the output side of the skimmer is wide open, right? If not it should be. There's no reason to have the gate valve there at this time.


I use a Euro Reef skimmer, when cured my last batch of rock I emptied the cup about every other day, maybe every 3 days.

[jiggly75]

we are using a mag 7 which is what is recommended. im not to sure about the placement of the valve, i can tell u how it looks. the pump is on the backside of skimmer, and the valve is on the front side. if that makes much sense to u.

[golfish]

That's a little better pump then the Rio. I used a Mag 7 on my old ETSS RD II...If you want to do it right, move the gate valve inline between the pump and the skimmer, that way you can control the amount of flow from the pump.

[jiggly75]

i will have my hubby do that when he gets home. i hope that helps, cuz this is very frustrating.

[Sueet]

i will have my hubby do that when he gets home. i hope that helps, cuz this is very frustrating.

I don't have the brand of skimmer that you have, but I have noticed on one of my skimmers (an in-sump) that it does exactly what you are describing when the water level is too high inside the skimmer/sump... try maybe raising the body of the skimmer up a bit, or lowering the water level, that might help, it works for me.

[jiggly75]

yeah we read something like that on their website. we havent tried that yet, have to find something that will fit under it, has to be small enough so the top of it can still be taken off.

[Sueet]

yeah we read something like that on their website. we havent tried that yet, have to find something that will fit under it, has to be small enough so the top of it can still be taken off.

The unit I have doesn't have a removable cup, I just drilled a small hole and inserted some tubing, which I run into a 2-liter bottle that sits next to the sump.... It lets the stuff drain off into a much larger container, so I don't have to empty it as often. I have to use a cloth to clean the cup out occasionally tho, since I can't just pull it off and rinse it.

[golfish]

I never could figure out why ETSS made skimmers like these. I too had to place something under my skimmer to raise the output above the sump level. That was 6 years ago tho, I would have thought by now ETSS would have made these skimmers right. If your supposed to raise your skimmer then that could be part of your problem..You'll probably still need to move the gate.

[jiggly75]

what can u put in the sump under the skimmer? my lfs guy suggested a brick, but we want to make sure that whatever we put in will not harm the tank.

[Poseidon]

I used "egg crate" from home depot to raise my live rock in my tank and used it as a macro algae gate in my sump. It is about $10 for a 2' x 4' sheet, and you can use zip ties to hold it all together, into a cube shape or whatever else you need it for... Just make sure to get the white stuff, NOT the chrome!

[golfish]

what can u put in the sump under the skimmer? my lfs guy suggested a brick, but we want to make sure that whatever we put in will not harm the tank.

I used a few cut sections of 3" PVC pipe. Lets forget anything your LFS guys has said for a minute (best bet would be to forget EVERTHING he says)..are you 100% sure the skimmer needs to be rasied?

[jiggly75]

im beginning to wonder about my lfs guy too. not really sure if it needs to be raised, but figured it couldnt hurt to try at this point. would a cement brick be ok.

[golfish]

would a cement brick be ok.

maybe, if you cured it. That kind of stuff needs to be cured\leached out before you use it. Tell me this, is the output from the gate valve\skimmer body under water, above water or right at water level?

A picture of the water leaving the skimmer would be nice.

[jiggly75]

the valve is above the water level. so i shouldnt put the brick in the tank (asking cuz ive got one now), just dont want to use it if its bad to put in.

[jiggly75]

ill have my husband take a pic of the set up for u, but hes at work and i dont really know how to use the camera.