Need Help W/ New Turbofloater Skimmer BAD!!!!!

[NaH2Ofreak]

Ok...I just cant get this sucker to work for the life of me and the directions are of no help!!!!!!!I know this thing can skim but I'm not doing something right! Heres what I did:

I filled the kitchen sink up with water. I added some salt mix to it. I put the skimmer in the sink. I hooked up the needle wheel to the rio 2500. I connected a rio 800 to a piece of clear, flexable tubing and connected it to the piece of pipe that comes out for the inlet. I then plug the rio800 in and the skimmer fills up with water and runs out the two tubes, back into the sink. Fine. Then I plug the rio2500 in and I get a few big bubbles and a few medium size bubbles and that is it!!!!!!

. When I unplug the rio800 that feeds it, I start getting more bubbles in the skimmer. But of course the water level starts dropping in the skimmer so I plug the rio800 back in and all the bubbles go away!!!!!!!!!

I havent gotten anything even CLOSE to a good bubble mixture in the skimmer. The bubbles are way to BIG and way to few! What the hell am I doing wrong???? Does it have to do with the way Im testing it? Is the water in the sink with some regular salt mix not going to work? Does the rio need to be in the tank and shoot water down to the skimmer? I have been running the rio800 feed pump right next to the rio2500 circ pump for the skimmer. Is there maybe some interference? Man....I just dont get it and I wanted to put in the new sump TOMMORROW!

Sorry so long but I really need help
Thanx!
Dennis

PS: This is a brand new skimmer from Premium Aquatics. I called and left message with them but they are gone for the day.

 

[esmithiii]

Here is the deal:

1. the pump is not strong enough on its own. Flow from the tank down to the sump is necessary. The pump sucks water out of the skimmer and recirculates it through the skimmer. You obviously cannot duplicate this in your sink.
2. The water level needs to be right at the bottom of the collection cup. There should be knobs on top of the skimmer to adjust flow so that the water level is at the right height.
3. There is a break-in period in which any residues from the manufacturing process are washed from the surfaces of the skimmer. Most skimers won't work for the first 24-48 hours. My turboflotor worked after 12.
4. Your sink doesn't really have much DOCs (dissolved organic compounds) to remove. That is not a good test.
5. The turboflotors often need an additional air pump to work correctly. I had to add one to the air intake just to get mine to skim at all.
6. Some may disagree, but IMO the turboflotor is a piece of junk. I ran one for over a year and had nothing but problems.

Hope this helps.

Ernie

 

[esmithiii]

Na H20:

Also, one more thing: do you have the airline attached and out of the water? Is it sucking air?

Ernie

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

The airline is out of the water. Here is the suspicious thing. When I decrease the flow of the rio800 feed pump, the bubbles INCREASE in the skimmer. Go figure! When I have the rio all the way open, the venturi tube does not suck any air. If I turn down the rio800 feed pump, more bubbles appear and the venturi is sucking air. It dosent even work with the air pump. Maybe I'm just use to seeing an airstone skimmer and a nice reaction chamber full of white. Maybe the TF wont do that. But I think it will. Ive just got to figure out the problem!

What about the idea of pump interference. The rio800 feed pump was sitting next to the rio2500 driving the skimmer. Being so close, could they interfere w/each other? Will have to investigate.

Thanks for your help and encoraging words of "junk"

Dennis

 

[Darkreignn]

Just do what I did. Modify it so that you dont have to have a tube coming down from the tank. Just break off the bottom part and seal it with alot of silicone. Then connect just the 2500 to the top hole and thats it. It will work guaranteed. If you want to try it just do this. Cover the bottom hole with your finger or whatever then connect the 2500 to the top hole. Just make sure that the 2500 has the needle impellor in it. If you do go this route just make sure that you always keep the sump at the same level so that you have the same continuous action coming out the skimmer. I really hope this helps. Here's some pics... bye....

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

Dark,

Dont you lose a lot of the features that the turbofloater offers by doing that mod? What about the venturi? I dont think I could do that to this brand new skimmer that set me back about 150 bones.

Thanx!
Dennis

Anyone else? Please............

 

[todd22]

I could not get my turboflotor to work worth until I put in the regular impeller for the rio. I never got the special needle thing to work.

 

[Ben B.]

Heh heh... another satisfied Turboflotor customer. Man have I been there...

I have to agree about the extra air pump... mine never worked right until I put an old Whisper 600 on the black air intake hose. If you do this, you may find a sudden and dramatic increase in the amount of bubbles in the chamber.

Also, try putting a valve on the feed pump if you haven't already. This will enable you to fine tune the flow into the skimmer. I found that too powerful a flow will literally "push" the stream of bubbles out of the two returns, instead of allowing them to flow up into the skimmer body.

BTW, did Permium Aquatics sell you that Rio 800? If so, I wonder if that's the one AquaMedic reccomends?

hope this helps

 

[bowfront]

I've been there before also. Believe it or not your TF 1000 will work once you get things tweeked. Ben's suggestions above are all good. I would get your sump up and running a play with it in there.

An air pump hooked into the venturi works well to increase bubbles. Also you may need to throttle down the rio 800. I at one point had one running with a straight flow from a rio 800 but was pumping plenty of air with a Tectra Luft air pump. This was all when I was using the needlwheel that comes with it. BTW you can run these without the needlewheel with a better pump than Rio such as a Mag 7 and at least in my case get better results and not have to pump air.

Those crazy little gray plastic throttles that you have to twist to regulate flow can also be fun to adjust. One thing you don't need to do is increase flow of water into the skimmer from your overflow. The problems you are seeing are from too much flow already but this can be balanced with addition air and/or circulation from the larger pump.

Hang with it you'll get it to work but when you are running 2 pumps and possibly an air pump for a simple little skimmer such as this the question is why. I got rid of mine a while back but that's not say that they aren't a decent bargain basement special these days.

 

[Mouse]

They also take a little time to break in too, dont rush into tearing it appart too soon. Id give it at least a week running in the sump before you try and tweak it around. Or better yet cure some LR with it.

 

[leftovers]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by esmithiii:
<strong>Here is the deal:

1. the pump is not strong enough on its own. Flow from the tank down to the sump is necessary. The pump sucks water out of the skimmer and recirculates it through the skimmer. You obviously cannot duplicate this in your sink.</strong><hr></blockquote>


this is incorrect on all points. The ONLY problem he is having is that the 800 is creating back pressure on the venturi. To instantly solve the problem throttle back the 800 and the tb1k will perform as advertised thats it nothing more. If you are really brave and adventurous you can modify the venturi with larger holes and a completely different venturi or extend the distance between the venturi and the feed line but why bothe mutilating a perfectly good skimmer when this is just a simple case of backpressure?


<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

<strong>2. The water level needs to be right at the bottom of the collection cup. There should be knobs on top of the skimmer to adjust flow so that the water level is at the right height.</strong>

you can remove those knobs - most people do as they are pretty much useless though you can make minor adjustments to tweak water hieght the best way is to throttle your feed pump to maximize water throughput

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

<strong>3. There is a break-in period in which any residues from the manufacturing process are washed from the surfaces of the skimmer. Most skimers won't work for the first 24-48 hours. My turboflotor worked after 12.</strong>

While true this wouldn't affect his lack of venturi


<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

<strong>4. Your sink doesn't really have much DOCs (dissolved organic compounds) to remove. That is not a good test.</strong>

doesn't matter his is simply trying to get the venturi to work correctly so even with FW for his test it should create massive amounts of bubbles

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

<strong>5. The turboflotors often need an additional air pump to work correctly. I had to add one to the air intake just to get mine to skim at all.</strong>

Not true again, this is a mod to increase the amount of air and for most folks is never required. IT will improve the skimmer but is not required. Is a similare to adding the becket injector to other skimmers- it mearly increases the air volume.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

<strong>6. Some may disagree, but IMO the turboflotor is a piece of junk. I ran one for over a year and had nothing but problems.</strong>

I whole heartily disagree. After setting up several hundred skimmers of many makes and models the TB1k is one of the easiest to both setup and maintain. And for the money one of the better skimmers available.