Berlin Hang On Turbo Skimmer

[Browndawgsteve]

I have just recently started into the saltwater world and have been given a few items that I am having a terrible time adjusting. I have had my tank set up approximately 2 weeks and have a Red Sea Berlin Turbo Hang on skimmer in a 120 gallon tank. The only items in the tank is live sand and approximately 90Lbs of live rock.
Anyway I cannot seem to get this skimmer adjusted properly. Could anyone walk me through the set-up or problem solving? Seems like I have everything OK.....system will run a couple days starting to collect scum and then all the sudden I'll get home and the skimmer has filled with water and overflowed 20-30 gallons out of the tank. I have read the skimmers user guide on line and still doesn't seem to help.
Thanks for any help

 

[NYreefNoob]

throw it away, it isnt big enough for a tank that size anyways, do you have a sump ? how do you replace evaporated water ? ect a little more info on what all equiptment you have will help

 

[Browndawgsteve]

Just starting out so as of right now I have apprximately 2" sand in bottom, a basic filtering system with a phosphate sponge, 90-100lbs live rock with little growth on it, 4-802 powerheads, smartlite(unsure about type of bulbs), and skimmer. Typed that and then realized you probably ment the equipment associated with the skimmer.

Berlin turbo hang on skimmer that has the sump that is placed inside tank, size of pump, I do not know but unit says it is rated for tanks up to 250 gallons so I thought it would be good enough for know. Anyway, their is a flow restrictor on the sump along with an air intake located on the knob of the restrictor. Both of these are located inside of the tank. The skimmer itself is a venturi skimmer that has an inner tube and outer tube. The air intake hose leading out of sump/flow restrictor leads to another valve that adjuts air intake. Thats pretty much it.

As far as set up, regular water was used and placed in system for about a week then I added the sand waited another week then added 50% of the rock and that is where I am at right know. I am looking into a RO system but as of right know water replacement or top offs will likely come from the store.

 

[NYreefNoob]

suggestion cause your going to have problems down the road with algea from using tap water, buy the ro-di unit, and by sump i mean a separate tank under the main tank that water drains down into then is pumped back up into main tank. i would suggest reading through some of the tank threads on here too see what the majority of others are doing and using, most have different brands of equiptment but essentually the same, spend a little time reading some of these, patience is the key in this hobby, nothing happens fast except the loss of money. buy right once and save later
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/tank-threads/

 

[tunicata]

Hm, I have this skimmer. It worked fine for a while after just playing with it but lately I had the same problem you did. It used to work GREAT until ...well, I don't know what happened.
I had it on a 65g tank, including sump volume was 100g.
It does say its rated for 250g and even if you lower that by 100 it still sounds good.
But eh, I've only had my own exp. with it on 100g. I do not know how to fix the 'lets fill up with water' thing. I haven't tried hard though. Its actually offline since I like running my tank sumpless and skimmer less some times.
It's stocked with corals, LR/LS and 3 chromis.

I've seen posts where people have that problem with many different brands of skimmers, even the popular models.

 

[bigbbinthehouse]

Welcome to MR. I found this place a true wealth of knowledge. I will give you the same advice I got here, upgrade. I had that same skimmer for 2 yrs on my 90g. It worked great for about 9-10 months, but as stuff started to accumilate in the main chamber, it became useless. It is very hard to clean that chamber. I upgraded to an ASM, the same day I switched, it pulled a TON of gunk out of the water. As for skimming, you will want to upgrade in the future. As for the overflow problem, it could be anything in your tank releasing something that makes it go crazy. In my experience with that skimmer, where the restrictor is would clog up, specifically, the air line. The hole the airline attaches to would get clogged and it would just suck up water.

BTW, pics of your sump area would help.

 

[jrobbins]

one solution would be to drill a hole in the skimmer collection cup and run airline tubing into a bucket or empty milkjug. If you are losing 20 to 30 gallons of water this clearly wont help, but it might be something to consider. They have special devices to hold the excess skimmate, but i never thought they were worth the money. just drill a hole high up on the collection cup so that you only use the bucket if the cup is about to overflow (it wont stink as much that way).