I noticed my skimmer is not skimming like it use to. I don't see a lot of foam and I don't get as much collection in the cup. I cleaned the air intake but it's the same. Has anyone replaced the needle wheel and see a difference in the skimmer's performance? Is the needle wheel something that needs replacing regularly?
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Turbofloater not working 100%
- Thread starter Kitta
- Start date
IME, this is the only problem with the TF1000 skimmer. I have one and every once in awhile it will just stop skimming. I have never been able to nail down the cause of it. At first I figured I had done something to alter the surface tension of my water (hand in tank, feeding,etc..) but after 3 days or so of no skimmate I knew there had to be more.
My TF will still produce a thick cloud of micro bubbles, but no matter what I do it still won't produce skimmate. There are a couple of ways to deal with it.
1. I hooked an airpump to my air intake. While this isn't a cure-all, it does seem to decrease the odds of my skimmer going into "nonfoam" mode.
2. If it stops skimmer, I typically disassemble it and scrub it down. Once I have it cleaned, it will start skimming again after an hour or so. The funny thing is that it usually isn't that dirty when I clean it.
3. If it stops producing airbubbles, instead of worrying about the plastic nipple the air hose hooks to, look right inside the air hose itself. Every time I have had to remove a blockage it was inside the airhose, not on the nipple.
I am still running my needlewheel in the RIO 2100. I know that Aquamedic began offering the original pump the skimmer was built with in Europe (is it an Aquabee?) but since I will be replacing mine I haven't upgraded. I also removed the little grey water level control valves on the outlet and only put them in when I need to run a wet foam, such as after my tank upgrade to remove the Southdown snowstorm.
If you do a search, there was a discussion over a year ago about this same problem. If I recall correctly, we all agreed that the only way any of us were able to "restart" the skimmer was to disassemble, clean, and reassemble the whole unit.
HTH,
Scott
My TF will still produce a thick cloud of micro bubbles, but no matter what I do it still won't produce skimmate. There are a couple of ways to deal with it.
1. I hooked an airpump to my air intake. While this isn't a cure-all, it does seem to decrease the odds of my skimmer going into "nonfoam" mode.
2. If it stops skimmer, I typically disassemble it and scrub it down. Once I have it cleaned, it will start skimming again after an hour or so. The funny thing is that it usually isn't that dirty when I clean it.
3. If it stops producing airbubbles, instead of worrying about the plastic nipple the air hose hooks to, look right inside the air hose itself. Every time I have had to remove a blockage it was inside the airhose, not on the nipple.
I am still running my needlewheel in the RIO 2100. I know that Aquamedic began offering the original pump the skimmer was built with in Europe (is it an Aquabee?) but since I will be replacing mine I haven't upgraded. I also removed the little grey water level control valves on the outlet and only put them in when I need to run a wet foam, such as after my tank upgrade to remove the Southdown snowstorm.
If you do a search, there was a discussion over a year ago about this same problem. If I recall correctly, we all agreed that the only way any of us were able to "restart" the skimmer was to disassemble, clean, and reassemble the whole unit.
HTH,
Scott
I disassembled and cleaned the pump last night. I will check it tonight to see if it made a difference. The pump wasn't dirty. I just brushed the inside and the needle wheel.
The bio-load in the tank is about the same. There is an increase in algea growth because the skimmer is not working properly.
I tried to use an air pump to feed air in but I think my pump is too strong because I get air coming out from the water intake of the pump.
The bio-load in the tank is about the same. There is an increase in algea growth because the skimmer is not working properly.
I tried to use an air pump to feed air in but I think my pump is too strong because I get air coming out from the water intake of the pump.
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