deltec ap902 skimmer

[joelk835]

I have never gotten the performance out of my Deltec ap902 skimmer that I was expecting when I purchased unit. Trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. Here is the details. I have the unit ran externally using a mag 9.5 for the water input into the skimmer. Skimmer Eheim pumps look brand new just cleaned them by soaking them in EZ-clean. Air lines are clean. I get about a 1/2 inch in the cup of skimate after cleaning unit and than it pretty much stops until I clean the cup. My air valves are completely open. My outlet is also almost completely open. Nothing obstructing the outlet as it drains directly back into my sump. Any suggestions as I have been severely disappointed in this unit for the money I spent and believe it should be putting out a lot more skimmate. I have this running on a 180 tank with a 100 gallon sump and 40 gallon refugium.

[Lunchbucket]

skimmer too oversized for the tank? Do you have many fish? Do you feed heavy?

Have you tried the drill bit in the venturi clean out trick? My venturi nipples get clogged daily

Lunchbucket

[joelk835]

I have 6 fish and feed once every other day. Also feed my corals cyclopeze regularly. I recently cleaned the whole pump in deltec ez clean solution so I believe the venturi is not the problem.

[Lunchbucket]

w/ 6 fish you might not get that much skimmate. Cyclopeze seems to kill the foamhead on most skimmers for a while also.

Do you clean the inside of the riser tube out or does it cake on poo in there?

Also check your venturi nipple just in case

Lunchbucket

[Charlie Davidson]

Like lunch said.. You can only get out whats put in..
902 is somewhat oversized IMHO.. :)
I would say your definatly in the deltec overskimmers club ;)

[UberReef]

Hello,

I understand that you are having difficulties producing the skimmate which you are trying to achieve with this particular skimmer. Please answer a few of the questions below.

What type and how many corals are in your aquarium?
What type and how large are your fish?
What additives are you dosing in your tank, and how often are your hands being placed inside the bitope?

As you already know your skimmer is rated for a 475 gallon tank, which your aquarium as I see on your information is showing as a 180 a am I not correct? What is your overall water volume for this aquarium, including sumps, refugiums, and any other filtration devices as well.

The skimmer which you optioned to apply to your aquarium, is far too large for the setup which you briefly described. You will need to establish your tank with a heavier stock of corals, fish, inverts, and feeding regiments. This will ultimately render you larger loads of skimmate.

Also have you looked into the self cleaning head unit for this skimmer. This will allow you to maintain a clean head stock on your skimmer, in order to render you a greater volume of skimmate as well. As we all know, the cleaner the skimmer the more volume of waste it will produce and extract. I hope this information helps you.

I look forward to your response.

[joelk835]

I have a mix of corals some LPS, SPS and softies. I have a good size 20 corals. I have a Flame Angel, Chrub Angel, CLown Wrasse, Maroon CLown, Yellow Watchman Goby, Royal Gramma. They all are 3-6 inches. I add two part solution and lugol's iodine. My hands are in the tank everyday. Have several clams, snails, and two starfish also. My whole system water is around 320 gallons. I have the self cleaning head purchased but right now I have yet to get it installed but will be working on this soon.

[Lunchbucket]

You have a VERY low fish load for that system. I bet that is most of the cause. Also, w/ your hands in the tank it can kill a skimmer pretty quick and not recover right away.

Most people w/ that big of a tank have some huge tangs (multiple) and /or a few large angels. They will poop a lot more so I'm betting your little fish are the cause of not getting much out of it

Lunchbucket

[Wonder]

Just sharing my experience with this skimmer.

I used to run with Ehiem 1262(rated 3400l) as feed pump. I notice that this skimmer sometimes push out so much water (3-5L) within minutes - sudden surge of skimmate. Previous tank-total 150gal.

Recently (new tank - total 190Gal), i upgrade my feed pump using Ehiem 1264 (rated 4500l). The exit valve is fully open since the water level is almost overflowing.
Since day 1 after i setup this new tank. It is producing very consistent juicy skimmate about 1 cup everyday with just live rock (even before i add any fishes - Skimmate gets thicker after adding fishes - now with 29 small fishes). I find having higher water flow make this skimmer a lot more stable and consistent - treating more water within an hour time frame.

Make sure that you are effectively treating your main tank water into the skimmer

[Zoom]

definitely the skimmer is to oversized for your set up.
I have a 902 in the closet just for the same reason to big of a skimmer for a 300G system.
I now run a AP851 and is a world of difference.

[joelk835]

So why would it perform less if it is oversized than a lesser skimmer? I was recommended by Doug to either go with this or the 702 model for my tank.

[CaptiveReefSystems]

yes, I too would like to know why you think the skimmer is over sized. Never heard of such a thing. Now there is a situation where you are not feeding the skimmer enough unfiltered water so it really does nothing. Is this what you are referring to?

[Zoom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12620913#post12620913 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CaptiveReefSystems
yes, I too would like to know why you think the skimmer is over sized. Never heard of such a thing. Now there is a situation where you are not feeding the skimmer enough unfiltered water so it really does nothing. Is this what you are referring to?




I have use the 902 and the 851 in the same tank the 902 takes to long to get anything in to the cup .
I'm sure if the tank was larger and the constant protein will get the nug over the top quicker you see it just takes to long to get anything up over a 6" neck so when i feed the tank the build up on the top of the skimmer neck gets re mixed in to the tank water and i loose the foam head and the process starts all over again.
Now the 851 will get the the nug over the top much quicker the neck of the skimmer is about half the size of the 902 .
I can get ALOT more nug out of the 851 that way so yes you can oversize the skimmer.... not a good thing it cost me $2000 to find that out :lol:
I still have the 902 and most likely sale it soon .

[CaptiveReefSystems]

did you try running the skimmer for just 12 hours a day to see if that worked.

[Zoom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12627049#post12627049 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CaptiveReefSystems
did you try running the skimmer for just 12 hours a day to see if that worked.
Yes that works, but is defeating my purpose of having oxygenated air coming in to the tank via the skimmer with the skimmer air intakes rigged to suck in outdoors air .... my ph always stay at 8.3 with the skimmer on 24/7 and drops down to 8.0 when is turned off for 12 hours and i have to do that during the light on period or the ph get lower yet ..

[Lunchbucket]

I too agree you can oversize a skimmer to the point that it does not work well or it works inefficiently. I have a 702 on my 58gal and it works yes but works like others I ahve seen NO. I'm betting once I put this 701 on my 200 cube it will churn out NOG like black butter

Basically not enough organics in the water for that size of skimmer to work efficiently.

Lunchbucket

[Zoom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12627664#post12627664 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lunchbucket
I too agree you can oversize a skimmer to the point that it does not work well or it works inefficiently. I have a 702 on my 58gal and it works yes but works like others I ahve seen NO. I'm betting once I put this 701 on my 200 cube it will churn out NOG like black butter

Basically not enough organics in the water for that size of skimmer to work efficiently.

Lunchbucket
Bingo..... :thumbsup:

[D-D USA]

joelk835

It was good talking to you today. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.