Red Sea Max 250 Skimmer Pump Issues!

I have been running the Red Sea Max 250 now for 5 weeks. The initial problem I had was the skimmer pump was not working at all and I had to wait for approx. 2 weeks for the Red Reef folks to send out a replacement. Actually my local dealer I bought the unit from did the leg work! The skimmer was OK not to have as I was in the tank break-in period and ran without the skimmer for 3 weeks, just the biological and mechanical filtration with the 2 pumps and 80lbs of LR. Once the skimmer was turned on, the unit then stopped producing bubbles but still pumped water! Took the whole darn thing apart and checked the impeller which seemed to be louder than normal. Got the unit to produce bubbles again by blowing through the air tube into the pump. A day later when I turned the unit off and the pumps for feeding , once again I could not get the unit to produce any bubbles. It was pumping water, but no bubbles were being produced. Called Red Sea again who told me the obvious to check for air line blockage and I informed them I had and nothing was blocked and the tank was only 5 weeks old. After some haggling, they sent me another pump overnight air which I demanded since my skimmer was now collecting well at this point (or was anyway). Got the new pump and also a separate impeller with a note to try to the replacement impeller first. Put the impeller in and it worked, bubbles and all were being produced! Well today, I turned off the pumps and skimmer for feeding and went to turn the skimmer back on, AN NO BUBBLES! Dissembled the pump, checked for blocks and no joy. I then got out the new pump, installed it, and bubbles of joy!! Hopefully this will do it and I will not have any issues.

I do have a question to others....Should turning the skimmer on and off have this effect? I do not want to keep the pumps and skimmer on for feeding time as the food goes everywhere (the little I feed) and lot's gets sucked up into the skimmer.

Other than that, the unit is very quiet and I am enjoying near perfect water qaulity in regards to Nitrites, Ammonia, Phosphates, Salinity, PH (8.2) and hardness at 420. The only think not at zero is my Nitrates, they are at 5-6ppm. I treat weekly with 1 cap full of Salifert All in one for the 65 gallon tank and twice a week, a cap full of Purple up. Water changes are performed twice a month (15gal each change) with Catalina Bio Ocean Salt Water. Went through the brown algae break in blues, now await the green stuff! (Clean up crew awaiting!) I am pleased so far with all the rest of the setup of this system. I also run a Oceanic 1/4hp chiller as well. I look forward to the skimmer feedback of turning the unit on and off?

Vic

 

On my RSM 250, I've been pulling the skimmer out of the water and starting it, then lowering it back down while it's running in order to start up the bubbles, but this fix recently stopped working for me. I think the seal on the rotating air inlet on the pump isn't correctly sealed, and suction keeps it tight (or did, for a few weeks). I'm calling Red Sea tomorrow to ask about this, now that it'll stop making bubbles within a day or so.

 

i feel so much better knowing someone else has this problem. Same thing happened to me. Luckily the store I bought the red sea from was setting a new one up so gave me their pump. I have a new pump but the same thing seems to happen when I turn the pump on and then off again. Luckily the new pump I can get to kick back on most of the time by pulling the pump out of the water messing with the tubing and blowing air into the system. This skimmer has been a pain though it is very hard to adjust and once is adjusted only good for that day basically. Everything else about the tank I have enjoyed but the skimmer is the death of me

 

New Redsea 250 owner almost 2 months

Wish someone would post exactly how to tune this skimmer. There has to be a secret, I get it working sometimes but gets out of control after and not sure why..

 

i cant get mine to skim properly man i have the air thing pretty much closed and t pushing wet bubles almost all the way up the spout when its fully extended so i cant even sit the lid on flush any idea would be good thanks

 

The water level in that back chamber changes fast enough from evaporation to mess up the skim. You really need to top off like every day, and adjust the skimmer to compensate for buildup of gunk on the neck daily too.

Did you use any epoxy or anything in the tank? That doesn't sound normal for the skimmer.

 

na no epoxy or n e thing i mean i am pulling skimate out but its very light oloured like very watery i dont know guess i just dont know what good skimate looks like i have been using cheap skimmers till this point

 

Hrm. My skimmate tends to be somewhat watery, with a decent number of chunks of goop and a layer of crud (1/2") on the bottom up the full cup. There's also a whole bunch of gook on the neck to the skimmer.

 

can you post a picture if possible ??

 

Not possible ATM. My skimmer has been off for about a week and a half. I rearranged the tank and needed to use massive amounts of epoxy.