Tuning an ev120

Maybe 1.5 - 2" - see the pic on the first page.

I may be having some luck - this discussion has been a very good sounding board and I decided to give it one more try. I fully cleaned the skimmer, set the water level as per #2 as posted above, and I have foam now.

This setting was not exactly like anything suggested here, but like I said, all the talk got me thinking, and perhaps better understanding that there are 2 versions, and the directions that came with the unit are very very poor at present.

I even noticed after posting about the directions, the picture has a caption "initial water level should be a bit lower than the top of the box" , and it has an arrow that shows the water level below the internal plate, followed by (in bold letters) "best performance is obtained when the water level is EQUAL to the top of the box" - 3 different directions within 1 inch of each other, 4 different ones within 2 inches.

AquaC needs to do a better job in their instructions.

I think it is a combination of a couple of suggestions - I am setting the level at the bottom of the clear tube as suggested by Otty, but with the air wide open. And I think the cleaning Mamol suggested got it going. When I tried that level before it may have not been clean enough.

 

Glad to hear you're having some positive results. Keep us posted!

 

Progress....Yea...!!

 

If you hold the air wide open I believe you air induction to the water will be too erratic to keep water saturated with bubble. 1/2 to 2/3 should be all that it is open to make sure you have fine bubble in the tubes.

Keep us informed on your progress as this may help someone else out down the road.

 

Got it. Picking up a cheapo LED pocket light might help. Hope you didn't take offense. Sometimes the obvious needs to asked. Glad to see that was not the case here.

Have you taken the air valve out and inspected it. Made sure there is no junk in there.

Have you called AquaC? I called them originally to find out some opinions about where the best place was to take a suction in my sump. They were very helpful.

Sorry... again with the obvious.;D

Glad to see you are making some progress.

 

Hey flywheel.

This is my first post. Long term lurker, first time poster. Had to respond to your post since I recently went through the same thing.

My EV120 did not dial in for 3 weeks, almost 4. I played around with it and read the AquaC instructions a hundred times to the point that I had them memorized. I actually had two flashlights pointed at it at once trying to read the water level.

What I've concluded is that this skimmer takes a heck of a long time to dial itself in, but once it's there, it's golden. I just gave up on reading water level and went for wet skim with everything open and then throttled the air. I played with the gate valve a lot, but found it works fine wide open with the mag 5. (Mine is running off a mag 5 also. The gate valve is open all the way.) The air valve was was set at around 7 o'clock, but after I added a new phosphate reactor I found that I had to open the air valve all the way. That may change, we'll see once the reactor breaks in. My skimmer sits in a 10gal. sump, same as your setup. I'm sure you know not to block the air on the overflow, that'll kill the skim level, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

I get about a half cup of very dark green sludge every couple of days, and I have a very light bioload.

Don't give up on the EV120. I had nitrates at 10- 20 since I started the tank 3 years ago and since the EV120 dialed in I have zero nitrates and my corals and fish are super happy.

Good Luck!

TJW00

p.s. Hello to the forums! Great site!!!

 

Follow up;
The ev120 never has worked as I expected. After a good cleaning I get about 1/4 of wet skimmate and it stops. I empty the cup, clean everything again and get another 1/4 cup. I clean it so much the cup has cracked (from too hot of water I guess) so I am now looking to replace it (and have an unused external tank to sell as well). Perhaps my tank is too small, I don't know, but it has been a very bad experience for me.

 

In the link for your posts I looked through the pictures and it looked like the ev was doing pretty good (brown sludge in the top cup), 2nd to last picture I believe. You don't have that big of bioload to pull out much more skimmate than what you currently get.

 

If it is new then I would contact Aqua C and see if they will replace the cup.