Tunze Nano Skimmer

[onehawksfan]

I bought a Tunze Nano Skimmer from Marine Depot. It's been running for about a week now and with just a tiny adjustment from the adjustment knob (really easy), I'm getting a good amount of dark brown junk. I would say that I am happy to very happy with this skimmer! Not many people I found had this type when I ordered it - I think it's fairly new. So this is my "product review" - hope it helps someone! I chose this one over the Remora because I wanted an insump skimmer, but I had height overhead issues. Oh yeah, my tank is 22 gallons and the skimmer is in the 10 gallon sump.

 

[Krish]

Sounds great! I've seen some of Tunze's products on their website, but only tried their Streams which I really love. Good to see people having success and are happy with their other lines

 

[jetaero]

hehe... I've got a euro-reef es5-2 on my 20g with 10g sump...

-Josh-

 

[dmorton]

i saw the tunze nano also and thought the size was perfect for me but had heard nothing. did you consider the aqua c urchin? i prefer the size/compactness of the tunze but thought the urchin might perform better mainly due to the added height.

 

[NaH2O]

dmorton - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

onehawksfan - can you post some pics of it in action? I'm glad to hear the good review.

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF dmortom! You are just around the corner from me

 

[dmorton]

thanks,
wish i was there now.....

any opinnion re the skimmers i mentioned? tunze nano vs urchin?

 

[Krish]

thanks,
wish i was there now.....

I can't lie, but today really is a beautiful day for out in the boat...Too bad I have to work:doubt:

 

[onehawksfan]

The one weird/strange thing about the Tunze Nano is that the whole casing is black plastic and you can't really see anything except the bubbles at the very top. I can show pictures of what I'm getting out of it - can someone tell me how to load pictures on here. I just bought a digital camera and it came in the mail literally three days ago and I still haven't tried downloading pictures to the computer or anything yet. As for the Urchin - yeah I wanted to get that originally, but I had some serious space constraints under my tank where the sump is. The Urchin would just fit and wouldn't give me room to empty the collection cup. Tunze Nano was a couple inches shorter and the skimate I pull is darker and more concentrated every day!

 

[onehawksfan]

I hope this works!

 

[onehawksfan]

Second try!

 

[onehawksfan]

This is my Tunze Nano skimmer at work in my 10 gallon sump/refugium. I cleaned the collection cup this morning at around 9am and these pictures were taken at about 9pm. As you can see from the pictures, you can't see the bubbles inside at work really so?? All I know is that it is working and I'm happy! Now that I know how to post pictures, I'll show my tank setup soon. (Right now it has a bad hair algae problem!)

 

[NaH2O]

Hopefully the skimmer will help with the algae. If you're getting dark skimmate, then that's all that matters...we don't need to see the bubbles at work inside the unit . I'm glad to see how small the skimmer is, in a 10 gallon sump. Perfect fit, and plenty of room still in the sump.

 

[dmorton]

i'm giving serious consideration to this skimmer. what height requirement is needed to service the skimmer? from the picts/diagram it seems the pump is internal. so is the actual funtioning footprint 4.9 x 2.1 inches? how does it actually mount? the website mentions mounting with holding device for vertical panes?

i have a 30 gal mixed fish/LR & softcoral. i plan to put the skimmer in the sump portion of a slim 60 wet/dry filter. then hopefully set-up and over flow to a 10 gal refugium. the shorter tunze nano should allow me to raise my wet/dry enough to have gravity flow to the refugium... i hope.

what is the flow path in your refugium? and what all do you have in it? do you have a pict. to post?

 

[onehawksfan]

dmorton, I sent you a PM. For everyone else, the skimmer's pump is internal and it has a very small footprint. The recommended water level is 8" I believe, but mine is closer to 9" and works great. You will need at least 16" of headroom to get the collection cup out easily. I designed a sump/refugium that has the water draining from the tank going into a small chamber (4"x4") with outlet holes in the bottom (I originally had a filter sock in there but I took it out because I didn't want it to turn into a biological filter - but it worked great at stopping bubbles in the sump). The skimmer was in the adjacent compartment from which the water then flowed through a standard 3-baffle bubble trap into a makeshift refugium. The refugium area is only 8" x 10" and has caeto macro algae. Here's where my "custom" idea is being experimented with. The inflow and outflow of the refugium is from the top only and there seems to be less flow at the bottom of the refugium. I heard that caeto likes stronger flow but I am using the refugium as a collection area for detritus and other junk that makes it's way into the sump (uneaten food/flakes). The stuff makes it over the inflow baffle, but then most of the junk sinks just enough inside the refugium to not make it over the outflow baffle, that then feeds the return area. I syphon the junk off the bottom of the refugium (which has no substrate) when I do a waterchange. I was surprised how well this actually worked! The return area houses my Mag7 which returns to the tank through a SQWD (which is the only source of current in my 22g tank - no powerheads!). I'm using a compact flourescent floodlight that I bought at homedepot as a light for the caeto. It's still early so I haven't been able to detect much growth (not sure if these lights are going to workout in the longrun - I haven't read that much about them). The light goes on when the tank lights go out at night. Sorry for the long post! I'll post picture of sump asap.

 

[onehawksfan]

Here are the pics!

Left side is my Mag7 return pump in return area. Middle is the refugium with caeto macro algae and heater. Right side is bubble trap baffles (hard to see clearly), Tunze Nano skimmer (bottom right) and overflow from tank (top right).
I hope you like what you see - I will post tank shots as soon as my algae problem gets a little better!

 

[onehawksfan]

Actually, I'm not sure that the algae is actually caeto - but it looks similar (ball of fishing line). In the middle picture you can see the brown "junk" on the bottom of the refugium area that I syphon out when I do a water change. The bag in the sump return area is Kent Marine Reef Carbon (not sure if I should keep this in there all the time - have any recommendations?).

 

[Skimmy]

sweet, i want one!
im a sucker for any german skimmers.
although, i gotta say im pretty blown away with my asm baby g, it takes up a little more space, but it skims it's little life out, and still fits nicely in a 10g sump.my only gripe is that the gen-x pump on the baby g is much louder than a sedra. so of coarse i ordered a replacement sedra 2500 for it that made it's total price $160, still not too bad.

 

[onehawksfan]

I was wondering what type of pump the Tunze Nano came with - it doesn't say. Are you saying it's a Sendra? I can't complain about the noise, it's much quieter than my Mag7 that's for sure!

 

[dmorton]

onehawksfan:
the picts. of your sump/refuge are nice....guess i'm pretty much set on the tunze nano. there is quite a good thread on the tunze line of skimmers at the reefcentral forum. guess i just need to get off my wallet and put the order in. do you know if tunze has an adapter for the nano that would allow the skimmate to flow into a larger container? i know some skimmers do, seems like gravity flow to do it may be tricky to setup? out of curiosity, i assume you added a skimmer to improve water quality? maybe lower nutrients like nitrate, etc. that is my intention, my WQ has only been so so. my setup is 4 mos. old, nitrates hang around 10 or so, and my nems (BTAs) don't seem "happy", i'm really hoping the skimmer and refugium will make a noticable difference for the better.