RED SEA PRIZM SKIMMER

[RubenD]

Hello all, I just setting up my first marine aquarium and got a red sea
prizm skimmer.
However, it seems to me it blows too much bubbles into the tank, not only
scaring the fish but also obstructing the view.

Any ideas?

Is that normal?

Also, I wanted to ask about lighting. Apparently if I want to get anemones
or coral, light are a must, but how much wattage,
and waht's the difference among fluorescent, compact, hallide and moon
lights?

Do I need good lighting if I decided just on the fish? moonlights too?
timers?

I'm a newbie so I appreciate any useful comments.

Thanks,

Ruben

46G Bowfront tank
1 Jebo Canister filter cs4
1 Red Sea Prizm Skimmer
Live sand

[Wayne Sallee]

Yes you need good lighting for corals and anemones. You
want 3 to 5 watts of light per gallon. 3 being very low,
and 5 being where you want to be. 6.5 is great. Fish don't
need special lighting. You don't need moonlights, they are
just for your night time viewing pleasure.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets




RubenD wrote on 5/13/2006 5:12 PM:
> Hello all, I just setting up my first marine aquarium and got a red sea
> prizm skimmer.
> However, it seems to me it blows too much bubbles into the tank, not only
> scaring the fish but also obstructing the view.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Is that normal?
>
> Also, I wanted to ask about lighting. Apparently if I want to get anemones
> or coral, light are a must, but how much wattage,
> and waht's the difference among fluorescent, compact, hallide and moon
> lights?
>
> Do I need good lighting if I decided just on the fish? moonlights too?
> timers?
>
> I'm a newbie so I appreciate any useful comments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ruben
>
> 46G Bowfront tank
> 1 Jebo Canister filter cs4
> 1 Red Sea Prizm Skimmer
> Live sand
>
>

[Wayne Sallee]

I've not payed any attention to the red sea skimmer, so I
can't comment on it directly, but I don't like anything
made by Red Sea.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



RubenD wrote on 5/13/2006 5:12 PM:
> Hello all, I just setting up my first marine aquarium and got a red sea
> prizm skimmer.
> However, it seems to me it blows too much bubbles into the tank, not only
> scaring the fish but also obstructing the view.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Is that normal?
>
> Also, I wanted to ask about lighting. Apparently if I want to get anemones
> or coral, light are a must, but how much wattage,
> and waht's the difference among fluorescent, compact, hallide and moon
> lights?
>
> Do I need good lighting if I decided just on the fish? moonlights too?
> timers?
>
> I'm a newbie so I appreciate any useful comments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ruben
>
> 46G Bowfront tank
> 1 Jebo Canister filter cs4
> 1 Red Sea Prizm Skimmer
> Live sand
>
>

"RubenD" > wrote:
>Hello all, I just setting up my first marine aquarium and got a red sea
>prizm skimmer.
>However, it seems to me it blows too much bubbles into the tank, not only
>scaring the fish but also obstructing the view.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>Is that normal?
>
>Also, I wanted to ask about lighting. Apparently if I want to get anemones
>or coral, light are a must, but how much wattage,
>and waht's the difference among fluorescent, compact, hallide and moon
>lights?
>
>Do I need good lighting if I decided just on the fish? moonlights too?
>timers?
>
>I'm a newbie so I appreciate any useful comments.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Ruben
>

I got the red sea prizm skimmer as my first skimmer too (now use an aqua C
on my reef tank and love it.) You have to tweak them and find the right
balance by adjusting the input flow. It seems to me that after time they
bubbled less but I had the same problem as you early on.
As for lighting depends on what kind of corals you get. I have 1700 watts
on my 210 gallon (3 250 watt metal halides and 6 160 watt VHO's) but I also
have maxima clams and high light needing corals. Halides are bright and have a
beautifull shimmer but they put out alot of heat that you have to deal with.
VHO's are cooler but don't look as good. Moonlight is more for asthetic
effects. If you get obcessed like some of us you can get into staged lighting
(I run mine in four stages to simulate dawn, early morning, daytime, dusk, etc)
and the moonlight which looks kind of cool. I use an aquacontroller to run all
of that. I THINK (but am not sure) that I did get a coral spawn with moonlight,
at least I saw all these white little pellet looking things floating in around
in the tank one night....but I'm not sure.
My main advice to a newbie is:

1) read, read ,read and do research. I found out the hard way that lack
of knowledge means wasting money, not to mention killing alot of fish. 2) The
other things is GO-SLOW!!!!!! be patient, quaranteen new fish and learn
enough to know what kinds of fish you can mix together without alot of
problems. Alot of pet store people don't know what they are talking about or
don't care what they tell you. You'll have someone tell you that "sure, the
yellow tang will get along with that angel fish" and the next day you'll find
the angel shredded because you put the tang in first and yellow's are very
territorial. But with knowledge you can get things to work out. I've had a
couple of my tangs for six years now so it can be done if you do it right.

Bob

[Alan Gabriel]

"RubenD" > wrote in message
. com...
> Hello all, I just setting up my first marine aquarium and got a red sea
> prizm skimmer.
> However, it seems to me it blows too much bubbles into the tank, not
> only
> scaring the fish but also obstructing the view.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Is that normal?
>
> Also, I wanted to ask about lighting. Apparently if I want to get
> anemones
> or coral, light are a must, but how much wattage,
> and waht's the difference among fluorescent, compact, hallide and moon
> lights?
>
> Do I need good lighting if I decided just on the fish? moonlights too?
> timers?
>
> I'm a newbie so I appreciate any useful comments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ruben
>
> 46G Bowfront tank
> 1 Jebo Canister filter cs4
> 1 Red Sea Prizm Skimmer
> Live sand
>
>

Mine is the Prizm Pro. and I found it difficult to set up.

It takes a few days to settle down.

The outlet has to be below the water surface, which meant cutting a section
out of the tank surround.

If you are getting a fine mist of bubbles, open the air control until they
stop.

If you are getting large bubbles, close the flow valve slightly. It needs to
be about 45 degrees to the tube.

Try to keep the water level just below the throat of the reaction chamber,
for some reason it seems to skim more at night and twice I've come down in
the morning to a full reservoir and wet floor. For this reason I've removed
the plug from the reservoir and connected a length of tubing to a gallon
container.

Switch the skimmer off for an hour when you feed the fish or it will fill
the aquarium with mist.

You'll find it's a delicate balance between the air flow and water flow. I
certainly wouldn't buy another Red Sea Prizm Pro.

--
Regards,
Alan

Preserve wildlife - pickle a SQUIRREL to reply.

[[email protected]]

I've got both sizes of the Prizm Pro Deluxe skimmers and I'm fairly
happy with both. They are, however, my first protien skimmers (other
than an old visi-jet skimmer that I hated but only spent $20 on and
gave up on after a month or two) so I can't really say how good they
are in comparison to other skimmers. I don't have a problem with
bubbles with either skimmer, though the larger one does occasionally
leak a nasty brown gunk out the top of it even when it's only 1/4 of
the way full.

Is this the modle you have?:

http://www.redseafish.com/Product.asp?dir=&catid=98&subID=34&proID=128

I recal that a few years ago Red Sea introduced the Prism to a moderate
amout of fan fare, and the device was greated with a mix of
disapointment and timid excitment. I think the "deluxe" modles are a
second generation, but I could be wrong. I'd put off getting skimmers
for a long time because they seemed overly expensive and I'd heard all
kinds of horror stories about how hard they are to install and set up.
The Prisms have one knob. If the collection cup fills up to fast, you
turn the knob one way, if they don't fill up fast enough, you turn the
knob the other way.

When I've got mine set to max water flow I do get some bubble leakage
back into the tank, but I also end up filling the collection cup in a
matter of hours. I think you want to set the flow such that the cup
needs to be dumped once a week or so, this ought to reduce the amount
of bubbles getting back into the tank.

Good luck!
Blake.

[carlrs]

I would add to the lighting is make sure to keep deposits (calcium,
ect) from building up on your lights. If you have a cover between your
lights and aquarium, make sure it is polycarbonate (glass blocks 60% of
light below 420 N, acrylic blocks about 40 %). I have had many
customers call me out to ask why their corals, anemones were not doing
well even though they had good lighting, only to find buildup and /or
an improper cover.

Carl
Aquarium and Pond Maintenance and Design since 1978
Now on the Web since 2004
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

[dc]

"RubenD" > wrote in
. com:

> Hello all, I just setting up my first marine aquarium and got a red
> sea prizm skimmer.
> However, it seems to me it blows too much bubbles into the tank, not
> only scaring the fish but also obstructing the view.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Is that normal?

Turn the flow down. The Prizm skimmers work, but you have to tweak them
for a while to get them to work well for your aquarium size and waste load.
I've found that moving the input flow dial as much as 1-2 mm can make huge
difference on smaller setups.

Chances are if you're getting a lot of bubbles flowing back into your
aquarium, you're also getting a pretty wet skim, which you don't want
anyway.