I won the August R2R "WIN a Tunze DOC Skimmer 9410!! Back by popular demand!! It's the BUILT LIKE A TUNZE Giveaway!" and received it yesterday. Super fast turnaround by R2R and TUNZE!
I've been running my 125G (+40B sump) for about 5 months now without a skimmer. I was just recently thinking of purchasing one when I saw the contest thread and thought "why not?".
WOO HOO! I was the winner!
Yesterday was my last day of vacation, so it was perfect timing. I unboxed the DOC Skimmer. It was really nicely packed - outside box protecting the skimmer box itself (some packing peanuts and protective cardboard). The skimmer and associated parts were protected in their own product box with plenty of bubble wrap.
I laid everything out and quickly scanned through the manual. Yeah, I actually RTFM... strange huh?
Putting together the skimmer was pretty straight-forward. I've only owned one skimmer in the past so I don't have a lot of experience putting them together.
The Tunze DOC Skimmer 9410 is super simple to use. I had more trouble finding something around the house to use as a 'shelf' to get the skimmer at the recommended 5.5 - 6.0" of water. The only adjustments are the 'screw' on the air bubble line and the ability to raise or lower the skimmer post-filter height.
I know most skimmers don't immediately start making skimmate and that there's usually a break-in period. I was ready to let it run for days, or a week, before I started to see worthwhile frothiness.
There was one point where I was messing with the air knob when things went crazy and the skimmer cup filled with water. I just dumped it back in the sump and left it alone to do its thang.
To my surprise less than 6 hours after firing it up I was getting "tea".
When I checked about 18 hours later (the next morning) the skimmer cup was about 1/2-full of darker "tea" and some chunky nastiness (not a lot, just bits here and there).
I was easily able to remove the skimmer cup and dump it down the drain. A quick rinse of the cup itself, and then back into the skimmer body. I didn't even turn off the skimmer while I did this.
I wasn't really paying attention to the time, but the next time I looked the foaming was back in action.
As of writing this , about 12 hours later, there's just under a 1/4" of "tea" in the skimmer cup.
Tomorrow I'll look at the manual again just to re-read the suggestions to get a darker/thicker/dryer skim.
All in all I'm very happy with this DOC Skimmer from Tunze!