Anyone familiar with this older tunze skimmer model? (turbelle 9005)

[ICoelho]

Hey,

I took over someone’s setup and it came with this tunze turbelle 9005 skimmer (see pictures). It runs, but I'm not sure how efficient it is. I couldn’t find much about it online as it seems to be an older model, so I was wondering if someone who's been in the hobby longer would have any insights.

- is it a good skimmer?
- have there been improvements in the newer models that would justify replacing it with a new one?
- anything specific I should know about the installation, since unfortunately I can't find a manual for it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Blast from the past, been a while since I’ve seen one! I had one about 20+ years ago, great skimmer, reliable as you’d expect from Tunze.

I don’t see why you couldn’t still use it. Skimmer design has definitely evolved but that model produced plenty of thick dark skimmate. Give the internals a good clean, check for any issues with the cord inlet / pump housing and fire it up, just keep your hands out of the water!

Did it come with the mounting brackets for attaching to side of your sump?

 

[ICoelho]

Blast from the past, been a while since I’ve seen one! I had one about 20+ years ago, great skimmer, reliable as you’d expect from Tunze.

I don’t see why you couldn’t still use it. Skimmer design has definitely evolved but that model produced plenty of thick dark skimmate. Give the internals a good clean, check for any issues with the cord inlet / pump housing and fire it up, just keep your hands out of the water!

Did it come with the mounting brackets for attaching to side of your sump?

That's great to hear! The bracket seems to be there, although I don't know if it's complete since it wasn't attached to the person's tank when I got it.

Regarding the water level, do I just have to make sure it's submerged? I've seen some videos where people talk about tuning the water level within their sumps, but it doesn't seem like this one has anything like that.

Thanks a lot for your answer

 

[Hollan]

Blast from the past, been a while since I’ve seen one! I had one about 20+ years ago, great skimmer, reliable as you’d expect from Tunze.

I don’t see why you couldn’t still use it. Skimmer design has definitely evolved but that model produced plenty of thick dark skimmate. Give the internals a good clean, check for any issues with the cord inlet / pump housing and fire it up, just keep your hands out of the water!

Did it come with the mounting brackets for attaching to side of your sump?

Helpful.

 

[traumamed]

Love the old school! My skimmer is a 5+ year old model of a 10+ year old design. The fish and coral don't seem to mind.

If it's new to you, one thing I might add if you haven't done it already is go through the pump, with particular attention to the impeller. As a purveyor of used reef equipment myself, I've run across a few skimmers that didn't seem to be performing well, only to find that someone along the way had put a pump with a cheap impeller on the skimmer.

A lot of the pumps our skimmers use are just a sub-model of a pump that is made in two flavors: one with a "regular" impeller, and one with the fancy impeller that helps make all the bubbles (and inexplicably doubles the cost of the pump). People who have a pump failure on their skimmer and who do not understand the physics will often spring for the el cheapo sister pump of the one they should be buying.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Yes, you’ll need to mount that skimmer at an appropriate level in your sump for optimal function. Current spec skimmers have precision valves for tuning.