Turboflotor 1000 Problems

[johnkristie]

I just recently purchased a Turboflotor 1000 skimmer. I bought the Ocean Runner 2700 pump upgrade to go with it instead of the Rio. Has anyone else had problems setting this up to work or is it just my stupidity? The instructions are horrible! The pump has one of those needle wheels inside, which IMO seems to me not to provide enough flow. I set it up in my kitchen sink first to see how it works and the skimmer only produces extremely large bubbles and only fills the skimmer reaction chamber with water about half way. The intake for the pump recirculates some water from inside the skimmer and also takes new water from outside (kind of a dual intake), but most of the water seems to be drawn from inside the skimmer rather than the external source. I can't feel any suction from the external intake pipe. What am I doing wrong??

[WarOrks15]

well yes teh instructions are really bad. but i have finaly got the thing to work my biggest problem was what needle wheel to use. but the skimmer will only make the small bubbles that remove stuff in salt water.

did you get the hob or the sump one?

if the sump one use a mj 600 for the pump to pump water in to the inlet tube. and then hook up the other pump so it sucks water from the skiller and air line and shoots is back in to the skimmer.

i hop this helps. there is another person that helped me with this skimmer but i forget his name. he was a great help to me nd i will try to do my best to help you.

[johnkristie]

I've got the sump one. I don't really follow you. Are you saying I should get another submersible to pump water into my original pump? And what is a mj 600?

[WarOrks15]

ok so you have an inlet to the skimmer, right? it is a long gray tube that is about a ft long or so. well take some 1/2" id tube and stick one end to that tube and the other to the out put of a maxi-jet 600. this will pump water in to the skimmer to get skimmed.

and are you sure that you have the pump (the ocean runner) sucking water from the skimmer and sending it back to it in one loop? if you take a look on www.marinedepot.com they have a good pic of what it should look like.

they say that you can hook the skimmer to the drain line coming from the over flow but that would be way too much flow and if is not able to suck up water in the inlet tube. you have to pump it in there. you can use any pump that will pump like 100 gph or so. i just got a maxi-jet 600 and it works great. you do not need a ball valve for it or any thing.

dose this help some?

[WarOrks15]

o the maxi-jet 600 is rated for 160 not 100. so if you got a pump rated at about tat it would work.

[johnkristie]

I tried your solution WarOrk and still have no luck. I think it might be that the venturi is screwed up. But at least the skimmer fills with water now. Just still have extremely large bubbles in the skimmer. Does yours have the intake from the overflow and the intake from the skimmer being drawn into the pump from the same T-joint?

[WarOrks15]

yes. there is a t joint that takes water from the mj 600 and the skimmer. did you try the other needle wheel? there are 2 of them in that box and i tryed one and it had bigger bubbles then the 2nd one i tryed.

[johnkristie]

I've only tried the one that came on the pump. Mainly because I can't get it off to try the other one! I'm getting fairly frustrated with this thing.