Tunze DOC Protein Skimmers

[Daniel]

I myself have owned a 9002, 9010, and currently using a 9020.

These skimmers are by far one of the best investments I have made for my tank. They run virtually silent, require very little tuning and are VERY consistent at producing good quality skimmate. Because the Tunze DOC Protein Skimmers have generally very small footprints, they can be placed in a sump, or even the display with generally impressive results. They require as little as 5-10 minutes of maintenance weekly or bi-weekly; which consists of simply emptying out the collection cup and rinsing the neck in luke-warm water to clear skimmate build-up. Once the clean cup is back on the skimmer, it starts producing skimmate again almost immediately.

Build & Construction: 9/10
Ease of Use: 9/10
Performance: 10/10
Customer Service (From Tunze): 10/10

Average Score: 9.5/10

I rate the build & construction to be 9/10 because Tunze mounting brackets are a bit tedious to deal with. They are more complicated than they should be but are applicable to a variety of different setups. They WORK, but as with all Tunze mounting brackets, they are troublesome to deal with.

I would highly recommend Tunze DOC Protein Skimmers to anyone. They are without a doubt well worth the initial cost.

I'll get a picture of the skimmate my 9020 collects later this week.

Those of you (I know you're out there) with Tunze skimmers, please add your experiences with these skimmers too!

[GoTakuF1]

Great review, Daniel! As they say, bigger is not always better. This is certainly the case with the Tunze DOC skimmers. Aside from all the great things you've pointed out, I also like Tunze's "plankton friendly" technology which allows the skimmer to be gentler to the microfauna in your tank. I loved my 9020 when I had it on an SPS tank. Another great product from Tunze.

[SolRo]

if you do a skimmate picture, can you take it after completely scrubbing out the cup and letting it run for a couple hours?

I find the skimmate pictures with cups that are filthy to be completely useless, as the gunk that builds up on the sides makes the liquid look darker than it is.

[Chanas4]

I have a 9010 in my sump. Love it though in the beginning I had alot of problems getting it started. Minh had to come and help me put things inside where they should be. That is my only complaint, they are not easy to work with. Now that it has been establshed, all I do is clean out the cup once a week like Daniel mentioned.

[Moon Doggy]

I have the tunze nano skimmer I am not impressed with it, the brackets suck the magnetic barely holds it, it does not ever produced a full cup of skum. It is in my son sons 33 gallon cube.

[swissfish]

I set one up for a friend of mine.

The in sump attachement is a pain to set up. Pluss the suction cups are stronger than the skimmer bottom and if you want to move the skimmer you'll need to reasemble the bottom part off, since it will pull appart when you move the skimmer.
Once set up this puppy is awesome and super easy to operate (and if you are smart with the initial placement, you won't have my problems.)

[Redeye]

the magnet is so strong I almost broke my finger
Love the 9002 (only one I've used)
produces alot of skimmate even though I have it in a side compartment with access to about 5% of tank water at a time (those that have seen my 40 understand)

[Daniel]

I finally got around to taking some pics. My tank is a 125 + 50g sump (actual water volume is estimated at around ~160 gallons). I have a medium/heavy fishload and feed moderately. The skimmer is set on high sensitivity and high load (full throttle). The particular skimmer I'm using (9020) is rated for 528 gallons using up 42W of electricity. For the photos, I cleaned my skimmer the week of Thanksgiving (around when I made this first post), so these pics show how much junk my 9020 pulled out in about 2 weeks time.

Here's how the 9020 looks in my sump, notice the "mud" that's collecting in the foam extraction unit.


Here's a closer view of the foam extraction units and how they're plumbed together.


Finally, a picture of 2 weeks skimmate, yes... that shows 1500 mL!


Looks kind of like fresh brewed coffee yum! I'm sure you guys don't want to know how it smells... but it's something like rotten eggs.

[malachai629]

My skimmate always smells fresh and earthy. Is that weird?

[Daniel]

My skimmate smells like death, but the mud (in my extraction unit) smells earthy as you mentioned... but by no means is it "fresh"

My tangs poop A LOT... maybe that's why mine smells so bad.

[malachai629]

How big is your poopy tang? I have a 4" hippo that's a crapfactory and another 4" powder blue that I haven't noticed being as productive

I just googled your skimmers. The prices seem pretty decent, actually!

[Daniel]

Tangs:
1x 3" Blue Tang (medium pooper)
1x 4.5" Achilles (BIGGEST poop machine in my tank, it's scary!)
1x 6" Yellow Tang (medium pooper)

My other fish include:
1x 2" True Percula
1x 3" 6-Line
2x 3" Anthias (1 lyretail, 1 squarespot)
1x Blue Damsel
1x Royal Gramma Basslet
3x 1.5" Green Chromis

I think that's it for my 125.

EDIT: I knew I forgot 1 more fish...
1x 4" Blue Jaw Trigger (Also a BIG poop machine)

[malachai629]

Not too big of a bio load. I wonder if it means my skimmer isnt doing it's job? It's just a remora pro on a 125.

[Daniel]

Not too big of a bio load. I wonder if it means my skimmer isnt doing it's job? It's just a remora pro on a 125.

You're right, my bio-load isn't too bad at all... I still consider it "medium/heavy" though because of how large the tangs are.

I USED to be a fan of the AquaC skimmers until I bought my first Tunze 9010. The Tunze outperformed my AquaC Urchin Pro by 3-4x! I could get 1 months worth of skimmate produced by the Urchin Pro in just 1 week using my 9010. The AquaC skimmers are good, and work well... but the Tunze DOC Skimmer's are in a different league.

My 9020 is essentially two 9010's glued together, only difference is they come with foam extraction units. I'll admit at first I was hesitant at using them (I even thought about trading them/selling them for regular 9010 cups), but once I hooked it up it makes a world of a difference. I was foolish to even consider "not using" the foam extraction units.

[Daniel]

if you do a skimmate picture, can you take it after completely scrubbing out the cup and letting it run for a couple hours?

I find the skimmate pictures with cups that are filthy to be completely useless, as the gunk that builds up on the sides makes the liquid look darker than it is.

I missed this post. Sorry I didn't take the pic as you mentioned, but w/the foam extraction units what you mentioned doesn't really apply. I know what you're talking about though... since the mud builds up in the neck it makes things look dirtier than they are.

If you'd like I can take more "accurately timelined" photographs. I plan on cleaning my collection cup soon anyways, it's going to overflow soon