The Tunze 9410 DC DOC Skimmer is one of the company’s first two models of protein skimmer to feature a controllable DC needle wheel pump. With so many controllable protein skimmers essentially being only slight variants of the same design, and using the same basic DC pump, the new DC 9410 DC skimmer is one of the last skimmers that can claim all German design and construction.
This is not just a superficial claim, one look at the Tunze 9410 skimmers and you’ll see that is has a completely different form factor. Everything about this skimmer from Tunze is different, from the feed pump, to the bubble diffuser, even the way the water exits the skimmer and how the cup fits into the body is inherently different.
At first seeing a protein skimmer with an oddball design is not as comforting as using a typically large skimmer, with a nice big body and a some kind of familiar water outflow control. Despite all these obvious design differences, the Tunze DC 9410 DOC Skimmer can still skim with the best of them and it does so with less power and an overall smaller footprint and height than you would expect in a protein skimmer rated for up to 300 gallons.
While we probably wouldn’t use the Tunze 9410 for a typical reef tank up to 150 gallons, we would do so with confidence because this skimmer really generates a ton of air. We started testing theDC version of the Tunze 9410 DOC skimmer on a small Red Sea Reefer and first of all, we were impressed at how little space this skimmer takes up in the sump of the Red Sea Reefer.
Despite its diminutive size, and being fresh out the box, this skimmer required no break in time and it started producing skimmate within minutes of being turned on. So much skimmate was being generated that we actually had to dial down the HydroFoamer powering it to nearly its lowest setting.
This is the point where the Tunze 9410 DC DOC Skimmer really started endearing itself to us. It’s quite normal to adjust a protein skimmer’s performance using a standard gate valve or wedge pipe, but being able to dial in the skimmer by finely controlling the speed of the needle wheel pump was actually quite refreshing.
We’ve actually used and loved other skimmers with controllable DC pumps but these couldn’t really be dialed in the same way that the HydroFoamer Silence can. The myriad of controllable DC pumps feeding out tanks and protein skimmers actually have several ‘steps’ of power output, so you actually can’t really fine tune them without also adjusting the outflow of the skimmer and subsequent water level inside the body.
So far we are extremely impressed with the amount of air draw and foam production which is outsized relative to the dimensions of this protein skimmer. Our first impressions of Tunze’s new controllable protein skimmer are extremely positive so stay tuned for our follow up to this review where we’ll share our full experience on what it’s like to actually use and service the Tunze 9410 DC skimmer.
