Skimmer problems.

[David]

I have had 5 protein skimmers over the years. 1 coralife, 2 bubble magus and 2 reef octopus. The one I currently have is is a new reef octopus 110sss. It’s been running for a week. I have never gotten any of the skimmers to work properly. The water level Has been recommended levels for the skimmers. I have also played around with spacers to fine tune the level. I keep making tiny adjustments every day, with 24 hours to let it settle in. I either Flood the cup with sea water, or nothing at all. I cannot produce the foam head on top. The bubbles always break down inside the tube. I’m about to pull it, and go skimmerless. It’s been almost 3 years of spending money, and having one in my sump that doing little to nothing.

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

Sounds like you may not be allowing them to break in correctly. All skimmers have a break in period. My suggestion is I would get your current skimmer going to the point where is not over filling the cup and just level it alone

 

[diana a]

let it run. Did you over size it? Which skimmer and what size is the DT?

 

[David]

I’ve had these things on for over a year. Appropriately sized for the system. I turned it back down, and will leave it break in longer. Most have reported this skimmer needs minimum break in, going by consumer reviews.

 

[David]

I just downsized from an RO 1000Sss BC I thought I felt it was oversized.

 

[David]

let it run. Did you over size it? Which skimmer and what size is the DT?

It is about 50 gal total after live rock and equipment. The skimmer is a RO classic 110-S. Now sitting in 8” of water in the sump.

 

[Martin Riggs]

How much bio load? I’m thinking your skimming very wet to get the cup to over flow. I have a hob reef octopus with dual pumps and and dual cups. Took bout a week to get right with cup height. Pulls something nasty stuff. Really this hob skimmer is meant for a 200 gal tank and I’m only about 45 gal after the tank with rock.

 

[David]

Not much bioload. 7 small fish. I’m trying to skim as dry as possible. Just won’t skim at all. If I turn it up a tiny bit, It skims way to wet. I’m making tiny adjustments and waiting a day or so for it to settle in between. I’ve been insucessful with skimmers for years.

 

[David]

I think I found the problem. I just checked my tank, and somehow I’m only at 0.022 sg. I routinely mix to .024. I don’t know how it happens. I will slowly bring up my salinity up the next few days. Will see if the skimmer works better.

 

[Jim]

funny i had similar history and using a 110 too. It was an unpredictable pita in the sump, then eventually I tried porting one of the drain straight into it and has been working perfectly in that config ever since. I'm not running any other filtration anymore except for a fuge; so it gets some exercise

 

[David]

Thx. Ill keep tuning it for another week or 2. I’m getting fed up with skimmers. They just don’t seem to work for me.

 

[David]

I’m not sure I got this set up right. When I turn the adjustment to min, the water level goes up. When I rotate toward max, the water level goes down. Seems backwards.

 

[Mark...]

I don't think its your salinity, but your bio load. Seems your water isn't dirty enough...

 

[David]

Yea. I’m feeding rather lightly while I try to get residual nitrates down. My nitrates were 40 after my cycle. The water changes I’ve done have brought them down to 25 so far. I think your right Mark. Between light feeding and aggressive water changes, I just don’t have enough waist in the water to build up the foam yet.

 

[Jim]

I think 7 fish in 50G is considerable bioload. Might want to scale back on the water changes to give the other things a chance to kick in

 

[David]

Yea. There mostly small bodied fish, except the clowns. I’m about we’re I want to be with fish/bioload. I will, ease up on the water changes when I get my nitrates down. There was a tiny bit of skimmate in the cup this morning. It must have done a little something overnight.

 

[David]

After all the trouble with the skimmer, I changed the filter sock 2 days ago. It immediately started building proper foam for the first time ever. It’s been working perfectly for 48 hours. There was absolutely no surface tension before to form foam.

 

[KSM92]

Glad you figured it out, I had a similar issue which was because I couldnt keep the water level to stay at the proper level until I built a sump. Any idea why the filter sock caused it?

 

[David]

No idea. Before I swapped it it would just make bubbles, but no foam. It was very touchy, and there was a fine line between not skimming at all, and overfowing. Now I can adjust to skim dry. I can skim wet without overflowing. It seems to be working properly. It was immediately better when I put the new sock in.

 

[KSM92]

Hm thats weird, when I first got into this I used to mess with the skimmer just about every day and couldnt get it to work until I just let it be and now it works great.