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Post by herefishyfishy on Nov 3, 2016 19:51:19 GMT -5
Ok.. expert help needed. I just bought an intank protein skimmer. I know i am goig to have to do some adjusting to get it right, but I don't know what it should look like to be right. Where should the water come up to... what should i have for bubbles.... help |
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Post by spotfin on Nov 3, 2016 21:20:10 GMT -5
Not familiar with that brand. All new skimmers take a short while to "break in" before they start producing quality skimmate. Typically you want the foam in the collection cup to be just spilling over the top of the column in the cup. If it is spilling over really fast and is clear, there is too water in the mix. If there is thick, dark foam that takes forever to collect the skimmer doesn't have enough water. If will take some tweaking to get it adjusted right.
Looks like a lot of bubbles in your tank too.
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Post by herefishyfishy on Nov 4, 2016 7:22:37 GMT -5
Thanks. There was a lot of air in the tank due to a lot of messing with it...
I will keep playin with it.. Might have to change its positioning too... the suction cups suck (or in this case don't suck)
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Nov 4, 2016 10:33:04 GMT -5
Wow I don't not think I've ever actually seen a skimmer like that in 11 years of reefing. Either way, generally you want to give the skimmer a good rinse in vinegar or even run it in a vinegar/water mix for a little while to clean off the manufacturing oils that cause the skimmer to overflow "go through the break in process" for the first few days to a week. Doing this will pretty much always make the skimmer work properly from the start. Beyond that as far as tuning the level of foam in the skimmer neck, a good rule of thumb is to have the bubbles/foam coming just up to the bottom of the collection cup to start with and then fine tune it up or down depending on the amount of skimate being produced. As organic matter builds up in the bubbles, the foam will naturally rise and get pushed into the collection cup. Some skimmers do this by controlling how much water flow, air flow or both water and air gets injected into the skimmer body so it can be a little tricky with some skimmers to get the height of the foam in the skimmer neck just right.
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