Protein Skimmer Setup Help

[jaustin]

pull the air line out of the silencer. It will draw in more air that way and less water volume. May help out for now. Your skimmer isn't too deep, that's a good level.

Texhorns98, he's talking about the drain plug in the skimmer cup, to drain the poo out.

Like Jenn said, you may have a ton or organic material in your tank and it's just causing the skimmer to go NUTS. By any chance do you add any stresszyme or anything like that to treat your water? That stuff can make your skimmer go NUTS.

 

[landon]

JAustin;529355 wrote: pull the air line out of the silencer. It will draw in more air that way and less water volume. May help out for now. Your skimmer isn't too deep, that's a good level.

Texhorns98, he's talking about the drain plug in the skimmer cup, to drain the poo out.

Like Jenn said, you may have a ton or organic material in your tank and it's just causing the skimmer to go NUTS. By any chance do you add any stresszyme or anything like that to treat your water? That stuff can make your skimmer go NUTS.

Sorry for the delay. I'm slammed at work. work for GA Office of Homeland and doing a statewide Hurricane exercise, SLAMMED. Anyway, I'll try taking out the silencer and seeing what happens this evening.

I haven't put anything other than calcium in the tank. Still, this may be part of the problem. I'll be able to play with it more this evening.

 

[jaustin]

I doubt the calcium would cause any problems with the skimmer. Good luck with work!

 

[reeferboy83]

I have been having the same problem with my Octo 160....it will skim good for a day or two then for no apparent reason it will overflow. I had to get a bucket for the drain line to go in....I got tired of mopping up a few gallons of water out from under my tank But it skims really well when it works properly! Just a thought tho....when I dose ALK, MAG or CAL would that make it over skim by dumping those into the tank??

 

[landon]

Alrighty, things still haven't gotten anybetter. I've been in contact with Coralvue trying to figure out the issue here with the skimmer. So far they haven't been able to come up with a solution.

One question, will the two part dosing method cause the skimmer to foam more? I wanna believe that I noticed more bubbles overflowing the top of the cup yesterday right after I did the two part dosing.

Thank ya'll for your continued help!

 

[jennm]

2-part shouldn't cause it to overflow.

Did you try adding some carbon?

The photos you posted show exactly the same issue I've experienced with other types of skimmers, that carbon seemed to fix. Yes, there's still the issue of dialing the skimmer in to where you want it to be, but you should be able to have a little bit of wiggle room without it foaming over like that.

There's lots of things that can make a skimmer do that. Additives with polymers, 2-part epoxy, etc.

Also, don't try to adjust your skimmer right after you've fed the fish, or had your hands in the tank. Oils from your skin and/or the food, will cause the skimmer to stop fractionating for a while. If you make adjustments then, once the oils dissipate, the skimmer *will* go nuts because it was adjusted incorrectly in the first place, as it wasn't able to skim when the adjustment was made.

So leave it be (unplug it if necessary) for a few hours or overnight if need be, to let things get to "normal" and then tinker with it without having had your hands in the water, or having added food.

Do try the carbon if you haven't.

Jenn