Deltec 3000i skimmer troubleshooting

[Yanir34]

Hello everyone, since I've done restart to my reef tank I'm having really hard time with this skimmer.
My new tank is 2 months old , it's 500 liters display tank and 100 liters frag tank , both connected to same sump of 200 liters .
I have 15 chromis , 2 clown fish , 1 gobby , 1 blue trigger fish, 1 tang.
I'm feeding heavy 3 times per day.
I have nature ocean argonite sand , dry Indonesian rocks , red sea fleece roller , UVC and GAC in reactor.
No3 is at 4
Po4 at 0.03
I had previous skimmer A&C (Loginov) that's was real beast , buy unfortunately some of the skimmer parts was broken over time , and I wanted to test new skimmer.
It was a mistake.
I order DELTEC 3000i , and its almost 2 weeks that this skimmer simply does nothing but trillions micro bubbles.
The amount of those micro bubbles got so worst , that I had to locate this skimmer at the frag tank, and put filter bag at the drain of this tank to avoid those bubbles to enter the main tank !
The skimmer sits at 24 cm water level , and only 10% of pump power (DC pump).

Again , it's doesn't build any foam, simply doesn't skimmer nothing.
It looks like boiling pot of cheap PVC/acrylic piece of equipment.

As for the organics/waste in the tank....well red sea fleece filter is pulling out a lot of waste as you can see...and ugly phase in the tank takes its course and alges popping out almost everywhere.

What could be the problem ?
What am I'm doing wrong ?

 

[mann1139]

1. Check your depth. Skimmers are finicky about water depth.

2. Do you have another tank where you could break in the skimmer?

3. Was your old skimmer working well? The new unit might have a lot of organica to clean up.

4. The videos look like too much air to me. Can you adjust the air?

 

[lakai]

even a 1000i is too oversize for your tank. Turn off your filter roller and let the skimmer have something to skim.

 

[Kodski]

I agree with Iakai, You greatly oversized your skimmer. That skimmer is rated for 2000L at a heavy bioload and 3000L at a light bioload. You don't have a heavy bioload at all, even with feeding three times a day. Your fleece roller mat is also not helping with that. I'm always in the "its better to oversize your skimmer" boat, but that size is simply just too large for your aquarium. You have two options, get a different (smaller) skimmer, or find a way to decrease air into the skimmer. You can try adding a valve of some sort to control the air intake but honestly that is only going to help you so much in your case. Your best bet is to go with a smaller skimmer.

 

[Yanir34]

1. Check your depth. Skimmers are finicky about water depth.

2. Do you have another tank where you could break in the skimmer?

3. Was your old skimmer working well? The new unit might have a lot of organica to clean up.

4. The videos look like too much air to me. Can you adjust the air?

1. It was located at depeath of 20 cm.
2.No
3.my old skimmer also does the same..
4.I can only adjust the pump flow rate , not the air

 

[Yanir34]

even a 1000i is too oversize for your tank. Turn off your filter roller and let the skimmer have something to skim.

I turned off filter roller , same results

 

[Kodski]

I turned off filter roller , same results

Even with the filter roller off, your tank just doesn’t produce enough organics for that skimmer to work. You didn’t just oversize the skimmer. Your skimmer is 5 times bigger than it needs to be.

 

[Yanir34]

Thanks I will try skimmer that is rated for 700 liters

 

[minus9]

The 1000i or the 1500i would've been my choice for your size. Like others stated, based on your available organics, there's nothing for the skimmer to do. Break up your feedings even more, 5-6x a day with smaller portions. I have Deltec skimmers are they are awesome, but if there's nothing for them to remove, it doesn't matter how awesome they are, they're just gonna make bubbles.

 

[Yanir34]

The 1000i or the 1500i would've been my choice for your size. Like others stated, based on your available organics, there's nothing for the skimmer to do. Break up your feedings even more, 5-6x a day with smaller portions. I have Deltec skimmers are they are awesome, but if there's nothing for them to remove, it doesn't matter how awesome they are, they're just gonna make bubbles.

Even with this amount of fishes ?
O.k tomorrow I will connected the smaller skimmer uniti the organics will build up in the system

 

[minus9]

Even with this amount of fishes ?
O.k tomorrow I will connected the smaller skimmer uniti the organics will build up in the system

I have a 90g tank with around 100g (380L) total volume and I’m using the 600i with a heavy fish load and heavy feedings. I think the 1000i would suit me a little better, but I just have to increase the flow on my 600i to match, as they use the same pump. It’s not until you go to the 1500i that the pump size changes. I also don’t use any mechanical filtration, no socks, no roller, etc. I think people run their tanks too clean with all of this mechanical filtration. There are lots of mouths that will consume the particulates, so I don’t worry that much about it. Also, people worry that higher nutrients causes algae issues, which is wrong. Algae will grow no matter the nutrient level, the lack of CUC is the reason algae will grow, not nutrients.

 

[Yanir34]

Problem solved...I've replaced the Deltec to bubble magus curve 7 that rated for 700 liters of light bio load.

5 minutes from the start ,he stated producing thick and nasty foam.

The deltec is too strong for my system.

 

[lakai]

Even with this amount of fishes ?
O.k tomorrow I will connected the smaller skimmer uniti the organics will build up in the system

I have a 1000i and even that seems oversize for 500 gallons total water volume with 20 large fish in a tank packed glass to glass with SPS.