Dialing in protein skimmer ?

[JonPhillips]

Having some issues with this. It’s an eshopps blah blah blah.

When it works, it’s pulling great skim.

It was dialed in tonight. Had my arm in the tank for a while pulling algae. Checked on it and it seemed to be haywire again.

It’s very particular about the water level. Before I had my ATO the skimmer was so unreliable I never ran it. Getting the ATO seemed to settle it for a few weeks.

Now tonight when it went of it’s rocker I reset it blah blah blah and now it pulling super fast and wet skim. No matter how “open” or closed I turn the vent thingy it’s cranking too hard. It’s off for the night.

Piece. Of. Garbage.

I thought maybe pulling it all the way out of the sump and giving it a good cleaning might help. Maybe something is stuck in there? But what? It’s not a filthy tank. I’ve added a clean up crew lately and have been pulling a few baby snails here and there from the sump, but nothing crazy.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks, guys and gals!

 

[Dawgvet]

Obvious questions,
What is the water level of the chamber where the skimmer is?
Did you thoroughly wash you arm before placing it in tank?
Sometimes there may be surfactants on our skin from different things that may cause overflow.

 

[JonPhillips]

Obvious questions,
What is the water level of the chamber where the skimmer is?
Did you thoroughly wash you arm before placing it in tank?
Sometimes there may be surfactants on our skin from different things that may cause overflow.

Water level is good. Think I need to take apart the pump because there’s a snail stuck in there or something...

Didnt really rinse my arm...

 

[Dawgvet]

Also, check your silencer. I've had salt creep partially block the airway tube and create larger bubbles and "boil" over. (This is rare though)

Didnt really rinse my arm...

My money is on this. The fact that it was "dialed in" before you cleaned/had your arm in the tank and was overflowing afterwards would lead me to believe this may have been the cause.
I notice a short change in the bubble size (much larger) when I've had my arm in the tank, and I usually clean it thoroughly to mid biceps using a clean, old fashioned surgical hand scrub brush. :)
I really notice a change (even overflow) if I forget to wash my arm beforehand.
One trick to do if you are cranking down the water level knob and its still overflowing is to put something under skimmer to raise it a couple of inches short term until the stuff is skimmed out of the water column.
Disclosure: I don't have this brand of protein skimmer.

 

[JBKReef]

Do you use a controller? I had issues keeping my skimmer dialed in as well with the water level... anytime my arm went in, anytime I shut off return for feeding, anything out of the normal routine and it would go haywire.

Just get into the habit if turning it off when you're in the tank, feeding, adjusting water level in teh sump for any reason then fire it back up.