Please help me tune my skimmer - Regal 200 INT

[Derrick0580]

I have the 200 sss ro skimmer and I run the pump on full power in 8” of water and the water line is right where the cup neck sits into the body and i pull the nastiest smelling dark skimmate out of it!

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Pull the air line tubing away from the silencer and put that end in the water, it will draw in water and dissolve any salt creep.

I asked about the size of the DT, thanks, I would not say your skimmer is excessively large for your system.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

No such thing. U can't over filter a sw tank.
D

 

[rsumner]

I would also say it's looking better, but not great. You mentioned in your original post that you were running the pump at 50%. I would suggest raising it to 80%. Also, go ahead and take the black nipple off the air silencer so you get even more air.

It would be helpful if you told us what depth of water the skimmer is sitting in and showed us at what level you have the water running inside the skimmer body. Without these exact numbers, we could be spinning our wheels trying to help you tune something that will never happen.

I would really suggest you completely disassemble the skimmer and inspect every part of it. Pay particularly close attention to the venturi, the needle wheel impeller, and the silicon intake line going from the venturi to the air silencer.
Here's a pic showing the two crutial areas of the venturi:

I've had situations in the past where the inside ring of the venturi was clogged with calcification under the air intake nipple inside the body (left arrow in picture above). It's a very small space and very hard to clean, so get creative with tools like toothpicks and qtips. The easy way to test is is to stick the butt end of a wooden chopstick down the ventiru intake tube (the right arrow in the picture above) and twist it while looking at the inside of the body (left arrow above) to see if it reaches the bottom. The chopstick happens to be my tool of choice because it's a perfect fit and allows me to easily clean that venturi intake making sure no snails have made their way in there.

The needle wheel should have no bent or missing teeth and should have nothing stuck in between between the teeth. After soaking my needle impeller in citric acid, I scrub it with a tooth brush and then bring it outside and blast it with a high pressure water hose. It's hard to get that stuff out there (especially if ever get chaeto stuck in it).

 

[Derrick0580]

Also check the air line under the water level…do you have anything in your sump that could possibly have chewed or poked a hole in it? Possible that it might be sucking in water with the air….the stock hose is pretty soft. I diy’d an intake screen for the venturi using black mesh that old ladies use to make those yarn art thingys

 

[sanzz18]

Hey everyone. Sorry to bring an old threat back from the dead. So my skimmer is working very well now after the help of this thread was implemented. I am pulling out some of the darkest and sometimes chunky skimmate ever. I am currently trying to increase my export even more since I am battling high po4/no3. It was recommended to me by a very respected reefer to skim more wet to remove more organics from the water before they break down into po4/no3.

I am currently running my skimmer pump on the highest setting to get the most amount of air. So my questions is, is this simply a tuning of the gate valve solution?

 

[rsumner]

Hey everyone. Sorry to bring an old threat back from the dead. So my skimmer is working very well now after the help of this thread was implemented. I am pulling out some of the darkest and sometimes chunky skimmate ever. I am currently trying to increase my export even more since I am battling high po4/no3. It was recommended to me by a very respected reefer to skim more wet to remove more organics from the water before they break down into po4/no3.

I am currently running my skimmer pump on the highest setting to get the most amount of air. So my questions is, is this simply a tuning of the gate valve solution?

Tune the gate valve to where the water level is higher and that will give you a wetter skim. Remember to make very small adjustments at a time.

 

[Koh23]

From experience with my ro diablo (older model, basicaly same as 200int but with dc pump), it loves two things - lower water level in sump, and gate fully opened....