Simplicity DC skimmer

[oxy71]

I have a new, running 1 week simplicity 120 DC skimmer. I have read they need a breakin period. Mine is making a buzzing sound and still puts lots of micro bubbles into the display. How do i help this mature? Water level is 8 inches.

 

[Blue Ring Octopus]

Mine seems to like 7 inches deep, usually Simplicity skimmers break in quickly, try raising it up.

 

[oxy71]

ok got it up where the water level hits the bottom of the black ring. what about the motor sound, could it be i didnt tighten the screw on the diverter plate enough?

 

[marinesnow]

It shouldn't be making a sound, all I hear on mine is the air intake. Are the rubber feet on the bottom? If not, it might be vibrating against the sump floor.

As far as the bubbles, it took a week for mine to subside. You could turn the outflow dial to reduce it in the meantime, but you may need to reduce the pump speed to compensate so that the water level in the skimmer doesn't overflow the skimmer cup.

 

[Simplicity Aquatics]

Hello oxy71,

Feel free to reach us directly for assistance if you need it! Ideally (fastest) via live chat on our website or email us at [email protected]. We are happy to help.

As mentioned bubbles are normal when its new, but also commonly caused by a poorly tuned skimmer. Here is our recommended steps to tune the skimmer:

1: With the pump at 100% and the wedge pipe arrow to arrow (wide open) slowly close the air valve.

2: While slowly closing the air valve, keep a close watch on the level of the foam and bubbles in the skimmer body.

3: Make very tiny changes (open and close) until you get the absolute peak height of the bubbles in your skimmer body.

4: Next, very slowly turn the wedge pipe valve (black knob) either direction.

5: When the bubbles start to reach the bottom of the collection cup, stop.

6: Wait 60 seconds and then make minor adjustments to keep the bubbles near the bottom of the collection cup.

7: After 10-15 minutes, you should start to see larger possibly brown bubbles forming at the top of the bubble column / foam head.

8: After 1-2 hours, the bubble column should rise and you should have a foam head that is at or near the top of the collection cup where you will start to collect skimmate.

The noise is a bit more tricky, if it persists once broken in let us know.

 

[oxy71]

Wow thank you!

 

[EricDP]

1: With the pump at 100% and the wedge pipe arrow to arrow (wide open) slowly close the air valve.

I only get this far... with the pump at 100% and the wedge and the air wide open, mine is just an overflowing mess. If I slowly close the air valve, it just overflows even faster, splashing so badly water leaves the sump and ends up on the floor.

Brand new tank, just finished fishless cycle... don't even have any livestock in it yet. Maybe the water is just too clean at this point? Should I turn down the pump or maybe just wait until I have an actual bio-load? I was hoping to dial this thing in before I put fish in the tank.

 

[Idech]

I only get this far... with the pump at 100% and the wedge and the air wide open, mine is just an overflowing mess. If I slowly close the air valve, it just overflows even faster, splashing so badly water leaves the sump and ends up on the floor.

Brand new tank, just finished fishless cycle... don't even have any livestock in it yet. Maybe the water is just too clean at this point? Should I turn down the pump or maybe just wait until I have an actual bio-load? I was hoping to dial this thing in before I put fish in the tank.

I broke mine into a bucket of saltwater. Put a cover on it in case it splashes. You don’t need it in your tank for now anyways.

 

[Blue Ring Octopus]

Also if you access to some skim mate pour it in the bucket so the skimmer gets the idea. Hint Hint

 

[EricDP]

It seems there's a step missing in the list of steps above:

0: Run the skimmer for a week or two with the wedge pipe wide open and the air wide open, adjusting the pump speed as required to prevent boil-over. Once the micro bubbles become less and it's not boiling over like mad, proceed to tuning.

 

[Simplicity Aquatics]

Hi Eric

Each of our skimmers comes with a Quick Start Guide that outlines a break-in period, during which the wedge pipe should be left fully open. If your skimmer is overflowing, the most common causes are either that it's sitting in water that’s too deep or—more likely—that certain additives were used during your cycling process.

Products like clarifiers (often included with sand), bacteria supplements, red slime removers, and water conditioners like Seachem Prime can all trigger excessive foaming. These are not harmful products, but they can temporarily affect skimmer performance.

One advantage of a DC pump is that you can reduce the flow rate to help control the overflow while still running the skimmer.

If the overflow continues, I recommend running some activated carbon and adjusting the skimmer to fill the collection cup slowly over several hours. Even if it looks like clear water, go ahead and discard it. Doing this 4–5 times should help remove the offending substances. Once the skimmer settles down, you can begin fine-tuning it for optimal performance.

Once your tank has livestock and organics to remove, the skimmer will begin to work as intended—targeting actual waste instead of reacting to residual chemicals or bacteria.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any other questions!

 

[EricDP]

I used dry sand (CaribSea Aragonite Special Grade) and dry rock (Marco), so no artificially "pre-seeded" substrate or flocculants.

I did add Brightwell MicroBacter QuikCycle (ammonium chloride) and MicroBacter StartXLM to do the fishless cycle. No other additives. Maybe that had an impact.

And I did have the skimmer sitting (off) in the sump for a few weeks during the cycle... so maybe it has some build-up?

I've now added a single firefish goby so we'll see if adding more organics to the equation helps. And I'll follow the advice of allowing a slow overflow of clear liquid into the skimmer cup and discarding.

Let's see how it goes...

 

[EricDP]

If the overflow continues, I recommend running some activated carbon and adjusting the skimmer to fill the collection cup slowly over several hours. Even if it looks like clear water, go ahead and discard it. Doing this 4–5 times should help remove the offending substances. Once the skimmer settles down, you can begin fine-tuning it for optimal performance.

Okay, so the fish has been in the tank for a couple of weeks so I restarted the skimmer today to see how it goes... I needed to clamp down the air to almost fully closed to prevent boil-over, even with the pump at minimum. I then slowly opened the air just until it was slowly overflowing, taking about 30 mins or so to fill the cup... and discarded the contents of the cup... and repeated... and repeated... I've lost count of how many times. I've now got about 2.5 gallons of discard in my pail and it's still boiling over. I have no idea what's in my water, but this doesn't seem to be working.

As noted earlier, the water is just RODI + Red Sea blue pail (to 34 ppt). I added dry Marco rock and dry Carib Sea Aragonite Special Grade (no pre-seeded or wet stuff). The Aragonite was washed thoroughly first with tap water, then final two rinses with RODI. I added a regular dose of Brightwell MicroBacter QuikCycle (ammonium chloride) and MicroBacter StartXLM about two months ago. I added one firefish goby about two weeks ago. I'm feeding 1/8 cube Hikari mysis shrimp daily for the last two weeks. No other additives have gone in the tank. The skimmer is sitting in 7-1/8" of water... just a touch over the black line before it starts to narrow. Water is crystal clear and everything looks great, but this skimmer just won't calm down.

 

[Simplicity Aquatics]

Hey Eric,
Sorry to hear you are still struggling to get your skimmer to work properly. Given your response, I would recommend putting the skimmer up on a stand for a time so you can see about getting it tuned in a way that will allow you to remove whatever is making it go crazy. Clearly something is, there is no chance you "accidently got a skimmer with a pump running 200% faster" or something.
An upside down tupperware makes a great skimmer stand in a pinch.

According to Brightwell, you are not supposed to use a skimmer with QuikCycl. Perhaps its worth a quick email to them to see what they recommend. The instructions do have water changes etc once your cycle is complete, so its possible you do have a very high level of bacteria that is causing the excess foaming.

 

[EricDP]

It seems to be working now, and I'll tell you what I did to fix it.

First, I think the main problem is the water is too clean, with only a single small fish in a 40 breeder... and the skimmer was putting in way too much air. Think of it like an old engine with a carburetor -- you need to find the right fuel-air mixture (fuel is the proteins/organics in the water and air is... air). The general advice of starting with the air wide-open and closing it until peak bubble just doesn't work with so little "fuel" to work on.

The fix is to close off the air completely, then open it just a tiny bit and wait for a stable foam head to start to form. Foam is frothy, not rolling bubbles... you need stable/static foam on top. Then start opening it a little bit at a time, leaving it for an hour or so after each change. When the foam head starts breaking up and it turns into a "rolling boil" on top, that's too much air... turn it back until the foam head forms again. That's where you want the air.

Then start to close off the wedge (again, a little at a time, because it takes some time to stabilize) until the foam is just about at the top. As the foam accumulates, some will overflow into the cup. And note the water level will be very high when doing it this way... well up into the throat of the skimmer. But it will be stable.

I've had it running for about a week and a half this way and I'm getting nice medium-brown liquid in the cup with some sludge on the rim and edges. Once I've got more bioload, I'll return to tuning for that higher load, but I think for now, this is what's best.

Also worth noting, I did not need to raise it for this to work... it's still in 7" of water. And I have the pump running at 100%... so lots of water being processed.

I hope this tuning method helps others who are struggling with the general tuning advice, which seems more geared to established tanks.

 

[Simplicity Aquatics]

It seems to be working now, and I'll tell you what I did to fix it.

First, I think the main problem is the water is too clean, with only a single small fish in a 40 breeder... and the skimmer was putting in way too much air. Think of it like an old engine with a carburetor -- you need to find the right fuel-air mixture (fuel is the proteins/organics in the water and air is... air). The general advice of starting with the air wide-open and closing it until peak bubble just doesn't work with so little "fuel" to work on.

The fix is to close off the air completely, then open it just a tiny bit and wait for a stable foam head to start to form. Foam is frothy, not rolling bubbles... you need stable/static foam on top. Then start opening it a little bit at a time, leaving it for an hour or so after each change. When the foam head starts breaking up and it turns into a "rolling boil" on top, that's too much air... turn it back until the foam head forms again. That's where you want the air.

Then start to close off the wedge (again, a little at a time, because it takes some time to stabilize) until the foam is just about at the top. As the foam accumulates, some will overflow into the cup. And note the water level will be very high when doing it this way... well up into the throat of the skimmer. But it will be stable.

I've had it running for about a week and a half this way and I'm getting nice medium-brown liquid in the cup with some sludge on the rim and edges. Once I've got more bioload, I'll return to tuning for that higher load, but I think for now, this is what's best.

Also worth noting, I did not need to raise it for this to work... it's still in 7" of water. And I have the pump running at 100%... so lots of water being processed.

I hope this tuning method helps others who are struggling with the general tuning advice, which seems more geared to established tanks.

That's great Eric! I have never attempted this but I will certainly make this advice when others have little to no nutrients. It does seem to be problematic so this setting might do the trick. Thanks for the feedback.