Skimmer Q&A Thread

[reeftivo]

Royal Exclusive(bubble king)
ATB USA
Deltec
Ultrareef.it
Reef Octopus
RED Sea
Life Reef
My Reef Creations
Bashsea
Bubble Magus
Ice Cap
Eshopps
Tunze
Seaside aquatics
Nyos
Aquamaxx
Simplicity
KZ (korallen-zucht)
Maxspect
Skimz
Innovative marine
Aqua Excel
Rossmont
YCA
ASM
SCA

 

[Futuretotm]

Hello, newish skimmer here (been running on and off for about 1-2 weeks only) aquamaxx cones q2.

#1
AC motor hums quiet a bit, is your skimmer typically the loudest equipment you have?

#2
Intake has a silencer but I hear a popping bubble type noise, stuffed some cotton balls to reduce but no success, will running a hose from the silencer elsewhere help (garage - hot humid air)

#3
Tonnes of Micro bubbles escaping - does this indicate water level is too low?

 

[Futuretotm]

 

[reeftivo]

i wouldn't be worried. that skimmer is still breaking in.

keep the out let pipe completely open and dont try to adjust it higher to get skimmate yet. let it run and leave it alone for a day or two (no touchy-LOL). it should settle down.

 

[reeftivo]

oh BTW, i wouldn't stuff the silencer with any cotton. just let the air run freely. the cotton has production residues on it and even the air being pulled in with those residues, can affect the skimmer performance and change the bubbles, surface tension. just let it run fully open as designed and keep the foam head low for now

 

[Tiger Brown]

I have an Octo Classic 100-HOB skimmer. It has been a great fit for my tank (55 gallon), and I have no complaints on its primary skimming functions.

The problem: Recently the outlet chamber (not the chamber with the collection cup on top of it, the other one) overflowed with water (not bubbles or skimmate). By grace or good fortune I was in the room when it happened and did not lose half my water supply. I have no idea why this happened. I took the skimmer out of the tank and gave it a thorough cleaning, hooked it back up and it ran fine. Now, of course, I check it constantly. I noticed that the water level in that same chamber was rising again. I unplugged the pump and plugged it back in and the water level fell about an inch and is holding there for now.

Any one know why this is happening? I have changed nothing about the skimmer or the fish tank itself. I have always run the skimmer 24/7.

Thank-you

 

[reeftivo]

may want to put a valve between the silencer and the pump intake and just slightly tune down the air. this has been reported to help in some of those Octo surge issues

Micro Airline Control Ball Valves

Micro Airline control valve fittings let you regulate the air or air flow through standard airline tubing for devices such as air-stones, ozone generators, filters, protein skimmers, etc. Available in 6 packs or individually. 3/16" Barbed x 3/16" Barbed connections Two Little Fishies Airline...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Tiger Brown]

may want to put a valve between the silencer and the pump intake and just slightly tune down the air. this has been reported to help in some of those Octo surge issues

Thank-you!

 

[reeftivo]

Thank-you!

you're welcome

not sure what the i.d. of that skimmer airline is, so if it's too small you can get nicer valves for a few more dollars at places like McMaster-Carr.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[KustomAquarium]

Any idea what would cause this to happen?

Octopus regal 200-ext recirculating Skimmer. The air intake is piped outside the house, it's fed off the manifold of the return pump. It's a 220 gallon system with 5 medium tangs(hippo, Desjardinii, tomini, two spot bristle, lieutenant) , 2 scissor tails, mysteri wrasse, helfrichi firefish, 2 clowns, red mandarin, midas blend, and algae blenny. There's numerous lps, sps and zoas. And 3 btas(they split all at once). Everything is happy and open. I feed fish every other day and corals twice a week. I dose Tropic marin carbocalcium and their elements. Also dose nopox approx 1.5 ml per 25 gallons(below recommended dose for mixed reef)

 

[yasince]

Is there anything wrong draining the skimmer drain line into the Clarisea to trap the skimmate gunk?
Thanks.

 

[reeftivo]

Is there anything wrong draining the skimmer drain line into the Clarisea to trap the skimmate gunk?
Thanks.

if you did that, then you would be defeating the purpose of the skimmer by dumping skim back into the system. skimmer would go nuts too once it starts draining back into the system

 

[reeftivo]

Is there anything wrong draining the skimmer drain line into the Clarisea to trap the skimmate gunk?
Thanks.

if you want to skim wet, then you can get a skim locker or just run a drain to a plastic bottle outside the sump.

 

[reeftivo]

Any idea what would cause this to happen?

Octopus regal 200-ext recirculating Skimmer. The air intake is piped outside the house, it's fed off the manifold of the return pump. It's a 220 gallon system with 5 medium tangs(hippo, Desjardinii, tomini, two spot bristle, lieutenant) , 2 scissor tails, mysteri wrasse, helfrichi firefish, 2 clowns, red mandarin, midas blend, and algae blenny. There's numerous lps, sps and zoas. And 3 btas(they split all at once). Everything is happy and open. I feed fish every other day and corals twice a week. I dose Tropic marin carbocalcium and their elements. Also dose nopox approx 1.5 ml per 25 gallons(below recommended dose for mixed reef)

could be several things;

showing off LOLOL
new filters socks that were not pre-cleaned well enough
carbon dosing
addition of some new live rock (some die off occurs and can do that to skimmers)
air from outside got pulled in and had something in it that maybe caused overfoaming
mine do that sometimes whenever i add polyfilter. I dont add it often but i've seen mine do that

lots of variables

is that over a long period of time or a short burst?

 

[KustomAquarium]

could be several things;

showing off LOLOL
new filters socks that were not pre-cleaned well enough
carbon dosing
addition of some new live rock (some die off occurs and can do that to skimmers)
air from outside got pulled in and had something in it that maybe caused overfoaming
mine do that sometimes whenever i add polyfilter. I dont add it often but i've seen mine do that

lots of variables

is that over a long period of time or a short burst?

It literally takes no time to start to do that. I do carbon dose with nopox though, I'm about half the recommended dose. Think I should tune it down a bit? Maybe a little showing off lol

 

[reeftivo]

what's your NO3 PO4 levels with the half dose? I was holding 0.03 PO4 and 5ppm NO3 with a 1/4 of the recommended dose of NOPOX and always got this (pictured). Not as crazy as yours but it would push the lid off after the air holes in the lid got plugged with junk. I stopped dosing NOPOX and started using a chaeto reactor to help control NO3 and PO4. My skimmers still pull good skimmate even after stopping the NOPOX. I just dont get that insane foam head like before

 

[KustomAquarium]

Neither my phosphates or nitrates are registering on my test kits (Tropic Marin) I just ordered a hannah phosphate, but the nitrate wasn't in stock yet...

 

[reeftivo]

Neither my phosphates or nitrates are registering on my test kits (Tropic Marin) I just ordered a hannah phosphate, but the nitrate wasn't in stock yet...

i would cut your NOPOX dose by a quarter and when you get your hannas, compare the results to your tropic marine colormetric results.

 

[KustomAquarium]

The ultra low Phosphate hannah says .02
The nitrate one still isn't available yet for purchase so I don't have a definite number on that one...

 

[reeftivo]

The ultra low Phosphate hannah says .02
The nitrate one still isn't available yet for purchase so I don't have a definite number on that one...

is the skimmer still overfoaming?