Struggling to tune a regal 200 int skimmer

[Rmike545]

Any help is appreciated guys I have a reef octopus regal 200 int skimmer connected to a BRS co2 scrubber with the reef octopus recirculating lid and I am struggling to tune the skimmer.
It’s setting in 8 inches of water and it’s setup on 196 gallon display mixed reef and the tank stocked with about 20 medium to large fish (8 big tangs in that mix) and I can’t get it to skim or get a stable foam head.
It doesn’t matter what speed I run it at I am struggling with it.
It will foam fill the neck get to the lid and it will barely collect anything in a cup I am talking it will take over a week to get 1/4 inch of skimmate in the cup and I k ow that’s not right based on the bioload in the tank and of course my NO3 and PO4 is rising all the time.
I bought the skimmer new and it’s been running for over 3 months now.
Any help is appreciated

 

[disaster999]

Have you tried running the skimmer without the recirc lid and scrubber and see if that improves performance? Also have you cleaned the needle wheel?

 

[Rmike545]

Have you tried running the skimmer without the recirc lid and scrubber and see if that improves performance? Also have you cleaned the needle wheel

Thank you for responding, yes I did clean the needle wheel as far as running it without the lid didn’t help either.

 

[disaster999]

How about running without the scrubber? too much restriction? Or maybe Try running the skimmer in shallower water, say 7" or 6.5"?

 

[C_AWOL]

Are you running a filter roller? That will affect the performance of the skimmer since it actively removes organics before a skimmer could.

 

[Rmike545]

Yes I am running a reefmat 1200 however I have used a reefmat and reef octopus skimmer on my old tank and it still skimmed like crazy.
I do have have a question is it normal to have water in the line between the pump and the silencer? I keep hearing gurgling sound in the silencer so I took it off and connected the co2 scrubber straight to the pump and used a clear tube and I can see water up the tube when I turn off the skimmer

 

[C_AWOL]

Do you know what model reef octopus you had on a tank with reefmat previously?
I suspect it was properly sized for the previous bioload with a roller at the time and is not the case this time.
For example on my 470g, I run an elite 220 int with 2 1200 roller mats and ~6000gph return pump flow (without head pressure losses calculated) and it takes 2 weeks for the cup to fill and my bioload is massive ( with multiple heavy handed feedings.

If I leave the fleece off on both then the cup fills up in a day or two (everyone was out of replacement rolls at the time)

As far as your silencer is concerned and assuming im interpreting it correctly, water is not normal in the silencer but water in the air tube when the pump is off is normal since theres no suction force through the venturi

 

[Rmike545]

Do you know what model reef octopus you had on a tank with reefmat previously?
I suspect it was properly sized for the previous bioload with a roller at the time and is not the case this time.
For example on my 470g, I run an elite 220 int with 2 1200 roller mats and ~6000gph return pump flow (without head pressure losses calculated) and it takes 2 weeks for the cup to fill and my bioload is massive ( with multiple heavy handed feedings.

If I leave the fleece off on both then the cup fills up in a day or two (everyone was out of replacement rolls at the time)

As far as your silencer is concerned and assuming im interpreting it correctly, water is not normal in the silencer but water in the air tube when the pump is off is normal since theres no suction force through the venturi

I had a regal 150 int with a reefmat 500 on redsea reefer 350 with about 12 fish or so

 

[Rmike545]

Let me ask you what speed do you run your pump on ? And do you have an air valve installed or no ?

 

[C_AWOL]

I had a regal 150 int with a reefmat 500 on redsea reefer 350 with about 12 fish or so

When comparing I do believe that your 200int is actually oversized in comparison due to the doubling in water volume (for now until your fish grow more)

Let me ask you what speed do you run your pump on ? And do you have an air valve installed or no ?

I run my elite 220 with everything at max with a pellet carbon lid and in 9" of water. The foam starts in mine starts at the base of the neck

 

[Rmike545]

When comparing I do believe that your 200int is actually oversized in comparison due to the doubling in water volume (for now until your fish grow more)

I run my elite 220 with everything at max with a pellet carbon lid and in 9" of water. The foam starts in mine starts at the base of the neck

So if I am running it at 3 that’s not too low ?

 

[C_AWOL]

Since yours is the regal, go ahead and try 4 or 5 watch it for a bit. If something goes wrong a while later after the initial test, the built in float switch will stop the skimmer from overflowing (assuming you have it installed while using a co2 scrubber).
If I were to run mine on a 3 I would need to adjust the wedge pipe (yours is a gate valve) to still get to the same position in the neck of the skimmer for my unit to skim.

 

[Rmike545]

What do you do to skim wet ?

 

[C_AWOL]

What do you do to skim wet ?

Nothing special really, water level in the skimmer is at the base of the neck and thats it.