Reef Discussion

[Chris Robertson]

I've just installed one of these in my 16 gallon/60l tank. I've never had a protein skimmer before. I now have a lovely column of fine white bubbles reaching to the top ofthe water (just below the start of the collection cup), but no further. The inside of the cup is covered in very fine droplets of water. Is this how it's supposedx to operate? It's been running about an hour.

 

[somethingfishy76]

I've just installed one of these in my 16 gallon/60l tank. I've never had a protein skimmer before. I now have a lovely column of fine white bubbles reaching to the top ofthe water (just below the start of the collection cup), but no further. The inside of the cup is covered in very fine droplets of water. Is this how it's supposed to operate? It's been running about an hour.

Adjust your skimmer outlet in order to get the bubble level to rise. Go up the throat of the skimmer cup about a third and let that sit there, you might find the skimmer takes a day or longer to bed in. After which you might be able to lower the bubble level down a bit. That's will determine how wet or dry your skimmate is. You want a dry-ish foam to come out of the top of the skimmer cup. Not pour out... just froth right at the top... It'll boil over the more gunk it gets in there.

 

[Chris Robertson]

Adjust your skimmer outlet in order to get the bubble level to rise. Go up the throat of the skimmer cup about a third and let that sit there, you might find the skimmer takes a day or longer to bed in. After which you might be able to lower the bubble level down a bit. That's will determine how wet or dry your skimmate is. You want a dry-ish foam to come out of the top of the skimmer cup. Not pour out... just froth right at the top... It'll boil over the more gunk it gets in there.

Dammit. My tank's not deep enough. I'll have to shorten the tube.

 

[Chris Robertson]

Turns out my skimmer HAS no outlet, except for the hole at the top. Splattering tiny droplets up does seem to be working, however, as the condensate in the cup was noticeably yellow. You also have to take the whole thing out to empty it. I'd wondered why the air inlet at the bottom that the air tube connects to was removable. I shortened the whole barrel off the main tube so the bubble colomn rises to the water surface, but you couldn't really call it foam. And the whole collection area is definitely designed to sit up above the water surface. Weird.

 

[somethingfishy76]

If you're salinity is too low you'll also struggle getting proper skimmer action.

 

[Chris Robertson]

If you're salinity is too low you'll also struggle getting proper skimmer action.

Shortening the column length did the trick. As a fatal ammonia spike began, I did indeed get nasty yellow foam happening, though still not quite spilling over. I now have the skimmer in a sump, arranged so it sits lower in the water (I think I got what I paid for, alas). Specific gravity is 1.025, which I think is what it should be.

I hope I now have things set up to work properely. BTW, is it just me, or do most of the info pages on the net tell you what equipment you need, but noticeably lack info on how to make sure it's all actually working? I realise different equipment has different instructions and don't expect details for specific products, but NOWHERE did I find a good practical description of how a working skimmer should behave like the answer you gave me above. Thank you very much.

And as for the instructions that came with the skimmer, it's shown sitting with the collection cup a good 12cm (5 in) out of the water. No way!

 

[somethingfishy76]

Go on YouTube and start watching the 52 Weeks of reefing by BRSTV. That and tons of videos on reefing and so much more.