mountaineer Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Okay, tank is cycled and I added CUC yesterday from Reef-Cleaners. I bought my tank used (27 gallon cube) and it came with, I believe, this skimmer (the packaging was long gone): http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaticLife_Internal_Mini_Protein_Skimmer_115_Aquarium_Protein_Skimmers_Venturi_for_less_than_50_gallons-AquaticLife-AK01114-FIPSISVSLF-vi.html I've tried running the skimmer, but no matter how I adjust the knob, the cup fills up fairly quickly with water. Yes, it's creating bubbles and bubbling over into the chamber, but it's doing it so quickly that it's full and overrunning within 5 minutes. Am I doing something wrong? Or is there something wrong with the skimmer? I probably don't have much in the water to actually skim (I started the cycle with frozen food but it's long gone), I just added the CUC yesterday which surely brought in some snail filth, but I wanted to try it before I got fish. Maybe the lack of proteins is contributing to this? Any advice would be much appreciated. Link to comment
Angel<3Nanos Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Pull it apart and give it a good vinegar soak, and inspect that there is no broken parts. Link to comment
mountaineer Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 Pull it apart and give it a good vinegar soak, and inspect that there is no broken parts. Hmm...I gave it a good vinegar soak a couple weeks ago before I put it in, and I took everything apart, cleaned it, and put it back together, according to a manual I found online. Everything seemed to be working okay. But maybe I need to tear it apart again. Link to comment
Angel<3Nanos Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Have you tried to dial back all the way??? I used to have one but I can't remember much about it. Maybe it needs to break in again? Link to comment
mountaineer Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 Have you tried to dial back all the way??? I used to have one but I can't remember much about it. Maybe it needs to break in again? Yeah, tried to dial it back. Maybe it just needs broken in. It's just really surprising how quickly the cup fills with water, regardless. Maybe there's something going on with the impeller. I'm gonna take it apart tonight & check. Would adding some filter floss to the chamber help? Link to comment
MrNanoReef Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Try putting it higher up, my water line is about 1" below the neck, it filled up quickly with clear/light green water until i raised it up and now it fill up about every 2-3 days with dark skimmate, been working great ever since. Link to comment
mountaineer Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 Try putting it higher up, my water line is about 1" below the neck, it filled up quickly with clear/light green water until i raised it up and now it fill up about every 2-3 days with dark skimmate, been working great ever since. Thanks! I'm going to do that airline mod tomorrow, after I run to the hardware store, and I'll try to set it up higher. I just tore the thing apart, clean as a whistle, and the impeller seems to be working fine... Link to comment
MrNanoReef Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Thanks! I'm going to do that airline mod tomorrow, after I run to the hardware store, and I'll try to set it up higher. I just tore the thing apart, clean as a whistle, and the impeller seems to be working fine... That's the first thing I did , I also added an air valve and silencer to the mod, mine runs almost silent. I doubt it has anything to do with being dirty or parts failure, i've been running mine for 6 months without any cleaning except cleaning the collection cup. I believe raising it up is the key. Link to comment
mountaineer Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 Cool, thanks. I hope this does the trick. I've been whipping out the Visa card way too much lately, lol....I'd rather buy about 89 cents of airline tubing for once! PS....I feel like I'm a real reefer now. My CUC was supposed to arrive yesterday by 3 day priority, but the mailman came & went. I went down to the (closed) post office at 5 pm yesterday and banged on the back door till they let me in. They had lost my CUC, and I was afraid I'd lose snails if they had to sit in the truck for a couple more days. I talked them into digging in the truck. Turns out the box had fallen in a weird place and no one saw it. They thought I was crazy, but the snails lived. Link to comment
mountaineer Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 Okay, this skimmer is driving me to drink... So I made the airline modification and raised up the skimmer. Mechanically, all seems to be working well, but no matter what I do (including decreasing/increasing the flow knob), the water rises in the cup and levels off when it is equal to the top of the cone. It just stays there. Should I let it "break in" for several days and see if that fixes the problem? Or is it rising to the top of the cone because my water is too "clean" (not enough proteins yet)? All I have is a CUC. I plan on adding my first fish this weekend... Any input would be appreciated. Link to comment
hey Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Okay, this skimmer is driving me to drink... So I made the airline modification and raised up the skimmer. Mechanically, all seems to be working well, but no matter what I do (including decreasing/increasing the flow knob), the water rises in the cup and levels off when it is equal to the top of the cone. It just stays there. Should I let it "break in" for several days and see if that fixes the problem? Or is it rising to the top of the cone because my water is too "clean" (not enough proteins yet)? All I have is a CUC. I plan on adding my first fish this weekend... Any input would be appreciated. try running it overflowing for a while where it just pours back into the tank to see if it stops, have you added anything to the tank chemically like epoxy to hold rocks together? Link to comment
mountaineer Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 try running it overflowing for a while where it just pours back into the tank to see if it stops, have you added anything to the tank chemically like epoxy to hold rocks together? Thanks for the tip. I did use JB Waterweld to do my initial scape, but that was on 9/28, so I doubt there's anything chemical going on at this point... Link to comment
hey Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Thanks for the tip. I did use JB Waterweld to do my initial scape, but that was on 9/28, so I doubt there's anything chemical going on at this point... it adds something to the water that makes skimmers go nutsballs. I had to do 10g water changes weekly for like 3 weeks last time I used a bunch to get my skimmer to chill out. Link to comment
mountaineer Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 Ah, I see. Thanks! Link to comment
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