need help -reef octopus ns-80 skimmer

[russ722]

Hey everybody I need some help with this skimmer. I have a 20l tank and for the life if me I can't get this thing to work right. Micro bubble galore ,I've even added a air valve. As far as skimming I can't keep it from overflowing or not skimming at all. I know its not the best but its what I have to work and ive seen videos of it working so any help would be appreciated .

 

1.where should the waterline be in the skimmer?

 

2.any mods you recommend? Any other tips/suggestions?

[Halo_003]

Waterline I found should be just above where the pump intakes. I found that it if you place the pump facing down (so it draws from the bottom) it will work better for drawing darker skim. The micro bubbles however I never found a real fix to, I think if the flow rate of the water was decreased it would skim better and the micro bubbles would disappear, but I didn't run mine long enough to toy with the intakes. I was considering siliconing over some of the intake vents to lower the flow rate, which is reef safe and would be easy enough to remove.

 

I'm going to run it in my frag tank eventually, there I will probably try a wood airstone in it to see if that helps the bubbles issue.

[russ722]

Thanks for the info. I managed to slow the micro bubbles down so.e by putting sponge inside the skimmer right where the water leaves the main body before the u tube.but there still bad .

[Halo_003]

Yeah I tried that and found it made it overflow on my tank. The waterline I was running in the skimmer body about a half inch under the collection cup neck.

[russ722]

Strange,mine doesn't but I'm about at my wits end with this skimmer.

[Halo_003]

Yep, my solution for the bubbles was to put the skimmer in my old AC70 with floss packed in to catch the water from the output.

[russ722]

Yes I put mine in my ac110 tonight ,no more bubbles,but but haven't quiet gotten it to skim right.