9005 skimmer problem

[bankspower]

I'm having a little trouble with my 6 month old 9005 skimmer, hopefully someone on here can help me out a bit. Up until tonight its been working ok, no impressive but ok on my 55. Tonight I noticed it was just bubbling large bubbles into the reaction chamber(no more foaming). I thought maybe the skimmer was just dirty/something obstructing the air line so I took it out of my sump and cleaned the whole skimmer. Once back in and operating it was the same story, no fine bubbles and just large bubbles.

Has this happened to anyone on here? I was pretty happy with this skimmer until today, hopefully its something simple to get it back up and running properly! Thanks in advance for your help.

Shawn

[rvitko]

Have you tried cleaning the pump and venturi by soaking them in vinegar? Typically at 6 months some calcium build up has occured. Have you added any new additives or has the s.g. changed?

[bankspower]

I'm not sure what the deal was, I noticed it after changing my filter sock in the sump. I took it out afterwards and cleaned it up with a brush and fresh water(no vinegar). After putting it back in the sump it acted the same way, but I just let it run overnight anyway. When I got up this morning it seemed to be putting out bubbles just like normal. I think what probably happened is I accidentally splashed some water onto the air intake when changing the filter sock. That probably interrupted the bubble production somehow. Anyway, it seems to be working well today. Thanks for the quick reply!

On a side note, I'm not sure if I have been setting this skimmer correctly. I get a fairly light colored skimmate out of it normally and when I try to dial back the air a little bit for darker skimmate the production just stops. Is it normal for this skimmer to not put out a very dark colored skimmate or can it be set to produce skimmate similar to what I see Euroreefs producing?

Thanks

Shawn

[rvitko]

Different skimmers remove different compounds due to shape and bubble size. Generally Tunze's preferentially remove cellulose. This results in a lighter skimmate than a skimmer that preferentially removes albumin. You should be able to darken the skimmate but make small adjustmenst like 1/8th turn and wait a day to see the results. Lighter skimmate is not necessarily a bad thing, it does tend to remove more phosphate.