Setup Advice

[Lucky Strike]

I have an RC 250 setup on my 180. I recieved instructions, but they seemed to be geared towards the rs models, and wanted to see how others setup there euroreef skimmers.

I took off the air valve to remove the air restirction in the suction line. I then setup the bubble height to be 2 to 3 inches away from the top of the skimmer cup, just like the instructions. I found under this setup i get bubbles about 1/2 way in the reaction chamber and also 1/4 - 1/2" of skimmate daily.

But if you restrict the air intake, the pump moves more water and sends bubbles all the way down to the bottom of the reaction chamber, and its way more turblent inside, and (im assuming) less air is being sucked in. is this a better way to run the skimmer? everything ive read from spazz is more air, less turblence.

i only have 1 fish, and a few corals, and dont feed them very much, so i figured the 1/2" of skimmate was acceptable.

[skimmy]

if you restrict the air line to around "1:00" you should decrease the bubble size, increase the water, without too much loss of air, and it usually runs much better that way.
obiously you dont want to cut the air until you increase turbulence/water too much, and your tank conditions will have an effect on skimming as well, so you just have to play with the skimmer water outlet and air inlet valve until you find the appropriate combo for optimum skimming in your system.

also, what are you using(how much gph) for a feed pump?
and what is the turn over rate of the water going through your sump?

[Lucky Strike]

i would idealy have a 5-6 time turn over through the sump, but im currently running a snapper, (2400gph) from a 75 gallon sump. the pump feeds the skimmer through a 3/4" line, that i throttled until the foam was at the correct level. the skimmer drain line it wide open. the pump also feeds the tank through a 1.5" line. i will post pictures.

[Lucky Strike]

i guess i throttled the drain side of the skimmer just a little bit.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/151965IMG_0864.bmp

the flex line goes into the tank, and the 2" hard line is the tank drain from the other overflow box. sorry for the twisted picture. the skimmate is from 2 days plus.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/151965IMG_0865.bmp

[skimmy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10587338#post10587338 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lucky Strike
i would idealy have a 5-6 time turn over through the sump, but im currently running a snapper, (2400gph) from a 75 gallon sump. the pump feeds the skimmer through a 3/4" line, that i throttled until the foam was at the correct level. the skimmer drain line it wide open. the pump also feeds the tank through a 1.5" line. i will post pictures.

i think you'll have much better luck if you throttle your flow through the skimmer back even more, to about 200gph, and then close the gate valve on the outlet to adjust the foam level. and if you can cut the turn over rate through the sump down to 2-3 xph then the skimmer will work better as well.