Mini Skimmer Settings

[OCRick]

Just curious how everyone has their mini skimmer setup:

How high do you have your pump output set at?

Do you have the air silencer on the end of the air intake hose completely closed or do you open the end cap?

Do you use the hose clamp on the air intake hose?

How high do you set the bubble level in the upper portion of the skimmer?

[motionless]

These are my experiences:

Pump at 300 - skimmer overflows daily

Pump at 290 - skims wet

Pump at 250 - skims dry

I finally settled at 290, although I may set it down to 270 at some point.


Silencer: I have it on, but very loose. The cabinet door almost completely muffles the noise so it's not an issue for me.


Clamp: I have it compressing the hose, but honestly it doesn't seem to make a difference where I set it at.


Bubble level: assuming that I just turned the skimmer on or there is no bubble build up yet, the water level is roughly 1" below the bottom of the cup. If I set it any lower it tends to take a long time (days) to build up enough bubbles to begin skimming. Any higher, and I get occasional overflows at the 290 pump setting.

I've found that at 250 or 270 pump settings, you can run the bubble level pretty high (maybe 1/2" - 1/4" below the bottom of the collection cup, and you get skimmate on that is on the dryer side.

[OCRick]

Thanks for your response motionless. I've tried pretty much everything but lowering the pump output, mine is currently set at the max...it seems like after I make an adjustment with the skimmer output wedge I either get it to just gunk up at the top with no overflow or if I adjust it to high it will eventually just completely overflow. I'm trying to find that point where the skimmate will overflow into the cup and not just gunk up at the top. Sorry for my ignorance but what does 250, 270, 290, 300 pump setting mean?

[elosusa]

The numbers are for the pump settings, a key to getting what you are asking about. I run mine at 270 and just use the wedge pipe to get the bubble level right. On the solids getting on the inside of the cup tube, it is ok, good actually, if you clean the cup weekly, if not raise the level a little more. If you are overflowing often, I would just reduce the pump setting. If you have the eheim pump it does not have the numbers, just a "+" and "-" sign on a slide that works the same, just reduce it a bit. Hope that helps.

[uhuru]

what is the purpose of the cork in the side of the collection cup?

[OCRick]

Thanks Jesse, I do have the eheim pump so I will turn it down a little to see if that helps.

uhuru...the cork on the cup serves no other purpose than to plug a hole that could be used to hook up a drain line out of the cup.

[iapo]

Hi to all,

can I ask you what color oh skimmate do you have?
Mine produce a clear yellow liquid....but my elos mini tank is not yet populated...
here you can look my setup....

http://acquariofilia.biz/viewtopic.php?t=242128

the last one at page 8

[OCRick]

Hello iapo, my bioload is real low and I produce a clear yellow liquid also.

[OCRick]

Here are a couple pics that Jesse sent me showing the color of the skimmate that his NS100 Skimmer is currently producing in his office.

He indicated that he has a medium bioload, runs it about halfway up the cup, cleans the cup once a week, and does light feeding with SVM2, SVC and omega.

https://oblvrg.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pfRubnAa2m7Z03gw6UYk1emD7BHzQ83iyKJZs016XPh8Coa_70cXPbR1KBwUSGs98wSNDiR6Pbp3-CiHaRFxp129EtWP4AzTk/ns100.jpg
https://oblvrg.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p-E94tcdzqllraBlInlqd3gFNAwvs0wq0BGu7UAfMtAlhjqXyqbfzWoJczloaNY6WSBmhHKWd2lq0zllSQx1-dnK99PkIIOE7/ns100-2.jpg

[iapo]

s0rry, but have you got any bubble in a tank by return pump???
I've got it if I set my skimmer with air tube open....

[elosusa]

make sure that your return pump is not holding bubbles in the front part of the pump, some have got this problem when they first installed the pumps. I actually drill the front cover of the pumps so air does not get caught in the pump. The skimmer should not get microbubbles to the main chamber because it is going through a filter sock and a media chamber before it gets to the return pump. It sounds as if your system is new and the NS skimmer needs some pollution in the water before it works properly. Hope that helps.

[uhuru]

I've been adjusting this skimmer for the last few days now still trying to get it right. I'm impressed with the foam head I've been getting even though I have no bioload, however it has overflowed back into the chamber twice now. I now have the water level about 3/4" below the cup we'll see if this works better! The wedge pipe is extremely sensitive.