Skimmer, Not Doing It's Job?

[Josh Candiotti]

I just added a phosban reactor, about 3 days ago. And for the past week and a half approx, my skimmer,It is a Octopus 300F HOB, hasn't been pulling much out? The collection cup is even lower than the normal height, and the pumps were cleaned about 5 days ago, still no change? Any thoughts why?

[ERICinFL]

Well, if your bio load isn't very large, there may not be anything to pull out. How was it skimming before?

[Josh Candiotti]

Skimming, was always about 1.5 inches at least a day, and now its only like .25 inches a day, although I just moved my tank downstairs 2 weeks ago, could that have totaly, threw it off? My bio load?

[sedor]

I don't know if its related to the GFO at all, but sometimes adding new chemicals and such to the tank can make the skimmer act a little weird for a while. I swear I spend more time staring at my skimmer than the actual tank.

One thing you could do is leave your skimmer on when you feed and purposely overfeed the tank a little one night. If the skimmer is working properly you should see bits of food in it.

[singold]

I would check pump for any intrusion.

[Josh Candiotti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15548352#post15548352 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by singold
I would check pump for any intrusion. I tried to feed more today, still same thing, so checking the pump? How should I do that? And the bubbles seem to be being produced, however they just aren't making it up the neck of the skimmer?

[koranAngel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15547789#post15547789 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ryandlf
I don't know if its related to the GFO at all, but sometimes adding new chemicals and such to the tank can make the skimmer act a little weird for a while. I swear I spend more time staring at my skimmer than the actual tank.

One thing you could do is leave your skimmer on when you feed and purposely overfeed the tank a little one night. If the skimmer is working properly you should see bits of food in it.

+1 lmfao i do the same thing staring at my skimmer

[ERICinFL]

I see you cleaned your pumps five days ago, but did you clean the whole skimmer? When my Euro Reef doesn't seem to be performing well, I take the whole thing out and put it in a bucket of tap water and vinegar. I'll plug it in and let it go for about an hour, then I'll dump out the nasty water, fill with fresh and run it for 10-15min. I'll leave the hose on, in the bucket, so it over flows and assures a good rinse. I'll put it back in the fuge and it runs like new again.

[sedor]

+1 lmfao i do the same thing staring at my skimmer

LOL I know, you know your a reef dork when you've got this beautiful piece of art in front of you but instead your down on the ground with your head in your stand getting excited about that big burst of foam.

Glad to know i'm not the only one.

[Josh Candiotti]

Did a full cleaning again today, vineagar soaking, and took every part apart possible, and did a 100 percent cleaning. Still no change, the bubble production still appears to be as usual, however its not making it up the neck of the skimmer, could the new media in the phosban reactor be the cause? I don't see what else it could be?

[Josh Candiotti]

I really don't knoe whqt else to do. I need this fixed though, asap, it only skimmed about 1 full cup in total the past 2 weeks about, and usualy it pulls out abot 5 full cups every 2 weeks. What should I do? I replaced the tubing pulling in the air to the pumps 3 days ago, but the problem has been going on for many days before that, just figured it kight be important info, please help???

[seapug]

The vinegar can remove a lot of the bacterial films on the acrylic, so it might need some time to "recoat" before you start getting stable foam again. My Octopus XT250 sometimes does the same thing after water changes or cleaning the skimmer, but rips better than ever a day or so later. Don't raise the water level too high, because it'll overflow fast once it kicks in and starts making foam again.

Since you're running GFO, it's also a good idea to check your pH and Alkalinity. GFO can reduce alkalinity when first run, and that can have an effect on your skimmer. Also make sure you're keeping the GFO on a slow flow so particles don't end up in the water column and affect your water chemistry.

[sedor]

I agree just let it run for a couple weeks and try not to think about. Besided checking to see if its flooding every once in a while. It will come around, skimmers are not that complicated so there's really not to much that could ruin a skimmer unless the pump were broken or you've added some sort of chemical to the tank that is causing it not to work.

[Haksar]

Suggest checking whether air is stuck in the pump.May times after I switch off and on my skimmer the bubbles are very less and I had to swich on/off two times to get it rolling.

[Josh Candiotti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15569439#post15569439 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Haksar
Suggest checking whether air is stuck in the pump.May times after I switch off and on my skimmer the bubbles are very less and I had to swich on/off two times to get it rolling. Just tryed that a few times, and still no change, and I did add chemicals, I added phosban, could that be the reason?

[todd141]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15547701#post15547701 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Josh Candiotti
I just added a phosban reactor, about 3 days ago. And for the past week and a half approx, my skimmer,It is a Octopus 300F HOB, hasn't been pulling much out? The collection cup is even lower than the normal height, and the pumps were cleaned about 5 days ago, still no change? Any thoughts why?

I'm using the same skimmer on my 75 gallon. What is your "normal height"???

[philipchan]

+1 on checking the air intake
it may got stuck a little by salt or something

[Josh Candiotti]

I usualy have the cup's bottom edge just cover the center chamber hole, and usually iylt fills up in about 2 days, what is you height?

[Josh Candiotti]

What is going on? I did a 10 gallon water change this morning, and the skimmer was finally working again, I came bak now, about 5 hours later, and again the bubbles aren't making their way up the neck of the skimmer, why not? This is the media that I bought at my LFS, http://www.aquacave.com/pura-phos-lock-filter-media-brby-magnavore-354.html, is this known to effect a skimmer?

[Josh Candiotti]

I added more to my CUC, I added about 10 hermits and 20 snails, the minuete they were acclimated, and I dropped them into the tank, the skimmer once again was working, does this just mean my bio load is small, I only have 3 fish, and I belive all the waster in the bags that held the CUC, was what was pulled out by the skimmer, is it possbile my bio load is just so small, there is no waste to be removed?

[seapug]

Skimmer performance is affected by many different factors. I've never owned one that didn't vary in skimmate output over the course of a day or after feedings, water changes, etc. The idea is to find a water level that won't cause an overflow when it's working at maximum capacity. Shutting it off for a few minutes every so often to dissolve salt deposits on air intakes or let it spit out objects that may be obstructing flow is a good idea. Also make sure all fittings/pieces are securely in place. A submerged air or water leak due to a misaligned or loose piece can affect performance as well.

You mentioned you are adding "chemicals." What exactly are you adding? Some supplements can have an effect on skimmer performance.

[Everyones Hero]

You can always try running it for a few days without the GFO to see if that's causing it.

Run your water level higher if you want more skimmate.

I used to run mine really dry & it would only pull about .5L a month, but the neck would be caked in nasty green stuff. Now I'm running real wet & it pulls about 1L a week, but it looks like green tea & there's no buildup in the skimmer neck.

[Josh Candiotti]

I think the GFO is the cause, but if it is, what can I do? Should I use a different phosphate removal media?

[Josh Candiotti]

I just changed the phosban about 2 hours ago, to http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+8057+8996&pcatid=8996, I heard many good things about this phosban, My skimmer seems to be working slightly better now, Still not skimming, but the bubbles are higher up in the neck, what should I do, just wait and see, and hopefully it was just the bad phosban media I used?

[seapug]

I suppose it could be related to the GFO, but I run GFO and carbon in reactors and my skimmer makes loads of nasty gunk.

[Josh Candiotti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15594539#post15594539 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
I suppose it could be related to the GFO, but I run GFO and carbon in reactors and my skimmer makes loads of nasty gunk. Ya, my friend had the same skimmer, and he also ran a phosban reactor and he had no problem, but I don't, what else could it be, and how can I test it out to make sure I know exactly what the problem deffinatley is?

[seapug]

As someone suggested earlier, take the GFO reactor offline for a few days and see if anything changes.

Personally, I'd start by pulling the skimmer out and make sure your air and pump intakes are clear and all the pieces are connected properly, O-rings in place, etc..

[Josh Candiotti]

Ok, thats what I will do tomorrow, approx 2 weeks ago, I replaced the air line tubing, the old tubes were gross, could that be the problem?

[Josh Candiotti]

The GFO was off the entire night, and I came down this morining and saw the the skimmer pulled out about a half a cup of gunk, I had also lowered the cup slightly, but I think I should try today with the reactor on, and see if in 24 hours any gunk is pulled out, is that a good idea?

[Josh Candiotti]

Ok, GFO was on all day and almost a full cup was skimmed out, I noticed that for some reason the intake pipe was releasing micro bubbles into the skimmer, while the skimmer was improperly functioning, I just came home and the skimmer is working amazing but the intake pipe isnt pulling in micro bubbles, so it apparetly has some relation to the micro bubbles being produced? What could have caused these bubbles?