Reef Octopus Space Saver not Skimming

[HuskerBioProf]

Anyone have any experience with these? It is a Reef Octopus Space Saver 110. I can't tell if I just can't get it dialed in correctly or if my bioload is too small to collect any skim mate.

I have a 40 breeder with 2 fish: a yellow watchman goby and a longfin flasher wrasse.

My nitrates range from 0-2 ppm (Red Sea kit).

If I turned the valve way to "closed", I collected a lot of faintly colored water. When I have it all the way "open", the bubbles don't ever really reach the top. I have it in between now for a while, and the bubbles still aren't reaching the top. However, the bubbles are all white and not brown/yellow like I have had with my previous skimmers in other tanks. Any thoughts reef experts?

[BlackTip]

2 fishes in 40g is very small bioload. My skimmer didn't start skimming probably until I had 10 fishes in my tank.

[C.Eymann]

Could be the small bio-load but It should skim a little at least, these are really finicky skimmers and can be difficult to get dialed in, but they do very once settled, how deep is it submerged? how new is it?

[HuskerBioProf]

I will have to remeasure it when I get back, but I am pretty sure it is stably at ~7.5" of water in the sump. I got it used off Craigs List, but I have only had it running for about 3 weeks. It currently has about 1/4" of yellow water in the cup that has accumulated over the course of a week or so, so SOMETHING is getting in there.

I have heard they are difficult to dial in, but I am not really sure what that entails. On my old tanks I ran a Tunze 9010 and it had a little screw valve to adjust the bubble production. It was really easy.

Any suggestions on how to know when it is set correctly?

[C.Eymann]

I will have to remeasure it when I get back, but I am pretty sure it is stably at ~7.5" of water in the sump. I got it used off Craigs List, but I have only had it running for about 3 weeks. It currently has about 1/4" of yellow water in the cup that has accumulated over the course of a week or so, so SOMETHING is getting in there.

I have heard they are difficult to dial in, but I am not really sure what that entails. On my old tanks I ran a Tunze 9010 and it had a little screw valve to adjust the bubble production. It was really easy.

Any suggestions on how to know when it is set correctly?
So its sounds like it is skimming some then, maybe skimming a bit wet or like mentioned before low amount of bioload.

Tunze skimmers self regulate the water height inside the skimmer, with these Reef Octopus skimmers you either have a gate valve or a twistable stand pipe to regulate water level. There really isn't an exact universal "sweet spot" because some prefer to skim wet (light beer colored) others prefer to skim dry (dark porter) its all personal preference.
I personally like to skim on the drier side, but thats just me.
The Key is make tiny adjustments and see what works best for you

Hope this helps !

[mandarin_goby]

I have the same skimmer and it's been a real chore dialing it in. Open it just a little too much and it overflows, close it a little too much and nothing. Very frustrating - staying tuned to this thread for tips. It was working great at one point but then the sump level changed just a bit (I've since bought an auto-topoff to better regulate the level) but I can't get it to collect skimmate now - it's all or nothing. There is brown crud lining the inside of the canister and the top of the lid, so something is happening, but no collection in the cup.

[HuskerBioProf]

Thanks for the tips. I think I might have a combo problem of tricky to tune + low bioload. I will keep messing with it. I guess as long as my nitrates/phosphates remain low it isn't a problem.

[C.Eymann]

Thanks for the tips. I think I might have a combo problem of tricky to tune + low bioload. I will keep messing with it. I guess as long as my nitrates/phosphates remain low it isn't a problem.

Tiny tiny adjustments, waiting a few hours in between each, once you find your preferred "sweet spot" Reef Octopus skimmers can be great skimmers for the money.

This is about a week and half worth on my SRO xp1000 with medium bioload.
Since mine is a cone skimmer with an even larger pump it is even more difficult to dial in than your model, but again once you reach that sweet spot adjustment wise they are gunk pulling beasts.
Nice and stanky ! the smell of the stuff they pull can make you gag.

http://i.imgur.com/rtsDE5uh.jpg

[Potatohead]

Low bioload does it for sure. I only have three fish in a 36 gallon and my skimmer idles a lot, it only really starts to skim when I feed or especially after broadcast feeding corals. You want to set the water height so when it is skimming the larger foam bubbles are just starting to flow over the top of the neck and into the cup, you may have to play with water height a bit to get it right.

[HuskerBioProf]

Thanks for the help everyone. I did some fiddling and I now have it tuned so it looks like it MIGHT be pretty good. Large bubbles are just hitting the top of the cup. They are only faintly yellow, still, but that is probably my bioload.