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biomekanic: Glad you like the concept. Your interest in plants could really help out here.
sjm817: Well it might be the plastic bucket, or the screen material. Probably not the clear pvc tubes; probably not the pump. I've used this skimmer for two years and it never went "flat" like this. It might drop for a bit if the overflow is splashing near the pump intake, but there would still be foam. It's going on 24 hours now of no foam.
herring: I did test it today: 0 phos, and about 3 nitrate (been like this for several weeks), no change.
So I tested the skimmer again, starting with the tube down low where it has worked well for the last year: Nothing, zero foam. I upped the tube to the highest point it would go without disconnecting, and still nothing (the water is just short of going into the cup, but there is zero foam.) So I put the tube back down to its normal spot, and dipped a new filter sock in the sump for about five seconds, and immediately the foam began and the column started rising quickly. It shot to the top and pushed the lid up about a half inch. After a half hour or so, all the sock residues had been removed and the foam was back down to zero. So I unplugged it again.
There have been some changes in the pre-seeded screen in the last 24 hours since it arrived, I think because IA probably dumped their water down onto the screen, whereas I'm sliding the water across the screen. Thus over the past day there are a few spots where the turf has slid off the screen; mostly up near the spraybar where the flow was coming out the fastest. Also my lights are surely different than theirs. And the shipping... even with priority overnight, and a few hours in my sink (with chlorinated tap water running over it)... i'm sure there is some die off.
So to end the night, I fed two pumps of plankton (normally I do just one), and a full pump of phyto (normally just two drops, if any at all). Normally this much food would have algae on my glass the next day. We'll see.
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