Protein Skimmer not skimming

[dale]

Hi. I have a bak pak 2 protein skimmer and it doesn't produce any skimmate. I have a mj1200 pump on it and the bubbles don't go all the way up the skimmer cup. I put purple up in my tank 4 days a week. Do you think the purple up is stopping the skimmer from producing?

[Bifferwine]

The Purple Up shouldn't have changed anything... At least it doesn't with my skimmer.

[squibley2]

Can you lower the collection cup? Also if your tank is not stocked then there may not be alot for the skimmer to take out. Some more information would help nail down the problem.

[jhnrb]

Could be one of several things, improper air injection (not enough), new skimmer not yet broke in, or, possibly adjustment is not correct. Here is a link to cpr bulletin board where you can get some great information specifically on your skimmer. hope this helps.
CPR Aquatic Technical Support :: Index

[dale]

The tank is a 55 gallon that has been up and running for 8 months. I've had the skimmer on it since day 1. I have tried all the suggestions on the cor bulletin board and even bought a new mj1200 pump. Still nothing. My tank is overstocked and I sometimes overfeed.

[jhnrb]

Have you contacted CPR by E-mail for assistance? if not you should. If you have what did they say? If you are getting proper air, if the air intakes at the pump are not pluged with calcium, if the skimmer is clean, if the water movement through the skimmer body is not too fast or slow, if the cups are properly adjusted, and if you keep your hands out of the water without gloves, then the only thing it can be is water parameters or overfeeding. what would be helpful would be to tell us what you did differently the previous 10 days before the problem started.. hope something here helps. let us know if you have any more information or thoughts that we can consider in evaluating your system. I used backpacks years ago and never had any trouble with um. The only thing I did notice is that I had to remove the air block at the end of the air hose and replace with a wooden air diffuser (medium) for the skimmer to produce sufficient foam. Personally I support CPR products, however, with the size of your system, I feel there are product out there that will do a better job for you. just my two cents. Keep us posted. how things are going and if anything here has helped.
(by cleaning we mean to throughly clean the chambers, remove all detritus and rinse bio bale if you use it in salt water at time of water change. If possible post your water parameters for us i.e. Ph, Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphorus, alkalinity, calcium, salinity, what additives you add, how much and how often. what foods you feed, how much and how often. what type and amount of cirulation, and do you pull to the skimmer water off the top of the later collum. maybe you could get the lfs to run a full set of tests for you one time to set a base line to work from. thanks in advance. give us something more to work with a I will try and help. thanks for the question.