Protein skimmer blues

[Chris_150G]

I bought an Octopus Extreme 160 protein skimmer and I feel like its just not collecting enough in the cup. I have played with the adjustment on it relentlessly and it just seems like the foam wants to rise to the top of the cone, but not collect much in the cup. If I raise the water level into the cone (in an attempt to make it force the foam into the collection cup) it seems like I get little or no foam. If I have the water lower, the foam appears faster but it doesn't go high enough to spill into the cup. I have the water level in the sump at 8 inches. Its been running for two weeks. It started making foam the first day. Maybe I am messing with it too much? Not a day goes by that I don't try to adjust it.

 

[XxKnuckleheadxX]

give it time to do its thing, and just cause its not showing results doesnt mean its not working, your tank might not have anything to pull out..

 

[Bifferwine]

It usually takes them 2 or 3 weeks to break in. I'd say you're probably at the tail end of the breaking-in period.

Do you use a water conditioner or dechlorinator in your tank? Those will usually screw with skimmers.

Also, like Knucklehead said, if your water is pretty clean, the skimmer won't have a lot of gunk to pull out. This often happens in tanks with a lot of filtration and with a low bioload.

 

[Reefrookie]

My 160 too well over 2 weeks to break in. If I clean mine TOO good, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to get back to normal. Patience my friend!

 

[Chris_150G]

Yes I will try to be patient. I am running RO water now and don't use any conditioners.

I read that someone with one of these skimmers (Reef Octopus) was told by the company to have the outlet pipe be just above the water in their sump to reduce the back pressure. They said that when they took the pipe off the outlet (so it dumped the water higher) the skimmer started working much better.

Has anyone heard of that? I tried it last night and this morning there wasn't a noticeable improvement. When you shorten the outlet it makes a lot more noise as it now is dropping the water from above the water line in the sump.

 

[project5k]

my experience with my 110 was that for the first couple weeks it was really unpredictable, someone once told me that it has to do with the static charge on the plastic,

i dont know if i buy that or not, but what i was told to do as a break in procedure worked perfectly.

I was told to adjust mine so that it was almost continusly overflowing, and to take the "drain plug" out and let it just overflow for about a week or 2(mine's an in sump, so overflowing just means that the water drops back into the sump),

then put the drain plug back in the cup and start adjusting, adjust it so that the foam is about a 1/2 an inch from the top of the collection cup part where it can actually go into the cup, and let it run from there, thats exactly what i did with mine, and it has worked flawlessly since.

All i've done since that was dump the cup and rinse it with a garden hose to knock the gunk off it... YMMV but thats my experience.

 

[Chris_150G]

Ok I I am going to put that pipe back on and leave it be for a few days.

 

[LongIslandFirearms]

Since it takes weeks to cycle the tank and it takes time for protein skimmers to work property, is it suggested to use the protein skimmer during the cycling stage? Wouldn't that speed up the skimmers 'conditioning' period?


..sort

 

[Gdbyrd]

I would think it might actually hurt your cycle a little. You want that crap in your tank to build up so you have a good solid cycle. Dunno personally, but that just makes sense. Most people recommend running skimmers in some vinegar water for a few days to speed up break in.

I'm also unsatisfied with my skimmer. Bought an Octopus 800S for my 47g. So far(I think it's been around a month now, give or take)It only skims something when it's really skimming wet...but I really don't see it pulling anything from the tank. I think everyone is right, it'll depend on your bioload. I guess my two clowns don't do much poopin.

 

[Reefrookie]

Yes I will try to be patient. I am running RO water now and don't use any conditioners.

I read that someone with one of these skimmers (Reef Octopus) was told by the company to have the outlet pipe be just above the water in their sump to reduce the back pressure. They said that when they took the pipe off the outlet (so it dumped the water higher) the skimmer started working much better

I removed the pipe and turned the elbow so that about 90-95% of the open end is below the water surface line. That helped mine a lot.

 

[Chris_150G]

It works great now. I just needed to stop messing with it and let it run. It works best for me when I set the bubbles to about and inch from the bottom of the cup. This week I moved it into a 10 gallon tank. Its in 10" of water. The 10g has an overflow that takes the water to a 15 gallon refugium (My orginal sump).

 

[Reefrookie]

Glad it's finally broken in for you!

 

[Bifferwine]

Skimmers can be frustrating, but they do a good job once they actually start working.