pump to big for skimmer?

[mabbus]

Hi all,

I'm setting up my first reef aquarium, so plenty of noob questions coming your way, sorry about that :)

I have a weipro sa-2011 skimmer (I know, I know, but my options are limited where I am, and I will upgrade in the future) The Skimmer is rated at 300gph and the pump I am using is rated at 529gph. Would you consider this too powerful, or should it not matter?

When I kick off the skimmer, I have lots of nice white foam, which gradually works it's way into the tube that goes into the cup. Now it doesn't shoot up there, it may take an hour or so, then it will gor from half way up the tube, then up to the top, then drop down again.

This kind of sounds right, from my understanding but all I get in the cup is a slow build up of sandy coloured water. This is a new set up, so no fish, just live rock and sand. Obviously I don't want to be emptying the cup of water every few hours.

So does this sound right, or should I not be getting water?

At the point of writing this, I have just noticed the foam is sitting at the base of the neck that leads to the cup, not half way up the neck as before. And has been like this for 20 minutes or so. So maybe it is settling

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I haven't used one before and not sure what is right or not.

 

[mcmusashi5]

How long has the skimmer been running for?

 

[mabbus]

At the time of writing the message, it had been running for several hours. However, as I mentioned at the end of the message it had been stable for 20 minutes, and as of now it is still at the base of the neck to the cup.

So it seems to have stabilised?

 

[marcah]

I would let it keep running and see if it continues to draw out stuff.. Sounds to me like it is running ok I would let it settle in and see ... a few hours isnt going to give you the whole story...

 

[mcmusashi5]

+1 to marcah

 

[mabbus]

Thanks guys,

I have left it running and the foam level after 48 hours has levelled off to the neck of the cup. So no more bubbles rising to the top and depositing water into the cup, I haven't changed the pressure setting, so I guess the foam to the top and water into the cup, was just a settling in thing?

I only have the LR & LS at the moment while the tank cycles, so I guess I won't produce much in the skimmer anyway?

Thanks for the replies