Skimmer function

[Nonfamous]

Okay, so I'm real new to this. Please bare with my ignorance. How should a skimmer look while functioning? I plugged mine in today to make sure it did something. It's an eshoppes 120. It bubbles well but fills the cup with water in just a few minutes. I reduced the intake and it just takes longer, but it still fills the cup with water. Is this right? It's sitting in the center section of my sump in about 8" of water. The instructions state that it should be in fro 6" to 8". I am not running it at this point in the cycle. (I'm in week one).

 

[BL1]

I would start running it if I were you, skimmers can take anywhere from a week to two months to break-in and get running normally. Since you've just started running it, you should reduce the intake almost all the way so that it's not really getting anything in the cup (just for a week or two to break in). Once it's done breaking in, you'll want to adjust it so that the bubbles that form just barely make it over the edge of the skimmer cup. The stuff you collect should be like brownish water (for "wet skimming") or a very dark sludge ("dry skimming").

 

[yote]

It shouldn't be filling the cup like that.
With that skimmer,try raising up a couple of inches so the bubble stop just shy of the bottom of the collection cup.

 

[Nonfamous]

I'll give raising it a shot and start running it full time. Any suggestion for what I should sit it on? Plastic would be ideal, but I don't want to leach bad stuff into the water either. A piece of granite maybe?

 

[BL1]

I got a rubbermaid container large enough for my skimmer to sit stably on.

 

[yote]

You could also make a stand out of some eggcrete which is how I sat my ETSS skimmer up.

 

[Nonfamous]

Okay, so I lifted the skimmer some and it seems to be working. Thanks for the advise! I'm not sure how noisy skimmers typically are, but I'll say that mine has almost no noise at all. It will also be a good indicator for how low the water level is in the sump. I have a "full" line marked but every indicator I can have is good.

I topped it off this morning and brought my salinity down to 1.023 which is what I was shooting for since 1.025 seems to the top of the mark for the fish I want to add. I didn't want to get too close to that so as to account for evaporation.

Thanks again!

 

[Nonfamous]

I have more skimmer questions lets come back to this thread:

I am running an Eshoppes 120. Currently I have a 30"x12"x10" deep (water level) 3 section sump. from left to right I have:

return pump to tank -----bulkhead---- larger section with skimmer and heaters ----bulkhead---- overflow from tank, sponge filter, live rock

I'm thinking that I might change this setup by removing the skimmer and adding sand and liver rock. Right now I have no light on the sump when the doors are closed. Not sure how to plumb the skimmer though. The intake side doesn't look as if is can be unless a hose whose ID is the size of the OD of the intake. Not sure if you folks can picture it, but the intake is a formed valve, not just a pipe.

I'll post a picture I have before I filled with water so you can better visualize it.

 

[Nonfamous]

Actually, I do have a picture with water in it! I have since, as mentioned above in this thread, lifted the skimmer and moved the heaters a bit. The Live rock is uner the sponge filter on the right. Do I need a light in here? I read somewhere that I don't.

 

[yote]

I don't know that your skimmer would operate the way your thinking of hooking it up.It's designed to run the way you have it now.