Basic info on skimmers

I've been reading a lot about skimmers and quite frankly, my brain hurts. I just bought a Prizm deluxe HOB for my 14g reef, and have could use some clarification on the basics - this is my first experience with a skimmer, so I'm not sure what to expect.
I've got the skimmer up and running, at first it caused a snowstorm of microbubbles in the tank so I followed instructions and reduced the flow (w/ a little valve on the intake) until no bubbles were entering the tank - I had to close the valve more than 3/4 of the way, which resulted in almost no foam being produced, but there's still flow through the unit.
Do skimmers produce fairly consistant amounts of foam all the time, or are there times when they produce very little (or virtually none), and times when they make more?
Water parameters are great, so I'm wondering if there's just not much to skim right now - I've been using some 50 micron filter material to remove floating particulates and I'm wondering if there's just not much left to remove ATM.
NH3, NO2, NO3 and PO4 are all sitting at 0 tonight, pH is 8.3, SG is 1.023.
Any information on the best way to adjust the skimmer, or how skimmers work in general (use small words please ) would be appreciated.

Thank you both for the replies, the instructions made it sound like there may be something wrong if the skimmer isn't working (producing lots of skimmate) within 48h. I am noticing the skimmer 'reacting' to things - yesterday I had to put my hand in the tank to move a rock, and there was an increase in bubbles, and this also happened after I turned the skimmer back on after feeding.
My manager at work said this skimmer is actually very good (it has a reputation of being lousy, I think mostly because the manufacturer overestimates the tank capacity of their models - apparantly on small tanks it works really well), so I'm anticipating some serious amounts of goo within the next few weeks

Ack! That's awful, sorry to hear it and I sure hope that's not the norm. I did ask around, and though it's not the best available it's supposed to be adequate for small tanks - much better than, say, a SeaClone. I bought this particular skimmer because the tank has a very limited amount of room on the back of the tank (the Prism barely fits) and it was avaiable at work, where I get a good discount (of course, a discount on something that doesn't work really isn't of much use...)
The tank is clear, and NH3, NO2, NO3 & PO4 levels are all steady at 0 so I'm hoping that there's just not much to skim out at this point. I try very hard not to overfeed, rinse frozen food before feeding (to reduce PO4), and the bio-load isn't too high - 10 small hermits, 3 small bumblebee snails, 1 2" fairy wrasse, 1 1.5" pistol and a very small emerald crab (1" across including her legs). The macro seems to be using up the nutrients very well, so I'm hoping the skimmer just doesn't have much to do right now.
*fingers crossed*
[edit] TMK the only difference between 'regular' and 'deluxe' versions are the media compartment for carbon etc. in the last chamber, and a HUGE, unsightly surface skimmer which I'm not using. The new version has a 16-blade impeller (older models had 12-blade impellers and were loud), but I think that's for both models not just deluxe [/edit].