Protein skimmers 2!!

[Carlos]

OK, so i got my Urchin protein skimmer...but it was too big and it woudl not fit in my sump...i returned it to marine depot and i got the remora....i installed the remora yesterday and it seemed to be working, but this afternoon i checked on it and the collection cup was filled with water and the foam on the top is this how its suppose to be........???? for all of you who the have the remora please give me some feedback on how it went when u first installed it ..is this normal, did i do soemthing wrong ?? Also, i still have my other skimmer in my sump, can i have this one working tooo....is there such a thing as too much skimming???? Thanks

[OrionGirl]

If water is getting up into the collection cup, it means you'll need to turn it down a bit. Only the foam should make it that high. The powerhead/pump should be adjustable.

If you want to run them both and are getting crud out from each, I wouldn't worry about it. If one of them isn't collecting much, I wouldn't waste the energy of running it.

[VoodooChild]

I sometimes have a small level of water in the cup of my Seaclone. Couldn't this just be the foam breaking apart enough to actually build up into a reasonable amount of water?

[OrionGirl]

A skimmer that's running properly won't have anything that looks like water. There will be liquid in there, but it will be so black and gunky that calling it water would be like calling moldy bread food. If it's clear, the pump needs to be turned down.

[Carlos]

Hmmmm so its the pump? ok i will try and adjust it to see if that will help, the water is orange and yellow looking so it doesnt look like normal water it looks nasty but its not really thick...is just as thin as water nhow i will adjust the pump and let u guys know if it worked....thanks

[Daverman]

I have no experience with Remora, but I've once had Seaclone 100 Skimmer. The same thing happened whenever I did a water change. Later, I realized that an excessive accumulation of water (instead of wastes) in the collection cup was due to the water conditioner I added during the water change. I used the one made by Tetra, and the conditioner itself was very viscous. When I used a different conditioner (non-viscous), there was no water accumulating in the collection cup. So, check the viscosity of your conditioner. If you use a RO/DI unit, there must be other reasons besides water conditioner. Hope this would be help.

[VoodooChild]

That's a good point that I didn't even think of. Some conditioners are pretty foamy, like the Stress Coat I use. Thanks for making me aware of that.