BTW I fiddled with it just before the picture was taken and it will take awhile for the foam that was there to come back.
Skimmer HOB issue help please!
- Thread starter Robert04
- Start date
BTW I fiddled with it just before the picture was taken and it will take awhile for the foam that was there to come back.
how long has it been on the tank? it looks as though you have it set much too high and your collecting water. the water level should probably be at the base of the riser tube.the really foamy sticky crap accumulates and get pushed up the tube and into the cup this will be oil and stanky stuff not water.if it hasnt been on there more than 4 or 5 days or the tank is new it may take longer for it to break in.
Every skimmer has its quarks. I don't know much about yours but maybe how I weak on mine may help.
First if you have had your hands in the tank recently your oils in your hands will actually pop bubbles in the collector tube to the cup... so I would put your skimmer on dry skim levels.
On mine I have 3 rings marking dry to wet skimming. Even if wet skimming you should see its dark coffee colored ..not transparent like above. SO that means you have the water level too high on your adjustment. Throttle that sucker back.
As you observe your skimmer you should see nasty colored foam slowly going up the chamber... you can do dry or wet skimm but I suggest starting off with Dry skimm levels to get your bearings straight before increasing the water lines level.
This may take a few days of tweaking on it...Myself I literally turn my adjustment nob on my Skimmer 2 16ths of an inch at a time as i adjust.
Additional add on:
As you observe your skimmer the bubbles should be foaming below the chamber that leads into the collection cup...and you may see a foam build up start to go into the center.(<--not initially this may take hour or more). if its white and clean looking and moving fast turn it down... you want to see more icky colored foam..very very slowly moving up the chamber... after you check on it a day later.. you should see a very dark nasty doo doo brown water in the cup...almost black for some people.....if you dry skim very dry you would see very foamy looking collection cup...bubbles intact... to me I find this troublesome cause the foam doesnt break down being too dry..and then overflows out the relief air vent on the top of the cup...making a mess =)...
These are general tips... they dont apply for everyone... but I hope it gives you some bearing on what to do.
Keep in mind if skimmer is new or you just did an overhaul cleaning it takes a few days to break in. So do keep water line low as it breaks in or have overflows like above.
All I can say....I wish I could help more.
First if you have had your hands in the tank recently your oils in your hands will actually pop bubbles in the collector tube to the cup... so I would put your skimmer on dry skim levels.
On mine I have 3 rings marking dry to wet skimming. Even if wet skimming you should see its dark coffee colored ..not transparent like above. SO that means you have the water level too high on your adjustment. Throttle that sucker back.
As you observe your skimmer you should see nasty colored foam slowly going up the chamber... you can do dry or wet skimm but I suggest starting off with Dry skimm levels to get your bearings straight before increasing the water lines level.
This may take a few days of tweaking on it...Myself I literally turn my adjustment nob on my Skimmer 2 16ths of an inch at a time as i adjust.
Additional add on:
As you observe your skimmer the bubbles should be foaming below the chamber that leads into the collection cup...and you may see a foam build up start to go into the center.(<--not initially this may take hour or more). if its white and clean looking and moving fast turn it down... you want to see more icky colored foam..very very slowly moving up the chamber... after you check on it a day later.. you should see a very dark nasty doo doo brown water in the cup...almost black for some people.....if you dry skim very dry you would see very foamy looking collection cup...bubbles intact... to me I find this troublesome cause the foam doesnt break down being too dry..and then overflows out the relief air vent on the top of the cup...making a mess =)...
These are general tips... they dont apply for everyone... but I hope it gives you some bearing on what to do.
Keep in mind if skimmer is new or you just did an overhaul cleaning it takes a few days to break in. So do keep water line low as it breaks in or have overflows like above.
All I can say....I wish I could help more.
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After observing your skimmer on break. I noticed your foam bubbles are dead center of that tube in the cup... Lower that...bring it down to the base of that tube. Then check on it hours later see if you are getting over flow...if so lower it more. If not and you dont see foam going up yet... just wait another day and check again...you should see foam going up the little neck of that tube by that point and brown nasty foam slowly if not just resting on the top overflowing slowly into the cup.
Clearing up terminology.
Bad Foam- Dark nasty ...snot bubble like consistency and this takes time to build up.
Skimmer Bubble foam- The white layer of bubbles on top of your water line. That isn't the foam we speak of going into the cup. You dont want that white layer up in the middle of that chamber leading up inside your cup. That needs to remain at the bottom.
As crap collects ontop of the skimmer bubbles...you will see the nasty foam in time going up the neck.
Clearing up terminology.
Bad Foam- Dark nasty ...snot bubble like consistency and this takes time to build up.
Skimmer Bubble foam- The white layer of bubbles on top of your water line. That isn't the foam we speak of going into the cup. You dont want that white layer up in the middle of that chamber leading up inside your cup. That needs to remain at the bottom.
As crap collects ontop of the skimmer bubbles...you will see the nasty foam in time going up the neck.
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Make sure to empty that collection cup when it's full like that if you don't have a built in drain for it.
LOL...i cant help but think about my first skimmer and how full it got.
yes yes...dump it..and make sure you curse it to hell =p
Also for your first experience with skimming..its customary to Smell the collection cup before dumping. It's an experience you will never forget.:thm::evil_lol::evil_lol:
Hah Yea I got new lights and stuff for the tank and upgraded some stuff.. after about 4-5 weeks of craziness I got my tank nice and stable running smooth! the skimmer is running great because it smells like sewage and I'm getting chunks of dark brown-black crap in there now rather than alot of water.