Skimmer help

[philolsen]

I mentioned to my wife I was planning on getting a new skimmer for my tank. She decided to go to the lfs where I get my water and supplies and bought a Finnex skimmer. It is definitly not what I would have gotten but I now have no choice but to use it so I wont hurt her fellings. The skimmer has been running for 8 days now and barely produces any waste and does not appear to have enough bubbles to produce a froath that will work. I realize it can take some time to break in but I have had other skimmers and they have not taken this long, so I was wondering if I could do any mods to make it more efficient? The main tube does have a good amount of bubbles but no froath on a regular basis. It has produced some waste, it has a drain and I have it running to a gallon jug under the tank and it does have a fairly dark coating on the tube into the collection cup.

[The R/C Man]

Well I have been building skimmers for a few years and may be able to help u out a bit. I tried to find a picture of the skimmer with no luck. Could you take a picture of yours or find one on the net to post here so I can give sound advice? Thanks.

[philolsen]

I cant get a decent while on the tank, will this picture of the box help?

[philolsen]

This is the best I can get on the tank
[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[The R/C Man]

Well first let me say that a skimmer will shut down if there is inadequate dissolved organics that are able to attach to the size of bubbles your skimmer creates. Therefore skimmers vary in performance based on this fact. However people go to ridiculous means to create smaller and more concentrated bubbles. Another fact is that there is a limit to the size of bubbles and how many can occupy the allotted space. Ok, enough rambling..... To start, the water level in the chamber is based on two main things. 1st is the water level in the tank compared to the water level in the contact chamber. The higher the skimmer sits in relation to the tank lowers the water level in the chamber. This will make the skimmer unable to get the skimmate to the surface. Another way to control this is with a valve on the output of the skimmer. Closing off the valve slightly will raise the water in the chamber producing more skimmate. I would say to start there and see what happens. WARNING!!! When making adjustments do it in small increments and keep an eye on things to ensure you don't overflow the skimmer...... Hope that gets you going in the right direction.

[philolsen]

I have the valve closed as far as I can without overflowing, I do have some foam but not constant. I have about 100 lbs live rock, 70 lbs live sand and a Fluval 404 with the media replaced with rubble rock. There are 5 fish, a Huma Huma (3") Yellow Tang (2") Kole tank (2") stripped and yellow tail damsels (1" ea) and do 20-25% water changes weekly as well as clean out the Fluval, can my waste be that low??? I also have the air valve completely open on the skimmer.

[CSeaSee]

I have a skimmer like yours- a Jebo variant. It never worked well, and the controls were so tempermental that I almost flooded the apartment a couple of times. Whatever mods I tried never seemed to work well- and I know it was the skimmer b/c my BakPak next to it was kicking butt. Besides not working well, it's a safety issue. Addressing the safety issue as opposed to the lousy job it does of skimming may or may not get you off the hook with your significant other (it did with mine...), but at the very least, try poking around eBay for a BakPak- you can get some really good deals. Good luck!