[IU2468]

Hey guys,
I have a 58gallon reef tank and a 50 gallon sump. I have been using the mr3 from my reef creations now for about a year. When i first started using it the skimmer was pulling a lot of skim mate. Since then the tank has been doing fine, the problem i am having is that it is not pushing the foam to the collection cup, i have the skimmer sitting right next to the sump drilled directly into it for the return. I have a mag 5 going into the skimmer and a gen 100 as the recirculating pump. i have modified the skimmer so that the beckets are 4 inches higher than they come set up. I am planning on raising the beckets to about the same height as the collection cup so i can have the water higher in the column. My question is if anybody has one have they had problems with gettting the skimmate to reach the collection cup and if they had to modify it how did you do it. I don't want to through away a 600 dollar skimmer. I know that i have a big skimmer for my tank but i am having a custom built tank that is about 300 gallons coming in the summer so when i was getting equipment i bought bigger so i had it for the new tank. any advice would help.
Thanks Rich

[Poseidon]

Not to sound like a smart ar$$, but have you cleaned the Becketts? When my skimmer performance suffers, I clean the air intakes and the beckett itself, and then I am just like new again.

I use a MR-2 BTW.

[IU2468]

I clean the becketts once a month and the injectors, but it is still the same thing doesn't get the skimmate up to the collection cup. I have tried everything i have even called andy and he told me that it might have to sit above the sump or i might need to use a different pump instead of the mag 5. but i have to send him pics and he is going to let me know what he thinks but i was hoping other people might have some advice. But i know what you are saying if you don't clean the intaks or the beckets i do see a drop in production.

[Poseidon]

Okay. I hope I didn't offend you, I just wanted to make sure we start off simple.

There is nothing in the skimmer that can wear out, but what about the pump that you feed it with? Have you cleaned/checked the impellar in the Mag5? I am guessing that would be the most likely culprit if the air is flowing well. I used to use a MAG12 to drive my MR-2, and it worked well, so I am guessing that the 5 should be plenty with a recirc model.

[IU2468]

No you didn't offend me, i would have asked the same questions. I will double check the pump to make sure but i always clean the pump when i clean the skimmer. I have been told i might have to raise it like a esv skimmer, and i was also told that it might have to run only 12 hours a day to be able to create more skimmate to push up to the collection cup. I am thinking that if i raise it up to be above my skimmer. Hopefully that will help but i also might try a mag 7 as a intake pump for the skimmer. Sometimes I wish that the first cylinder was just a few inches shorter but i don't know if that will help or not.

[Poseidon]

That brings up another consideration. What is you bio load like? Maybe you just don't have much to remove.

My skimmer seems to go thru phases, sometimes it pulls out lots of gunk, other days it seems to not do much at all.

Are there any kinks, or 90's between the feed pump and the skimmer? What about the recirc pump, how often do you clean that?

[IU2468]

the bio load is mostly coral i feed everyday plankton, cycl, rotifers, etc. I clean the rec pump every two months. i am going to be adding two more fish i only have two now, so you do have a good point there might not be much to take out. it just seems odd that the foam doens't raise up that far. mabey what i should do is turn of the pump for a day or two and then turn it back on to see if it produces more skim mate which would probably make the skim mate rise higher because of the build up. You might be right i think i might try turning it off for a day and see what happens.

[Poseidon]

It certainly won't hurt, and with only 2 fish, there can't be that much waste. I have 9 fish in my 90, they are all on the smaller side, but still I have a much greater load then you do. I produce a MUD like skimmate out of my MR-2, and it is pretty consistant too.

I am pretty confident that you have little to no waste to remove, that is why you don't have much foam.