[Irvine]

May have a problem with my skimmer, its been running fine for 4 months now and 4 days ago I added some Phosphate removing filter pads to my canister as my phosphate is a little high. Anyway, since then my skimmer no longer produces foam. (Is this just a coincidence?) It appears to be running fine, the air adjustment valve works and water is flowing up into the main chamber, however nothing is reaching the collection cup, or very little, since thursday I have only 1/4 cup of skimmate.

skimmer is a coralife 125

[Reefland]

Remove the pads for 3-4 days and see if there is a change in the skimmers performance.

[Irvine]

Ok, I removed the phosphate removal pads, I'll post back in a few days with an update on the skimmer. I really dont know what else would be causing this
These pads seem to work well though, my water has'nt been this clear for a long time.

[smpolyp]

If the skimmer had not been clean in awhile.(the whole skimmer) the protiens may have built up on the side walls so much that it will collaps the foam. A phosphate pad may have cleaned the water to the point that the protiens are lower than what has built up in the on the skimmer walls.

[Irvine]

Its been 3 days since I removed the phosphate pad and Im now beginning to see some foam again in the skimmer cup.

Hopefully my phosphate reading wont start to rise again. Im going to vaccum my crushed coral substrate more often, thats likely what caused the rise in phosphates.

[Irvine]

Well today the skimmer is back to producing no foam at all. I have 6 small-med fish in a 75G with a large capacity canister filter and a hob filter, even back when I cycled the tank there was a fair amount of skimmate, all Im getting now is condensation in the cup oh and I took the skimmer apart and cleaned it thoroughly. I guess Ill give it some more time.

[smpolyp]

It can take a day or so after cleaning the skimmer to become efficient. This is due to the oils on your hands. The oils tend to collapse the foam. Every skimmer is different. Also adjustments on your skimmer are important. For a basic test run open the intake of your venturi wide open. Now start restricting the intake of the venturi till the bubbles start to move down in the skimmer chamber till they almost reach the bottom. This will help you max out your suface area in your skimmer.

[CSeaSee]

If your airline runs directly into the powerhead/pump, you may have some calcium build-up at that juncture, preventing the air from getting into the powerhead. Think of it as a clogged artery. My BakPak experiences this occasionally, and I have to scrape out the calcium deposit from the powerhead.

[The R/C Man]

Just a quick note on phosphates. Typically they are caused by over feeding. Instead of using a remover to temporarly fix the problem you should find the root cause and nip it in the bud. As I said the most likely cause is overfeeding. The fish should only be fed enough food for them to eat in a minute or two. You may also may have to give them a little, let them eat while you wait and then add a litle more. This gives the fish time to grab the food in the water column not letting enter the filtration system etc. Also if you do not already have live rock in your tank you should consider adding that as your filtration and getting rid of the canister and HOB filters. They are nitrate traps.....