Looking for advice for PS-75 protein skimmer

[mick4009]

I have just set up my tank had it running with just live rock and sand for about 6 weeks. I had purchased a Oddyssea PS-75 protein skimmer 2 - weeks ago. I have had it in the tank I set it up to hang over. The instructions are very bad. I dint know how far up I should have the bubbles. It seems that if I adjust it to bubble up to the cup it will fill the cup with water. If I adjust it below the cup the bubbles never reach the cup at all. I dont see any foam either just bubbles. Also is it normal for the sponge on the skimmer to be half way out of the water? It seems if I fully submerse it the skimmer will fill up with water and overflow no matter how I adjust it. Honestly with the angle of the bracket you cant fully submerge the sponge anyhow.
I now know this skimmer is a piece of junk but I would really like to see if I could get it working. Any advice would be great. Thanks

[Reefland]

I think you hit it with the last part of your post, it isn't a very good skimmer. The best you can do is try to find a happy medium, bubbles not too low but not at the cup either.

Was the rock you got fully cured? There might not be enough waste for the skimmer to pull anything out.

[mick4009]

Thats how I have it set now just at the base of the cup. I dont think the rock was fully cured. You know when I purchased I had to get it off the internet none of my local stores carried it. When I questioned the seller about why it looked like everything was dead and the pictures on the rocks on the site where all full of stuff I was told that that was for the "Super" not the "Ultra" Premium live rock. I think if I had ordered the "Super" and asked the same questioned I probably would have been told the opposite. Thanks for the help

[Ratpack]

I am thinking this skimmer is very similar to the seaclone skimmers and if that is the case, my advice is to count it as a loss and lesson learned and get another skimmer. I had a seaclone on my 47g and it did OK as long as you kept adjusting it weekly. Finally it started to leak so I was able to justify a new skimmer. I went with the Octopus BH-300F. It is a HOB that is rated for 135g so that I could move it when I got a bigger tank. Let me tell you the difference is night and day. Very easy to adjust water level and this thing foams like crazy. I am almost convinced it has pulled more skimmate in two weeks than the seaclone pulled in about a year. It costs about twice what the seaclone did, but I know very well now why that is.

[CH]

Did you get any response?
I bought mine last week and after about 2 hours of trying to decipher the "instructions", I installed it as you did.
After 3 days, with the water level at 1" below the collection cup, as indicated in the instructions, my collection cup is still dry.
And what about all of the bubbles? Although very fine, they create a"fog" in the water that interferes with water clarity. Seems like all of the bubles are expelled into the tank before traveling up into the cup. Is there any hope for this contraption?