Super Skimmer 125 - Quick question

Stoll · 02-14-2006, 08:31 AM

Hey everyone.

I'm breaking in my protien skimmer in my diy sump. The manual suggests that the pump be a max of 4" below the water level and I'm wondering if this is very important. I'll have to make some sort of stand for the pump if it actually needs to be that high, because currently it's about 6" below the surface.

It's just running freshwater at the moment, so it's not pulling anything out of the water, but the bubbles it's producing don't seem very fine to me...

Perhaps I'll take a pic of the whole thing running when i get home apres work and post it, see what everyone has to say.

Either way if anyone has any comments/suggestions, fire em this way!

gkw · 02-14-2006, 09:37 AM

i have the 220 and u are lucky to have air going through under 6". I have nothing at 6". You can do 3 things:

1) lower the water level to clear the 3" - 4" thing.

2) cut the hose...i did that and just let it suspend in the water, no stand required.

3) add an air pump(not too strong that the water pump run dry)...i did this and i am loving it, you can REALLY notice the increased micro bubbles in the skimmer.

I also just took out my sump and cut one of the baffles 4" lower to make extra room for backwash. The skimmer pump will be sitting on the bottom and 2" below the water surface.

Good luck!
GKW

Stoll · 02-15-2006, 12:01 PM

Thanks for the advice! Tonight when I get the entire system filled and running I'll cut the hose and suspend the pump in the water and see how that goes.

I can't really cut the baffles in my sump, as they're glass and they've already been siliconed in.

Craig Manoukian · 02-15-2006, 02:14 PM

Fresh water does not skim as well as salt water. Good luck and post some pics of your equipment.

Stoll · 02-16-2006, 09:21 PM

Well, I have the skimmer in the sump running saltwater at about 3" deep, and the change in bubbles is amazing!

I'm having a different problem now. It seems to me that there is so much air flowing through the skimmer that it seems to bottleneck in the outlet tube, causing it to build up until a big bubble pops out the tube. This big bubble causes the skimmer to surge. When the skimmer was running freshwater this didn't occur.

I left the system running last night, and when i got up this morning, the collection cup was full of clean water, and it was leaking out the air vent in the top of the cup. I emptied the cup, adjusted the skimmer to a lower lvl, and went to work. When I came home for lunch, the cup was full of water again...

I'm not sure what to do here. Is the end of the outlet pipe too far below the waterline, causing the water pressure to resist the flow from the outlet?

If I bend the outlet pipe to shoot out at water lvl, i get alot of tiny bubbles crossing over to the return pump, and then into the tank, which i heard is not good.

Suggestions?

gkw · 02-16-2006, 10:10 PM

Maybe your skimmer is not broken in yet?

About the skimmer "surge", my outlet half way in the bubbles diffuser...like an inch above the pad on the bottom. After I cut the baffles down, it's like 2" above the water, but in the diffuser. Both ways did not have the "surge" you have. Can you describe it in more details? The outlet should have a mixture of water and air bubbles exiting.

Also, just curious, what's your pumps measurement?

gkw · 02-16-2006, 10:10 PM

oops, double post.

Stoll · 02-17-2006, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gkw

Maybe your skimmer is not broken in yet?

About the skimmer "surge", my outlet half way in the bubbles diffuser...like an inch above the pad on the bottom. After I cut the baffles down, it's like 2" above the water, but in the diffuser. Both ways did not have the "surge" you have. Can you describe it in more details? The outlet should have a mixture of water and air bubbles exiting.

Also, just curious, what's your pumps measurement?

I don't believe I built the sump with enough room for the bubble diffuser box. I'm assuming you mean the box that has 2 diff pads in it, one with a hole big enough to fit the outlet pipe.

As far as the surge goes, it only happens when that big bubble of air is forced out the end of the outlet tube. I had the skimmer set to what they describe as a thick skim, so there was probably 3" from the top of the overflow into the collection cup to the bubbles. When the surge hits, the bubbles climb in the tube about 1.5". I haven't had time to sit and watch what actually causes the skimmer to fill the cup with water, so not sure exactly what is occuring there.

I'm not really sure what you're asking when you say 'pump measurement'...

gkw · 02-17-2006, 09:48 AM

Hmm, come to think of it , that happened to me right after I added sands and the tank is cloudy, but it happens more frequently. It fluatuate 1" to 2" in the riser tube. After the sand settled in, it went back to normal. I also took it out and washed it, cause there is a brown layer of algae on the inside.

I am not sure if this is it since your skimmer is new, there is a air vent near the top of you outlet hose, make sure that is not blocked. That hole is used for the air to escape from the hose.

Also, it looks like ur outlet hose is about 4" - 5" below water surface, if it's too deep, the air will have a hard time exiting out of the hose and the surge will likely happens. I had mine 2" below water surface. I suggest cutting an inch and test it, and cut it again if the surge still happens.

Sorry, it was late when I asked about the pump. What I meant was what is the measurement/[how big] (in inches) is your skimmer pump?

Thanks!
GKW

Stoll · 02-17-2006, 07:39 PM

Well, after dinner I decided to see if I could figure out why the skimmer was surging.

I checked the little air intake hole on top of the outlet tube, and it's fine. I have also cut the tube so that it sit about an inch below the water surface. So far it still seems to be surging. I wonder if cutting a bit of a wedge out of the top edge of the end would allow the bigger air bubbles to escape...

I think I'll just leave it running for a while turned down fairly low so that it doesn't fill the overflow cup and see if it works itself out.

Perhaps it needs to break itself in in actual saltwater instead of fresh, as it runs completely different in saltwater. I don't know what else to try otherwise.