Octopus BH-100

I just set it up yesterday at about 6:00 PM and ever since its been confusing me. Sometimes no matter where the collection cup is, the bubbles dont stop flying into it and it fills up with clear water within 5 minutes. Or, no matter where the collection cup is positioned the bubbles dont even go up the tube. How do i tune this to create thick, brown skimmate? what adjustments should i make and what is wrong with it? is it just part of the break-in period?

 

sounds like it... thats what my skimmer was doing for the first month... just let it freak out like that for a lil bit and once it gathers a bunch of nasty stuff in the neck... itll calm down

 

since ive posted this, the skimmer has calmed down. I found the right height and it is producing dark yellowish skimmate but that is because i have 1 fish in there right now. That leads me to my next question, with this rated 90 gallon skimmer, how much fish do you think i can keep in my 22 gallon?

 

ok the skimmer is back to the same bad stuff it was doing before. But now, the bubbles wont even begin to go up the tube leading to the cup and i am getting extremely aggravated (yes, the cup is all the way down). i tried contacting the manufacturer 3 times but they dont respond to emails and the damn skimmer didnt even come with a user manual and on their web site there isnt a single troubleshooting page. Someone please help me here, i really need it...

its like you pay 115 dollars for a product, you expect it to function. I didnt go cheap and this is what i get...

 

Its brand new give it time. And honestly in a 22 gallon tank a skimmer that big isnt really gonna make up for the lack of space, id say 2-4 depending on which type of fish you went with.

 

I will give it time if thats all it needs. i just want to be re-assured that thats the only problem with it because if its the skimmer itself, i want to replace it and get a new one

 

most likely not the skimmer its self give it a week or two and see what happens