protien skimmer

[TRe]

ok i bought this skimmer over this past weekend LINK (dont laugh) the guy at the lfs recomended it he said he had it on his own tank at home and that this would be better since i dont plan to use a sump....i hooked everything up saturday and all seemed fine but now its monday and i still dont see nothing in the collection cup...is this normal?? did i hook it up wrong??

 

[1979camaro]

this is just an OK skimmer but i have been told they are tricky to adjust...if it isnt level and everything isn't positioned right sometimes they do not work properly

did you follow the instructions in the manual? there is probably a troubleshooting section

 

[TRe]

i followed the instructions..... is this normal?? shouldnt there be something in the collection cup by now??
btw i did a 6 gallon water change right before installing the skimmer would this affect it?

 

[aresgod]

yes, well depending on if you use addiditives, which im guessing you dont but you still should see some collection, you have to sdjust the height of the cup so that teh foam comes partway up the knozzle.

 

[TRe]

depending on if you use addiditives, which im guessing you dont.

what do you mean by additives??

 

[aresgod]

live an essential or trace elements you add, which i assume you dont

 

[SALTY WATERS]

I use this skimmer and I took mine a few days to a week till it started to skim. As you stated you did a water change just before, this will affect the skimming as there will be less polutants in the water to skim.

When you start up the skimmer adjust it so that the air bubble line is just to the black seal ring were the collection cup meets the main body. Leave it like this for about 1 hour, if at that point it has not gotten any hire, adjust it until just before you get little bubbles starting to come out into the main tank( a few of them is okay, you will always get this) re-check in about another hour to make sure it is not bubbling out of control and over flowing your collection cup as it will end up getting pumped back into the main tank.

You pretty much have to play around with it for awile until you get the hang of it. I usually have my dial at approx 4 oclock postion .

One thing I recommend about this skimmer...do not waste your money on the upgrade kit with the surface skimmer option. It's just that "A WASTE OF $" it doesn't even skim the surface.

 

[S.Reef]

Yeah, usually once set-up it takes a few hours to days for it to start working properly.

 

[TRe]

live an essential or trace elements you add, which i assume you dont

is this bad that i dont add them?? whats the purpose??

 

[1979camaro]

you dont have any corals or other sesile inverts like dusters so it definitely wouldn't do you any good

 

[TRe]

thanks....

 

[wayne]

I doubt it matters if you add them or not.

I have a prizm - here's how I started. Turn it on, get the water flowing through, but keep it turned down low, you don't want to flood your house with wet semi foam. Now accept nothing will happen for a couple of days. You need to get the plastic dirty, and to allow the plastic to release anything on it.
Now , 2 or 3 days later, start to notch up the water flow. You should see bubbles appearing in greater numbers as the water flow increases. There is a junction beween the main body of the thing, and the neck - I let my foam start to sit a couple of millimetres down from that. Now leave it here for a day or so and see if any foam appears. If nothing foams notch up the water flow a little bit, if it's too watery and not dark notch it down. Initially leave it at least an hour between changes as these things are not easy to adjust, and easy to overdo it.

Incidentally the surface is a real pain unless you have an autotopup