bak pak 2 not skimming

[supermarvin76]

I have my bak pak 2 hanging on my 20gal sump. It was skimming. Then it stopped making so many bubble. I turned the air flow off for a bit so it was only pumping water then turned it back on. Now it it pumping bubbles like mad, but there is not waste being skimmed.
??????????

 

[malkore]

how new is the tank?

if you really only have 1 spotted goby and 1 fire fish in a 50gallon, you likely have next to nothing to skim.

but for the record, the CPR does a better job if you upgrade the Rio 600 to a Maxi-Jet 1200.

 

[Phyl]

Test your Alk levels and post the results.

 

[supermarvin76]

My current stock of the tank is 1 tomato clown, 1 fire fish, 1 oragnge spotted goby, and 2 scooter blennies (dragonets).

I am already using a maxijet 1200 with it.

Is there a common term for ALK?

 

[Phyl]

Alkalinity (dKH, alk, KH...)

The tests that report (Low/Med/High) aren't very good. Try to use one that has actual numbers. Maybe your LFS can test the alk for you.

 

[SirLight1337]

as long as the skimmer is creating a layer of bubbles that you can see. you should be good to go. The bottom of the collection cup just just be touching the surface of the water.

 

[malkore]

Phyl,
why does Alkalinity have anything to do with skimming?

Lower the collection cup a little. if you start getting really watery skimmate, then your tank just doesn't have much to skim. try increasing air by just a tiny little twist, and see if that helps...but again your tank might just be very low on DOC's to skim out.

 

[MarineFlake]

My Bak Pak goes through interesting periods of ill-will toward working as well ; ) I usually take the collection cup clean (With hot water) and place it back in. I adjust the height and air flow to 'force' some water into the collection tube and then ease back a little. After about an hour, I adjust from there. They are *very* picky skimmers. As for the color of the skimmate I have read all kinds of things. If you skimmate is light or clear, then you are most likely over skimming. Simply back off the bubbles a bit (by either adjusting air flow or adjusting the cup up) and it should darken a bit. You probably want 'tea' colored water unless you are aggressively skimming for a reason. There is also a mod for the bak pak using an air stone if you are interested.

http://www.cprusa.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=dc2b61e7331487b5f97b79be85c82672

 

[SirLight1337]

Actually my skimmer wasnt hard to setup at all, they have like a seasoning time. After a certain period they start to work awesome and you will have no problems adjusting. Ive since stepped up to the prizm pro deluxe skimmer, that thing is nuts.

 

[Phyl]

Malkore, the thing with the alk is my own personal experiment. My skimmer stopped producing all together. It went from working alright to just not working at all. I tried everything from cleaning it to running it without the valve on the venturi hose at all to taking apart the darn PH. Nothing helped. As I was preparing to order my G3 I ran some tests on my water (totally by coincidence) that I hadn't run in a couple of weeks and I noticed that my alk was down around 7'ish. As a result of that I started adding alk back to my system. Miraculously, as though related, as soon as my alk got back into proper ranges my skimmer started producing skimmate. I'm not sure how they're related, but I'm all but sure that they are. I posted up on the Reef chemistry forum over on RC and Randy all but told me it was either a total coincidence or that the increase alk resulted in an increased waste by the tank. Totally not possible. I know there was stuff that should have been skimmed out of the tank in any event. So any time I find someone who's skimmer stops skimming the first thing I'd like to find out is what their alk numbers are. I haven't found anyone to corroborate my story yet, but I'm hoping

So there you have it. A nut in a shell.

 

[malkore]

I can understand that logic, though from my understanding its the salinity, not the hardness of the water, that allows skimmers to work in SW but not in FW.

What are you using for an alk supplement? Maybe the skimmer is skimming the supplement out? I've heard lots of rumors about skimmers removing trace elements and such. We know slime coat enhancers and even some dechlors will make a skimmer go crazy.
However I've never seen a skimmer expert sit down and commit an answer of yes or no about whether a skimmer can remove that stuff from the water column or not. Maybe we need a chemist/engineer

 

[Phyl]

I'm using b-ionic. At the time my Ca was fine but my alk was low so alk was the only thing that I added to the water. It literally went from producing microfoam that couldn't get over the edge of a pin to nice foam that would crest the collection tube into the cup. Nothing else in the tank changed. This was a skimmer that hadn't worked in over a week (and lordy it needed to). It just doesn't make sense. I'm fully aware of that!

 

[SALTYDAWGY]

The only thing I can think of that would effect the skimmer as far as water chemistry is Salinity. That is of course if some kind of chemical was added to the water that retarded or increased the skimmate.