Protein Skimmer ADVICE ?????

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c0mf0rt

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Messages
658
Location
Oregon
I just picked up a my first protein skimmer today for my 55 gal SW. The tank has been setup for a few months and the canister doesn't seem to be filling with anything..... I adjusted the air valve and left it for a while and came back to a canister of clean water....... plus it seems as if I open the air valve at all it loads my tank with tiny bubbles...... any ideas ???? I have been using water conditioner/slime stuff for my water changes lately.... any help would be appreciated.......
 
How about telling us what brand and model of skimmer? Some skimmers work out of the box...some need various tweaking to work well....others are junk and a waste of money. We need to figure out which category you fall in.
 
I have a CPR Bak Pak 2R that BARELY pulls anything out of the water. But, for now I am assuming that it is because up to this point, my bio-load has been very small.
 
c0mf0rt said:
It's a Seaclone 150

We can classify this between the junk and needs tweaking categories :D

If you are using it hangon, you will ALWAYS have bubbles, the way they are, used in sump, not to bad, but good?? not so much

Good luck with this skimmer!!!

HTH, Joshua...
 
do you have a light bioload in your tank?

what type of fish do you have in there and how many? Do you have Live Rock? What kind of mechanical filtration do you have?
 
I have seaclone. And it so far has worked very well for me. No problems and is all ways producing what it is suppose to. It did fill up with clean water one time after I used a conditioner with aloe. It says in the manual not to ( I read that after the fact), and it took a few hours of being off , before I was able to restart it with out the over flow of clean water in to the cup.
 
Well right now I have ....


1 Med Foxface
1 Med Yellow Tang
1 SM Perc clown
1 SM Blue Damsel
1 SM Three stripe damsel

a handful of large turbos, about ten hermits, one fire shrimp, one cleaner shrimp, one chocolate star and one coral banded shrimp......

doesn't sound like a light bioload to me.... but it seems as if I adjust the air I get either bubbles in the tank, a cup full of water, or both... and yeah it's the venturi type....
 
Yeah you should have alot of gunk in your skimmer. I know nothing about seaclones so I will let someone else answer that one for you.
 
Ok tried it again..... if I leave the valve "almost" closed the tank fills with bubbles..... if I open it too much the cup fills with water..... it does say it needs a two to three day break in period..... so where should I leave the valve during the break-in period???? open to allow MAXIMUM air and fill the cup with water.... or close it and fill my tank with bubbles???????????????????
 
Your gonna fight ths problem for at least two weeks, you should be able to leave the valve totally closed without it filling the cup though, I close mine often when I clean out the cup so it doesn't foam over. I wish you to know that this skimmer was designed to be used in sump, and then they added a j tube to "adapt" it to hang on use. I have seen many many people try to use this skimmer hangon, and it never works right. Invest in a sump and you wont be sorry with this skimmer.

HTH, Joshua...
 
Why two weeks ???? Because of the slime additive or just because it's new ???
 
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