skimmer not skimming

[greatgman]

i have an hv1 (excaliber)
2 days ago i came up with an idea that i tried
my nitrites were up so i put the carbon cartrages in both of my cascade 300's
and a small bag of carbon in the bubble trap section of the skimmer box to help with the nitrites

well the nitrites didnt change
and the skimmer wont skim (no foam)
i did not clean out the cup just dumped it and put it back on
for a full day there is no foam

i took out the carbon cartridges from the filters and the skimmer bubble trap
section but still no foam

in addition i put new foam filter pads in the filters
cant figure it out


help please

 

[grimlock3000]

Once you stick your hands in the tank and move stuff around, you can throw off skimmate production for a bit. Same thing with feeding or adding new stuff to the tank. This problem is particularly apparent on new skimmers.

You made a whole bunch of changes in a short ammount of time, fairly normal that your skimmer production would be affected, even for a day or two. You skimmer will take about another week or maybe two to be fully broken in. Just sit tight and stop changing stuff for a while it will all start working again. The less you stick your hands in the tank, touching tank items, or add new things, the faster the skimmer will start working. Seriously, almost everyone goes through this with the first skimmer. Everyone wants to try to help the skimmer start working instead of waiting, and the actions they take usually just make it worse. Think of it as an initiation that requires only patience

The best thing that ever happened to me when I got the first skimmer was that work sent me out of town for four days. When I got back, I had ton of skimmate.

 

[captivereefs]

carbon dust will kill a skimmer. Give it time!

 

[greatgman]

i also found out another thing
the water level was at the bottom of the slots (aka evaporation)
i didnt take in the fact that the skimmer fills up with water
and the water movement
(doh!)
i only touch the water to fill up the test tubes and to put nori on the veggie clip

thanks guys and gals
bunch of great advice i get here

 

[greatgman]

in fact ill start filling up my tubes by filling them up with the baster

 

[greatgman]

oh 1 more thing i forgot to mention
i also put in a course sponge in the bubble trap chamber to help cut out the mass of bubbles
(duetto 100 biological filter pad)

 

[grimlock3000]

Yep, you gotta make sure that the water never drops below the slots. If it does, you are very likely to ruin the Rio water pump by running it dry.

No need to put an additional sponge in the bubble trap. It actually causes more water to flow into the into area than it helps anything.

 

[greatgman]

thanks
its startiong to skim a little this morn
i lowered the box till tonight
gotta get more water
will get distilled water (5-6g)
also
if i use disttilled water will the skimmer skim due to the fact that distilled water
is so pure?

this skimmer is SO much better than that peice of **** seaclone
even after two weeks no skimmate
but with the hv-1 i got skimmate in 4 hrs

 

[grimlock3000]

Slowly add the distilled water to a high flow part of the tank and you will not have an issue. Residual greases and oils along with stuff like frozen food stop skimmate production, distilled water has essentially no effect. Depending on your tank size, I would start doing distilled water top offs every other day to maintain a consistent water level.

 

[greatgman]

came home from work today
and WOW dark rich skimmate
looks almost black

 

[greatgman]

well now i need to know how to quiet down the air intake
the supplied muffler cuts air flow
running with no muffler makes more air
but more noise
i also got a power sweep 228 ph
im using the muffler on that
i does work but cuts air flow a little
still noisy

 

[grimlock3000]

Use a few feet of silicone airline tubing to replace or in addition to what you already have. Then wrap up the excess tubing and put it in a loosely folded towel, should muffle the noise a lot.