Stupid Skimmer

[Salukis97]

Hey everyone. I'm digging this site and all the info I have gotten so far.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with an aquac remora pro skimmer?

I read great things about them. I have one running on my sump. It's been running almost two weeks so I know it may still be breaking in.

The problem is this thing is pulling a ton of water. I have actually moved the rubber O ring under the drain outlet on the collection cup to keep it from filling up a 5 gallon bucket per day. I don't have an auto water top off system yet, so I am constantly checking to make sure my return chamber on my sump isn't running dry because of all the water the protein skimmer is taking out of the system.

Does this sound excessive even for a break in period? Did I get a lemon?

 

[austinsdad]

Isn't there a way to raise the collection cup so that the liquids don't get in it? Want it high enuf so only the bubbles get into the cup area, not water.

 

[melosu58]

Usually there are adjustments you can make on them. Certain parts you can slide up and down.

 

[thincat]

austindad is correct you can control the wetness and dryness of the foam by raising and lowering the collection cup. If the cup is to low it will only pull out water as you are experiencing. Good call.....

 

[Salukis97]

Trust me, the cup is at the highest point possible. It is adjusted with a thick rubber O-Ring that you slide up and down.

There is a screw that gives access to the injection nozzle for cleaning, so I cleaned that out just in case, but the unit is pretty new so I doubt there was anything clogging it.

I guess I will give it another week or so and see what happens. If it doesn't stop putting out so much water, I'm going to have to send it back.

 

[austinsdad]

And you've got the correct sized powerhead connected to it? Isn't there also some type of regulator valve?

 

[CaptainAhab]

I added an air valve to mine. It lets me increase and decrease the amount of air getting into the unit. I've found that a 30% air reduction gets me the right amount of skimmate at my desired height. Try restricting the tube by bending it a bit and see what effect it has. Just a thought

 

[Salukis97]

And you've got the correct sized powerhead connected to it? Isn't there also some type of regulator valve?

I'm using a mag 3 pump which came with it.

As far as I know, the O ring is the only possible way to adjust the quality of skimmate on this unit. Maybe I'm missing something. Hopefully I am, which would mean an easy fix.

It is not putting out quite so much water since I moved the O ring underneith the drain fitting, but the bubble produced are still very wet, and if I didn't have the drain fitting emptying into a 5 gallon bucket, I would have to empty the collection cup multiple times per day.

 

[Salukis97]

I added an air valve to mine. It lets me increase and decrease the amount of air getting into the unit. I've found that a 30% air reduction gets me the right amount of skimmate at my desired height. Try restricting the tube by bending it a bit and see what effect it has. Just a thought

I will bend the tube and see what happens. Where exactly did you add the air valve?

 

[CaptainAhab]

a the end of the tube. i had one of those multivalve things laying around from a FW tank... plugged the tube in and used the valve stem to fine tune.

BTW: They are also great for drip acclimation

Mine are a bit diff (older)
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8017
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=19780

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

CaptainAhab... think you're confusing the Remora with other skimmers. The Remora doesn't have an air intake at all. Did you add one?

Salukis97... What tube are you planning on bending? The only thing on a stock Remora that you can do to change the consistancy of the skimmate is to raise/lower the collection cup like you've been doing.

A couple things... any skimmer will take a while to break in and if yours is only a week old, it might just need some more time. Maybe try running it without the collection cup until things settle down? That way the excess foam will just stay within the skimmer.

The other thing is that Remoras are known to skim very wet. You're not going to get the dry skimmate like you see everyone else's skimmer putting out. Most likely you'll get skimmate more like green tea. Just so you know...

I've heard of others that have had problems like you mention with the Remora that never seem to "calm down". Not sure why that is, but AquaC actually sells an optional collection cup that is taller and has a longer tube on it so the foam has farther to go until it gets to the collection cup. I think I've seen them sold on the MarineDepot website.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Hmmmmm.. Go figure... making bubbles without air

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sucks the air in through the top of the skimmer body, just to the left of the collection cup. There is no airline going to the pump. Doesn't work like 99.9% of all the other skimmers out there. It basically pushes a bunch of water through a nozzle onto the surface of the water in the skimmer body, creating a foam of bubbles.

I'm guessing you're not familiar with them...

 

[CaptainAhab]

If it's not an Octo it doesn't exist...... whoda thunk it.... But then that's why there's people like you here keeping an eye on the flock

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If it's not an Octo it doesn't exist.....

Oh... and just to be clear, I'm not keeping an eye on ANY flocks! I'm just one of the ten people in the world that will actually admit to having an AquaC Remora skimmer!

 

[Salukis97]

Whew, thought I was missing something there.

I wasn't planning on actually kinking anything. I'm just going to let it run another week or two in the hopes that it will stop skimming 5+ gallons of water out of my system per day.

Thanks for the clarification Kurt.

 

[Salukis97]

Oh... and just to be clear, I'm not keeping an eye on ANY flocks! I'm just one of the ten people in the world that will actually admit to having an AquaC Remora skimmer!

I've noticed on more than one forum that some people are down on this skimmer, but almost all the user reviews at the online stores are very positive. Weird.

 

[thincat]

Call the company back and ask for a clarification.

 

[austinsdad]

I never liked mine and sold it. Used the CPR Bak Pak (II, I believe it was)instead for my smaller tanks.

 

[Salukis97]

Wouldn't you know it. Here I am complaining about all the water this thing is putting out, and lo and behold I got home from work yesterday to find it functioning normally. At least it looks normal to me based on my very limited experience. There must actually be something to that silly break in period the company warned me about. duh.

There is now a big tower of nice frothy bubbles slowing making it's way into the collection cup instead of a frantic wet mess. This is what I'm supposed to see right?

The color is akin to weak tea at the moment. My tank is only a couple weeks old, so hopefully the skimmate will get darker with time. We'll see. It's also stocked pretty light at the moment, so I can't imagine there is a whole lot to skim anyway.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.