protein skimmer still broken

[Jarrett]

its been going for almost a week now still has not collected anything i didnt change anything when i re-set it up and i noticed that theirs more water being returned back into the tank then before and i did no adjustments to the flow or anything. idk whats wrong with this thing can anyone help btw its a remora pro protein skimmer

 

[carey]

I have the remora and it could take a few weeks for it to break in. Mine took over 2 weeks pretty much.
Have you adjusted the collection cup?

 

[Jarrett]

Yea I adjusted it its basically half and half, half in the skimmer and half out and its collected nothing should I change it I really don't know what adjusting the collection cup even does to be honest lol should I adjust it differently or is it fine how I have it

 

[carey]

if you're not getting anything collected i would try to adjust it down so that it bubbles up more. Then once that starts to happen slowly move it up til you get a nice skimmate to your liking.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Yea I adjusted it its basically half and half, half in the skimmer and half out and its collected nothing should I change it I really don't know what adjusting the collection cup even does to be honest lol should I adjust it differently or is it fine how I have it

Adjusting the collection cup up or down adjusts how "wet" you want your skimmate. If you are not getting anything now, or very little, then adjust the cup down - this will give you more, and it'll be wetter. Works the other way too... if you're getting too much, or if it's too clear, then adjust it up.

Also... you want to clean out the tube in the collection cup about once a week. Running it dirty will make it harder for the skimmate to climb up the tube into the collection cup.

 

[Jarrett]

is it normal for the skimmer to collect absolutley nothing during breaking in? because i have still yet to get anything into the collection cup i cleaned the whole thing out including the injector and i still havent gotten a thing in the collection cup

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If the cup is set too high, it won't collect anything... regardless of if it's broken in, or not.

As carey mentioned, I'd move the cup lower and see if things don't change. After a couple weeks of running (shoot... even one week), I'd expect it to be broken back in. You just might have the cup set too high.

 

[Jarrett]

ok im going to try and get a picture to show you guys so you could tell me if i have it set properly

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

A picture isn't going to help, really. There are too many variables going on to be able to say, "set the collection cup XX inches above the skimmer body". Each tank will be different. And even then, you will have to move it up and down depending on what's going on in the tank.

With my Remora, right now, I have the cup almost all the way down. That's because the tank is fairly free of dissolved organics, but I'm still trying to recover from a little tank melt down a couple weeks ago. So I'm wanting to skim really wet. But other weeks, for whatever reason, the thing will fill up within an hour at that setting... so I raise the cup up during those times.

The Remora is about as plug-and-play as you get for a skimmer - no airline tubes to clog up or clean, and even if the collection box fills up and wants to overflow it just drains back into the skimmer and not all over your floor. But you do have to keep an eye on how wet the skimmate is, and raise or lower the collection box accordingly. And in your situation, it sounds like it needs lowering.

 

[carey]

You could just put it at the lowest setting and see what you get. Thats how I started and like Kurt above i adjust it up and down to meet my then needs.

i got the remora because it was soo easy to use, you'll get it yet!