Question about protein skimmer

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Darkanvil I am having the exact same problem as you. My skimmer has been running in my tank for about 5 days now, and have the same kind of bubble production that you have. My tank is 2 years old, and stocked nicely, so it's definitely not a new tank. Can anyone please help? I am using a Coralife 65 super skimmer.
 
Guys, wait a month. These things take time to break in ADN you need something for it to clean. It looks like it's working properly and is adjusted properly (maybe even too high). It will start working soon enough.

Does some phyto and see what happens (just kidding, don't overdose just to see the skiimmer work).
 
Well, I think it might have to do with the length of time your tank has been established, and your fish and coral load. In the 2 pics I posted, the first one was of a well established reef tank with good fish load and low coral load, but the tank had been up for 3 years and the skimmer was extremely dirty and had recently been fully cleaned.

In the second tank, that one had no skimmer for 3 years (and no significant cleaning for 3 years) and I hate to tell you this, but I checked it 24 hours after I fired it up and there is already sticky froth at the top and about 1/2" of nasty brown skim in the cup. So I'm guessing you don't have a lot of DOCs.

I think I disagree, and correct me of I'm wrong, in general don't skimmers produce thick clumpy/frothy bubbles regardless if theres enough DOC's? I think skimmers make this type of bubble production no matter what.
 
You can disagree, but you'd be wrong :)

New skimmers don't make those kind of bubles till they are broken in and there's plenty of DOC's to skim. No DOC's no skimmate, just plain bubbles and close to clear liquid like you have in your original post and video.

The only way I've heard to speed up the process is to do a white vinegar cleanse of the entire skimmer to remove the manufacturing oils, etc. I never tried that so I can't vouch for the method. I do remember playing with mine when it was new trying to get it dialed in to no avail.

Let us know in March how it's working.
 
FYI I just cleaned out the cup on the brand new skimmer I put on the dirty tank (it's documented in this thread http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/tank-journal-135-fowlr-124418.html by the way) and it had about 1/2 inch of liquid that was so dark I'd call it black with a hint of green, and the neck of the skimmer cup was coated with a brown slime that usually takes weeks to build up in the other tank (pic #1), and this is 5 days after install. My point being that I think if your tank is dirty enough, the break-in period is irrelevant, it'll skim something. I don't think your tank it dirty. I watched the video and your is running exactly the way this new one was on day one, all the bubbles popping right away, no sticky bubbles. +1 on let us know in March.

Still waiting on tank info!! How long has your tank been running, fish load, coral load, etc....
 
Tank is going on a month and a half old, 40lbs of live rock two small fish purple mushroom and green star polyps no cycle took place or was signifigantly sped up from the live bio sand and cured live rock I used all water tests are good and were posted In a thread called interpreting test results
 
Please forgive my ignorance on the subject I was just concerned I bought a lemon so to speak and if I should try and get my cash back lol even though I doubt I would. Guess I will have to wait and see. I am going to take the skimmer out tomorrow and check it all out and put it back in and see what happens
 
I'd just leave it alone. It sounds like you have a very light bio-load, and it just might not be enough to produce a large amount of skimmate. The AquaC skimmer pic I posted runs on a 125 reef with blue tang, flame fin tang, pacific rock beauty angel, green mandarin dragonet, engineer goby, sand sifter goby, 1 pair clowns, a few mushroons, 4 xenias, and probably upwards of 150-200 lb LR up for several years, and who knows how long the skimmer was malfunctioning on it, but it wasn't working when I first looked at it. Now it's skimming bad-***.

I'd just leave it, or maybe let it wet skim a little, sounds like you're ahead of the game to me...
 
Seriously, just leave it alone. It appears to be working just fine. In time it will produce great skimmate. For now there's nothing for it to do. Your tank is too new. I didn't add a skimmer till my tank was 8 months old and then it took a couple of weeks for it to really get going.
 
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