CAD Lights Pipeless Protein Skimmer Question

[fish_king_25]

I've recently had some issues getting quality skimmate from this guy..it's on my 29g mixed reef with 4 small fish, and a good stock of frags in there as well.. it was skimming nice dark smelly skim for the past 8 months or so and the last month I've gotten tea colored water with little minimal skimmate..

Anyone have any input or suggestions?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Moved to current location.
Hopefully someone can answer this one, I don't know much about this skimmer other than the usual suspects. Have you cleaned the pump recently? Have you checked the ailine for salt creep?

 

[kellerexpress]

X2 on checking the airline for salt creep. I'm running the pls50 on my biocube and notice that when performance drops I usually have to clean out the airline down next to the pump. Then it's back to normal

 

[fish_king_25]

X2 on checking the airline for salt creep. I'm running the pls50 on my biocube and notice that when performance drops I usually have to clean out the airline down next to the pump. Then it's back to normal

Thanks guys! I'm going to take my skimmer out of the sump tomorrow and give the pump and airline a thorough cleaning..

I still get foaming and everything, just never ever gets dark and smelly snymore..it's tea colored and very watery now :/ hope it's something silly because this thing was a beast

 

[fish_king_25]

Last night I got a chance to look over my skimmer and give it a cleaning.

The pump wasnt too bad but it was a little dirty and built up. The airline was in good shape, no salt issues, but everything got cleaned and back into good shape anyways, so it's in great shape now.

I am unfortunately seeing no progress on performance, and am a little frustrated as I don't know much about equipment or where I should go next...the skimmer is only 6 months old.

Im getting foam (that seems to be very very tiny bubbles as opposed to larger popping bubbles) but still nothing but a tan/dirty tea colored water in my collection cup help?

 

[ksigaekdb]

I've been using the PLS-100 for about 9 months now and have experienced the same issue on 2 occasions. Once was because the tension screw had slipped a bit and it had gotten turned ever so slightly out of the "sweet spot", I'm talking 1/8th of an inch. That was a quick fix once I figured it out. The second time I rinsed out the collection cup when emptying it and the skim took about 2 weeks to go back to being nice and black because it did not foam a ton with a clean cup. Now I do not rinse the collection cub anymore and have not had a problem since. I have also noticed that this skimmer seems to be very sensitive to water changes. My wife topped off with RO in the skimmer chamber when I was traveling one time and the thing was screwy for 3 days.

 

[fish_king_25]

I've been using the PLS-100 for about 9 months now and have experienced the same issue on 2 occasions. Once was because the tension screw had slipped a bit and it had gotten turned ever so slightly out of the "sweet spot", I'm talking 1/8th of an inch. That was a quick fix once I figured it out. The second time I rinsed out the collection cup when emptying it and the skim took about 2 weeks to go back to being nice and black because it did not foam a ton with a clean cup. Now I do not rinse the collection cub anymore and have not had a problem since. I have also noticed that this skimmer seems to be very sensitive to water changes. My wife topped off with RO in the skimmer chamber when I was traveling one time and the thing was screwy for 3 days.

Interesting...wow I have a bunch of possible issues lol.

So I clean my cup everytime i empty it...that could very well be an issue of mine..the other thing is that I'm always kind of moving my skimmer trying to adjust it because I'm not getting a good skim..it's going to be hard to find a sweet spot when I cant get a good skim to start..I also top off in that chamber with an ATO..I can't seem to understand that part because my skimmer is in my downflow chamber so it's constantly got water entering it's chamber...

 

[fish_king_25]

I'm guessing I should adjust my skimmer to where the foam is just coming over the top, wait a week or so and see if the skim changes as the collection cup gets a build up on it?

 

[bullet reef]

Maybe your tank is just cleaner with less dissolved organics for the skimmer to remove. Depending on how much I'm feeding, what I'm feeding, and things like that, sometimes my skimmate will be very dark, smelly, and nasty and other times it will barely smell at all and be much lighter. This is normal and doesn't mean anything is wrong with your skimmer.
Try to find a spot and leave it there for a couple days before you adjust it again. Otherwise if you're messing with it all the time it will never be able to really do it's thing properly.

 

[fish_king_25]

Maybe your tank is just cleaner with less dissolved organics for the skimmer to remove. Depending on how much I'm feeding, what I'm feeding, and things like that, sometimes my skimmate will be very dark, smelly, and nasty and other times it will barely smell at all and be much lighter. This is normal and doesn't mean anything is wrong with your skimmer.
Try to find a spot and leave it there for a couple days before you adjust it again. Otherwise if you're messing with it all the time it will never be able to really do it's thing properly.

I originally thought that could be the case, the skimmer is rated for a much higher tank volume (60-100 gal depending in bioload) and I'm not a heavy feeder, have a fairly new (2mon old sandbed) and just replaced all my 10+ year old live rock with gorgeous algae free phosphate free rock from a friend's setup..I just figured it couldn't be that easy lol

 

[bullet reef]

I originally thought that could be the case, the skimmer is rated for a much higher tank volume (60-100 gal depending in bioload) and I'm not a heavy feeder, have a fairly new (2mon old sandbed) and just replaced all my 10+ year old live rock with gorgeous algae free phosphate free rock from a friend's setup..I just figured it couldn't be that easy lol

Lol I think it may be just that.
All that worry for nothing

 

[fish_king_25]

That's pretty awesome confidence booster lol