Is my skimmer too big?

[TastyScrants]

Hi,

Here are a few photos of my skimmer in action after not running for 5 days as I try to increase my nutrients from 0ppm (N and P). I do have a phyto bloom so I suspect my nutrients are not at 0 but are testing there.

Foam is eventually finding its way into the cup, however it seems to be collapsing in the neck.

After 5 days of feeding 9 fish 2 cubes of mysis and pellets each day, and feeding corals amino acids and phyto, I would have expected some better foam.

Tank volume is 150L after removing rock and sand volume.

 

[jgirardnrg]

Needs to be adjusted... The border of the fine bubbles and the large bubbles be at the bottom of the cup. probably around the top of the red plastic.

 

[Pistondog]

Wait a day or 2 for it to come back to performance after being offline for 5.
After 2 days, @jgirardnrg explains, tweak the knob.

 

[Lavey29]

Needs to be adjusted... The border of the fine bubbles and the large bubbles be at the bottom of the cup. probably around the top of the red plastic.

Agreed. Bubble line a tad low. Are you just dry skimming or slightly wet?

 

[TastyScrants]

I want to dry skim but it’s just coming out wet with the dial on the lowest setting.

Agreed. Bubble line a tad low. Are you just dry skimming or slightly wet?

 

[TastyScrants]

Needs to be adjusted... The border of the fine bubbles and the large bubbles be at the bottom of the cup. probably around the top of the red plastic.

Great thank you. So as @Pistondog suggests wait a few days for it to calm down and adjust the level upwards until the fine bubbles are at the neck?

 

[Lavey29]

I want to dry skim but it’s just coming out wet with the dial on the lowest setting.

It really does not look bad all with the skim
As others mentioned just adjust that bubble to the edge of the cup. I have an oversize skimmer also. I just think of as the ability to have greater filtration for the tank. I empty my cup maybe once or twice a week

 

[jgirardnrg]

Great thank you. So as @Pistondog suggests wait a few days for it to calm down and adjust the level upwards until the fine bubbles are at the neck?

Yup

 

[Billldg]

How long has the tank been running?

 

[TastyScrants]

How long has the tank been running?

This tank has been running for 3 months, it was transferred from a 50L that was running for about 8 years

 

[Billldg]

This tank has been running for 3 months, it was transferred from a 50L that was running for about 8 years

K, It will be extremely hard to dial the skimmer on a new tank. Your tank will be constantly going thru changes chemically and it will cause the skimmer to be almost impossible to dial in. I would suggest just turning off the skimmer for a few months and allow it to simply sit in the sump. Allow the tank bacteria to stabilize first before trying to skim the tank.

I learned this when I tried to add a Vertex 180i to my 3 month old 120 gal tank of past.

 

[NotoriousDMC]

I have the same skimmer. You can add a ball valve to reduce the amount of air (to a certain extent) until your bioload is higher. I don’t do this with mine any longer, but the air is naturally reduced a bit from a CO2 scrubber and an outside air line. You can find BRS videos on reducing air to the Red Sea skimmer.

 

[Arego]

It could very well just be encountering something it's not quite used to as well. Literally it could be anything. Don't do much as far as changing things, it will likely balance itself out if there is something in the water it isn't liking.

Looking at the body there seems to be a big batch of large bubbles surrounded by tiny ones.. That usually tells me my skimmer is dealing with something that is throwing it off but it always eventually evens out and that pocket of large ones on the body go away.

Hope any of that makes sense.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Be careful to not bring it up too much, the bubbles should look like an elevator not gen fizz just riding the top of the cup.