Protein Skimmer Break in

[awashburn82]

I just hooked up a Reef Octopus Classic 152s skimmer. Its been a day and half since I hooked it up and no matter what height or adjust I put it at the thing just keeps overflowing.

I heard the breakin period can be up to 2weeks. Is there anythign I can do to speed it up? I head running it in RODI water and vinegar for six hours can help. any thoughts?

 

[theMeat]

If you gave it a quick vinegar bath before you put it in tank and ran it it could have helped a little. At this point it won’t help.
leave gate valve wide open, it will settle, as long as it sits in correct water level

 

[GoVols]

I just hooked up a Reef Octopus Classic 152s skimmer. Its been a day and half since I hooked it up and no matter what height or adjust I put it at the thing just keeps overflowing.

I heard the breakin period can be up to 2weeks. Is there anythign I can do to speed it up? I head running it in RODI water and vinegar for six hours can help. any thoughts?

Yeah,
Take it out and do a complete vinegar bath (washing) it in your tub, to take off the machining grease.

 

[HockeyRooster]

Haven’t used that type of skimmer but to break mine in I needed to significantly reduce the in coming air for a while. bought a valve at Home Depot, attached it’s to the air intake and closed the valve almost all the way. Slowly I opened it and the skimmer broke in. Works so well now.

 

[theMeat]

Haven’t used that type of skimmer but to break mine in I needed to significantly reduce the in coming air for a while. bought a valve at Home Depot, attached it’s to the air intake and closed the valve almost all the way. Slowly I opened it and the skimmer broke in. Works so well now.

Find this puzzling, since restricting air will allow more water, therefore higher water level in skimmer.
Either way, if skimmer is overflowing back into sump, no harm in letting it run while overflowing

 

[awashburn82]

Find this puzzling, since restricting air will allow more water, therefore higher water level in skimmer.
Either way, if skimmer is overflowing back into sump, no harm in letting it run while overflowing

Yeah was just hoping to find a way to speed it up

 

[Bryknicks]

I always run my new skimmers in a vinegar water bath for a few minutes and it just about eliminates the break in period. I would pull it out and do this.

 

[GoVols]

Find this puzzling, since restricting air will allow more water, therefore higher water level in skimmer.
Either way, if skimmer is overflowing back into sump, no harm in letting it run while overflowing

I've done what he's talking about, can control the water's height in my skimmer too.

Yeah,
The OP could let it overflow and if it's a brand new setup, then there's not enough DOC to keep a skimmer dialed in.

 

[awashburn82]

I've done what he's talking about, can control the water's height in my skimmer too.

Yeah,
The OP could let it overflow and if it's a brand new setup, then there's not enough DOC to keep a skimmer dialed in.

If I put it in vinegar then what proteas it made breaking in will be lost right? Also water height is measured from the intake on the skimmer and not the bottom of the skimmer correct?

 

[theMeat]

I've done what he's talking about, can control the water's height in my skimmer too.

Yeah,
The OP could let it overflow and if it's a brand new setup, then there's not enough DOC to keep a skimmer dialed in.

If you restrict the pump’s water intake you can control the water level. If you restrict the air intake you will increase water level. Simple physics. More air being pulled through pump = less water.
Don’t want to argue, just sharing experience.
As far as vinegar bath. It can help, but vinegar is not great at breaking down oils. As your Italian salad dressing displays. Maybe slightly better than the saltwater the skimmer sits in now.
would clean skimmer with vinegar sparingly, but don’t want to get into the vinegar damaging pumps and plastic debate... which is real

 

[HockeyRooster]

Find this puzzling, since restricting air will allow more water, therefore higher water level in skimmer.
Either way, if skimmer is overflowing back into sump, no harm in letting it run while overflowing

not Sure of the science but it works. Letting the skimmer overflow into the sump as a very good option too. That just annoyed me so I continued to look for a solution-that was to reduce the air coming in. It was about a $6 fix and I only needed to have the valve on for a few days.

 

[GoVols]

If I put it in vinegar then what proteas it made breaking in will be lost right? Also water height is measured from the intake on the skimmer and not the bottom of the skimmer correct?

Well,
It's only been running for a day and a half, but if it's on a new setup then it's not going to dial in / vinegar bath or not, needs to be able to build an inner slime coat.

I've had my BK go nuts. Clamped down the air intake as much as possible and used my side pipe to adjust the water height and opened up that pipe more as needed, then started to let more air intake come in as well.

In the shot below, the red pipe controls the skimmer's water height, but still, need to cut back the air intake.

Does your red screw (turn) valve help adjust your skimmer's water height?

 

[theMeat]

Well,
It's only been running for a day and a half, but if it's on a new setup then it's not going to dial in / vinegar bath or not, needs to be able to build an inner slime coat.

I've had my BK go nuts. Clamped down the air intake as much as possible and used my side pipe to adjust the water height and opened up that pipe more as needed, then started to let more air intake come in as well.

In the shot below, the red pipe controls the skimmer's water height, but still, need to cut back the air intake.

Does your red screw (turn) valve help adjust your skimmer's water height?

Agree on the needed slime coat 100%
As far as les air = less water... I know more air = less water sounds backwards, but ... for those promoting this please go take your air hose and cover it with your finger, watch the water level go up. Remove your finger and watch water level go down

 

[PaulieReef]

How old is the tank and are you using any water conditioners? A lot of water conditioners will cause protein skimmers to overflow, new tanks in general I just let the protein skimmer overflow until a bio layer forms on the protein skimmer.

 

[theMeat]

If I put it in vinegar then what proteas it made breaking in will be lost right? Also water height is measured from the intake on the skimmer and not the bottom of the skimmer correct?

Proper water level that the skimmer is supposed to sit in is measured from the bottom of skimmer to water surface outside skimmer

 

[HockeyRooster]

Agree on the needed slime coat 100%
As far as les air = less water... I know more air = less water sounds backwards, but ... for those promoting this please go take your air hose and cover it with your finger, watch the water level go up. Remove your finger and watch water level go down

The bottom line is when you restrict airflow, the skimmer stops overflowing. I learned this on r2r and I’m a bit confused as to why you are so against this as a solution. It’s the commonly recommended fix to break in the bubble Magnus skimmers. (And I am not trying to be as argumentative as I seem but will admit to being very confused at you argument against a know fix for this problem)

 

[Phil D.]

When I was breaking in my Reef Octopus 110, I plugged both air inlets and opened the gate valve all the way and let it run for a week. Broke it in well.

 

[awashburn82]

How old is the tank and are you using any water conditioners? A lot of water conditioners will cause protein skimmers to overflow, new tanks in general I just let the protein skimmer overflow until a bio layer forms on the protein skimmer.

tank is about a year old, no conditioners

 

[GoVols]

Agree on the needed slime coat 100%
As far as les air = less water... I know more air = less water sounds backwards, but ... for those promoting this please go take your air hose and cover it with your finger, watch the water level go up. Remove your finger and watch water level go down

That's what I meant, choke off the air and make the pipe adjustment to lower the water's height in the skimmer.

I would not think just a Bubble King skimmer can do that, without others being able to do those two things at the same time.

Deltec's work the same way and the OP could raise the skimmer to a lower the water's height inside the skimmer.

lol
If it's a brand new set up or things like coral putty and other things like Chemiclean has been used a skimmer is going to go wacko.

 

[awashburn82]

Going on 3 days now and still over skimming no matter the height.