Hi i have a 65 gallon fowlr 16 gallon sump. Tank 9 mnths old sump 2 mnths old..i have 1 LG flame angel..1 Med Pearlscale butterfly..2 med black clowns..1 small foxface..1 small firefish..90lb live rock. 2 inch sand bed. Macroalgea in sump and filter sock..running gfo and auto top off in sump also. 2 powerheads on each end of the tank and one in the sump. Temp 77, salinty 24ish, nitrates 5-8 usually, ammonia 0. I do 30% water change every 3-4 weeks and vacuum sand bed and clean sump equipment and anything in DT...i clean glass and anything that looks dirty as needed in between..i feed twice a day. flakes n morning and mysis shrimp and angel/butterfly blend in evenings soaked in selcon....ok i am running a new Reef Octopus sss110 that i added 2 months ago when i setup the sump. It has yet to work. I cleaned it with vinegar after 4 weeks still nothing. It just has small bubbles and has never foamed up. There very very small amount of pale green that gets trapped in the walls where the water and bubbles are but it has never foamed up the neck and produced any skimmate. Its sitting in 7.5 inches of water. I dont know what else to try to get it to work. I am now experiencing brown algae all over my sand bed and in my refugium walls and small amount on DT glass at times. so that seems like i should have stuff in the water that is needing to be pulled out and i have a pretty heavy bio load also. Any help appreciated. So tired of this brown algae on my sand bed and a expensive skimmer that's not working.
reef octo skimmer not working and brown algae
- Thread starter JennyGutt
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melypr1985
totally addicted
Have you tried adjusting it? You can turn the red tube there to adjust the water level inside the skimmer. This is how you can get the bubbles to foam up higher and spill over into the collection cup. Turn it just a little each time you adjust and wait to see the result. You can easily turn it too much the first time and have it spilling over and out of the cup.
reef_junkie
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From the little information given it sounds more like a phosphate issue. Skimmers are pretty poor at removing phosphate and excel at removing protein rich waste. Are you running GFO or biopellets?
AcanSkywalker
Active Member
Throw a bag of Seachem phosfiltrum in the highest flow you can. This will help you defeat the brown algae while you figure out your skimmer. One $8 bag should do the trick.
Aznxgqboyx
Active Member
Did you open up the propeller maybe something got stuck in there,
Aznxgqboyx
Active Member
Aznxgqboyx
Active Member
Heres a skimmer like yours, you see how they have the setting where the water cut off is almost at the neck compare to yours which is at the same level as the water level outside
reef_junkie
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It seems like a pump issue if you've got the vent adjusted right. My RO skimmer is a beast and would cause a fountain of overflowing wayer and foam if i closed my vent all the way.
azbigjohn
Valuable Member
Take the venturi off of the front of the propeller, (piece the white hose hooks to) and check it for salt buildup.
I had a low air problem and found a piece of slat creep lodged in the venturi tube. Pull off the white hose, and blow into the inlet the pipe hooks to. You show have little to no resistance. That will open up your air channel all the way.
A quick test is also to disconnect the white air line from the "muffler" and leave it to open iar. It will be louder, but if your amount of bubbles increases, then you have a clog in the muffler part.
I had a low air problem and found a piece of slat creep lodged in the venturi tube. Pull off the white hose, and blow into the inlet the pipe hooks to. You show have little to no resistance. That will open up your air channel all the way.
A quick test is also to disconnect the white air line from the "muffler" and leave it to open iar. It will be louder, but if your amount of bubbles increases, then you have a clog in the muffler part.
