Reef Octopus DC-250 skimming wet hard

[WVReefJunkie]

Every time I feed my display with LRS my skimmer pulls wet skim real bad. It will put six inches of water in it minutes after food is introduced. Iam turning it off with the feed mode on the controller of the skimmer. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[bobman]

Not sure what is in LRS but you may want to consider leaving it off longer as most feed modes are for about 10 minutes and you may want to leave it off for an hour or better.

How old is this skimmer?

 

[WVReefJunkie]

Skimmer is about a year and a half old. The feed mode on the skimmer controller is not adjustable. I think the preset is five minutes. I could use the Apex to control it though.

 

[Reeflogic]

That's interesting, when I feed LRS, my skimmer drops for an hour or so, complete opposite of yours.

 

[WVReefJunkie]

Iam lost.

 

[bobman]

Use the apex or quit feeding that food but others will do the same thing

 

[Reeflogic]

Whatever you do, don't stop feeding Larry's!!! This stuff is AMAZING, you can set up the Apex like you and Bobman said and keep it off for an hour or so, problem solved!

 

[mcarroll]

That's interesting, when I feed LRS, my skimmer drops for an hour or so, complete opposite of yours.

I haven't don't any surveys or anything to know, but just from reading around I would have said yours was the norm.....foam level drops due to reduction in surface tension from the oils (or whatever) in the food.

@WVReefJunkie Is this skimmer under-sized for the system it's on? Does it idle occasionally every day or does it instead skim continuously, all day and all night long?

 

[WVReefJunkie]

Skims 24 hrs., but not undersized. 500 Gallon rating, used in 289 total gallons.

 

[mcarroll]

Well, even if by the numbers it's oversized, the fact that it's skimming (as in producing something in the cup...not just sitting there making bubbles) 24x7 means it's not really oversized for the system.

What skimmer is it?

What do you estimate for your total system water volume?

What's your actual flow through your sump? (Estimate with a head-loss calculator that tries to account for your plumbing if you've never measured your return or drain flow by hand.)

 

[WVReefJunkie]

Reef Octopus DC-250
289 Gallons total water

 

[mcarroll]

I'm not seeing that model on a search of coralvue.com. Is it the 250INT? Maybe the DCS250?

 

[mcarroll]

It looks like maybe either way, you are at best right at the limit for the "heavy demand" rating for the skimmer....which is usually the most realistic rating.

Clean it real good and try all the advice suggested so far...but if it still acts up like this and you want to consider replacement, I'd look at...

...the Tunze 9430 as one option (300mm = 12"):

...or an AquaC EV-400: