Skimmer continues to overfill with water

[lucas-grimm]

This is my wild setup for my new regal250ext skimmer. I plan on running it off of a soccer 4.0 at 951 gph, inside the recommended range by brs. I used 3/4 inch braided tubing for the intake and outlet of the skimmer. However, as the pump fills the skimmer with water, the skimmer reaches the “water line” and begins to send water out the overflow. Great! However, the outlet flow never catches up to the inlet flow, the skimmer body quickly begins to fill up with water and even starts draining through the air intake hose. Please help! I’ve tried turning the pump down, but it makes no difference as i don’t think it really does much, i am almost sure that this is because the outlet needs to be larger, but i am not 100% sure and all thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[lucas-grimm]

To add to the stress, the hang on back refugium you are looking at in this picture LITERALLY JUST EXPLODED. This is GREAT.

 

[lucas-grimm]

 

[CoralB]

Ok ! First off it looks new which it will need a break in period . Run the over flow white hose on the bottom of the cup into the sump and adjust the flow to where it’s draining in that tube and not over filling the cup to where it automatically shuts off . If the valve doesn’t allow you this control the flow cut the power back on the white controller . The line that sucks air into your system should be higher than the cup . Run the system back into the sump for about a week so that the tube can develop a film . I don’t know what brs is telling you to set it for as every tank is different . I’m sure they don’t know your bio load or height and distance of where you have this system let alone how it’s set up . You have to adjust to your tank . If you are able to adjust it now with what I’ve told you then you can take the hose off the bottom of the cup and put the plug back in . Set the bubbles to come up the neck about 3-4 inches from the bottom of the cup and leave it for about a week then after about a week start trying to adjust it to you liking as to whether you want to skim wet or dry . That system has a auto shut off float switch for when the cup gets filled . Not sure why you wish to put the over flow into a gallon jug . If you really dont think you’ll be able to empty the cup as it needs , the company makes a skimate container that also has a automatic shut off float as well . Hope this helps

 

[CoralB]

Your skimmer needs to be accessible and what is all the white hoses going to ???

 

[lucas-grimm]

Ok ! First off it looks new which it will need a break in period . Run the over flow white hose on the bottom of the cup into the sump and adjust the flow to where it’s draining in that tube and not over filling the cup to where it automatically shuts off . If the valve doesn’t allow you this control the flow cut the power back on the white controller . The line that sucks air into your system should be higher than the cup . Run the system back into the sump for about a week so that the tube can develop a film . I don’t know what brs is telling you to set it for as every tank is different . I’m sure they don’t know your bio load or height and distance of where you have this system let alone how it’s set up . You have to adjust to your tank . If you are able to adjust it now with what I’ve told you then you can take the hose off the bottom of the cup and put the plug back in . Set the bubbles to come up the neck about 3-4 inches from the bottom of the cup and leave it for about a week then after about a week start trying to adjust it to you liking as to whether you want to skim wet or dry . That system has a auto shut off float switch for when the cup gets filled . Not sure why you wish to put the over flow into a gallon jug . If you really dont think you’ll be able to empty the cup as it needs , the company makes a skimate container that also has a automatic shut off float as well . Hope this helps

Thanks for the help. My tank has no sump and runs on canisters. The tip about the air intake hose is helpful! Not once is it mentioned anywhere online or in the instructions. The skimmer is placed above the the tank because the outflow cannot go up and must go down into either the tank or a sump. The actual cup drain tube is plugged, and the white overflow drain is just in a gallon jug temporarily.

 

[lucas-grimm]

Your skimmer needs to be accessible and what is all the white hoses going to ???

the white hoses are the intake and outlets for the skimmer and my uv. the second pic is just after i had taken the pumps out of everything and sat them in places for the night so the tank won’t drain overnight

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ive had two EXT unis and assure the pumps are Not too large or delivering too much flow. Adjust control valve to lowest setting and gradually increase

 

[ReefEco]

A little hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like the gray 1.5" skimmer outlet elbow is not pointing down, and you've reduced it to a smaller diameter pipe - I imagine this is the issue that the pipe is restricted enough to prevent the siphon from forming quickly enough to out pace your skimmer feed pump. You might trouble shoot by removing that white line from the elbow, and just point the elbow down if possible to fall into the tank below (move the lights and such). I run the SRO 6000 ext, very similar to yours.

 

[lucas-grimm]

A little hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like the gray 1.5" skimmer outlet elbow is not pointing down, and you've reduced it to a smaller diameter pipe - I imagine this is the issue that the pipe is restricted enough to prevent the siphon from forming quickly enough to out pace your skimmer feed pump. You might trouble shoot by removing that white line from the elbow, and just point the elbow down if possible to fall into the tank below (move the lights and such). I run the SRO 6000 ext, very similar to yours.

thanks for the input! i think i’m going change the elbow out and just use a coupler along with a 2 inch barb + tubing pair. unfortunately i wish it had just ended there so i could think of what to do with the outlet of the skimmer, but with the back chamber giving out i have bigger problems…

 

[ReefEco]

You could try un-submerging the outlet tube first, that also might be causing back pressure..

 

[lucas-grimm]

You could try un-submerging the outlet tube first, that also might be causing back pressure..

i tried this, both before and after adjusting the pumps flow rate with no results

 

[ReefEco]

Hmm - are you reducing to 3/4" or 1" tubing? Might be a combination of everything flow related. I doubt it is a break-in issue - water should still be able to exit the skimmer new out of the box if the in/out flow is balanced.

 

[lucas-grimm]

Hmm - are you reducing to 3/4" or 1" tubing? Might be a combination of everything flow related. I doubt it is a break-in issue - water should still be able to exit the skimmer new out of the box if the in/out flow is balanced.

reducing to 3/4 both on the skimmer and uv. not an issue on and uv and the uv has been running for a few days. The skimmer intake is 3/4, as well as the outlet. should’ve known that if i had to use a reducer on the skimmer outlet that it was going to be too slow.

 

[lucas-grimm]

Hmm - are you reducing to 3/4" or 1" tubing? Might be a combination of everything flow related. I doubt it is a break-in issue - water should still be able to exit the skimmer new out of the box if the in/out flow is balanced.

the skimmer did run perfectly. the water outflow was strong, no leaks, etc. the pump was just pushing water in faster than it could escape, so it was filling with water.