Skimmer - shoot me!

[SicZ06]

Back in the hobby after about 5 years off. Having a hard time with the skimmer and after 2 weeks I am starting to lose it. I bought a used set up on CL in March. The owner had it running for a year, I kept the cheato / water in heated buckets with flow - I think I was able to save a lot of the good bacteria.

My Vertex omega 130 skimmer was working great - twice a week I was emptying the nasty waste...I then wanted to secure some aquascape and ordered this from amazon = Two Little Fishies ATLAS3B Aquastik. As the reviews said, skimmer went crazy. After 3 days of bubbles spraying everywhere I started to try other ways to fix it with WC and added a carbon reactor. The good news is, it fixed the problem but now I am at the other extreme....Now instead of bubbles going from zero to 100 and shooting everywhere, they dont shoot up enough to collect any waste. I have done my best to make sure it is correctly set up and played with the air intake - no luck....Shocker my ammonia is climbing...this morning after working on it last night, it was just full of water. I can't seem to have a happy medium.

Any thoughts / tips would be appreciated. With being out of the hobby for awhile and getting back in, I am trying to remember and learn everything all over again! Thank you, Sean

Tank info -

78 degrees 1.026. Have had two clowns / nothing else.
Before using aquastik - nitrates 0 ph 7.8 nitrites 0. Ammonia between 0 and .25.
Before adding carbon nitrates 0 ph 7.8 to 8 nitrites 0. Ammonia alittle over .5
Now ammonia is getting up there...

Thanks to tips from others - I have done the following and it has not helped -

1. I have taken the entire thing apart / cleaned it.
2. I measured - it is in the correct amount of water.
3. I have done some work making sure my tunez ato is the correct level. It's in the return chamber.

 

[lapin]

Skimmers are touchy sometimes.
My I-pinion: once it gets dirty again, it will make bubbles
My Examples: 1/4 of an aqua stick in my 600+ gallon system will make my skimmer go nuts for a few hours.
I cleaned my skimmer neck and cup after a year. Took about a month to get it dialed back in. And its not set at the same amount of outflow as before. Weird.

 

[jtl]

Check the water depth and make sure it is too spec for the skimmer. When ever I put in new filter media or a new filter sock my skimmer would go crazy but I could fix the problem by adjusting the gate valve, sometimes it would have to be almost closed.

 

[SicZ06]

thank you both. Putting the kids down for a nap soon and I'm going to give it another. go.....I also have some zoa's arriving soon / ordered before this all got bad : (

 

[homer1475]

Just for that reason is why I switched to JB water weld. It will not make your skimmer go crazy no mater how much you use(I've used 3 tubes at a time before). Best thing is, it's way cheaper, and can be bought at the local big box store(lowes, HD, walmart).

Can't help other then that. I am curious why your ammonia is climbing? Presence of a skimmer or not should not effect the bio capacity of your rock, and therefore your ammonia level should never be anything but 0. What test kit are you using?

 

[SicZ06]

Just for that reason is why I switched to JB water weld. It will not make your skimmer go crazy no mater how much you use(I've used 3 tubes at a time before). Best thing is, it's way cheaper, and can be bought at the local big box store(lowes, HD, walmart).

Can't help other then that. I am curious why your ammonia is climbing? Presence of a skimmer or not should not effect the bio capacity of your rock, and therefore your ammonia level should never be anything but 0. What test kit are you using?

I talked to my LFS and they think with the move my cycle started over....API test kit. I have been doing daily WC in hopes to save some new LPS.