Wits end with skimmer-Need help PLEASE

[stinkydavis]

Hello,
As the title states I am just overly frustrated by my skimmer. I cannot get it to skim right. I have watched so many videos. I have tried opening and close gate. Skimmer body depth in water, and air flow using Venturi.
it is a Reef octo INT 150, it sits in my 30ish gallon holding sump under my 150 gallon DT. I currently have 5 fish in the tank. Including a salfin tang and a foxface being the big fish. Tank it’s about 2 months old. Skimmers age is unknown as I got it for free in a long story I won’t go into haha.
please help me or recommend maybe something better/different. I am sick of spending hours on this only to find all my efforts and thinking I got it tuned wasted.
EDIT: issue is I cannot get an even remotely dry skim. It has weak bubbles that will pop in the neck or overflow the collection cup never in between. I cannot get big bubbles that will create a dry skim.

 

[mdb_talon]

Can you provide more details on issues? Maybe video of it running or something? What is height of water it sitting in? Reef octopus skimmers have been pretty much a reliable staple in the hobby for many years so assuming there are no mechanical issues with it there should not be a reason for it to not work.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Can you provide more details on issues? Maybe video of it running or something? What is height of water it sitting in? Reef octopus skimmers have been pretty much a reliable staple in the hobby for many years so assuming there are no mechanical issues with it there should not be a reason for it to not work.

Yes. What’s wrong with it a very important detail left out lol.

 

[Mical]

Tank being so new your skimmer is going to go crazy for a while. I'd start by removing collection cup and let it overflow into sump for a couple of days, THEN start trying to dial it in.

 

[stinkydavis]

Sorry! I vented and never explained the issue haha. Like I said frustrated!
The issue is I cannot get an even remotely dry skim. It has weak bubbles that will pop in the neck or overflow the collection cup. I cannot get big bubbles that will create a dry skim.

 

[stinkydavis]

Tank being so new your skimmer is going to go crazy for a while. I'd start by removing collection cup and let it overflow into sump for a couple of days, THEN start trying to dial it in.

I had this in an old 150 gallon tank that was running for about 2 months with the same issue. For more info
Edit- I also did the suggested for a week and still have the issue.

 

[nothing_fancy]

I have the EXT version of that skimmer. I feel like it took over a month to really settle in. It will still skim wet after I do monthly maintenance so I got a skim mate locker just for that purpose. If its skimming really wet I would recommend letting it do that for an hour or so and spill out into your sump before you start dialing it again. In my experience it will even itself out after a while if you leave it alone

 

[Dburr1014]

Sorry! I vented and never explained the issue haha. Like I said frustrated!
The issue is I cannot get an even remotely dry skim. It has weak bubbles that will pop in the neck or overflow the collection cup. I cannot get big bubbles that will create a dry skim.

No big bubbles anyway.
Sounds like your water height in the skimmer is too high.
Did you adjust water level before introducing air?

 

[Mical]

I had this in an old 150 gallon tank that was running for about 2 months with the same issue. For more info

Yeah but this is a totally different tank. Try my method.

 

[stinkydavis]

No big bubbles anyway.
Sounds like your water height in the skimmer is too high.
Did you adjust water level before introducing air?

I did not. Would love to hear more about this

 

[mdb_talon]

Sorry! I vented and never explained the issue haha. Like I said frustrated!
The issue is I cannot get an even remotely dry skim. It has weak bubbles that will pop in the neck or overflow the collection cup. I cannot get big bubbles that will create a dry skim.

Have you confirmed there is no blockage in the air intake? Sometimes these will get blocked with salt creep or other things and it can cause a behavior like you are describing

 

[stinkydavis]

Have you confirmed there is no blockage in the air intake? Sometimes these will get blocked with salt creep or other things and it can cause a behavior like you are describing

I did. I cleaned the whole unit with citric acid before putting into new tank last month. Now that I think of it. Tank is 2 months old already

 

[Dburr1014]

I did not. Would love to hear more about this

Skimmer is in 7"~8“ deep water as per instructions.
Pinch the air line (or remove so it just sucks in water), adjust water in chamber to 3" +/- under the cup. Start the air again.
From there you can adjust the bubbles to spill over the cup. Close the gate to have them rise, open the gate to lower. Lowering the water in the chamber will be more dry, rising will be more wet.

 

[stinkydavis]

Skimmer is in 7"~8“ deep water as per instructions.
Pinch the air line (or remove so it just sucks in water), adjust water in chamber to 3" +/- under the cup. Start the air again.
From there you can adjust the bubbles to spill over the cup. Close the gate to have them rise, open the gate to lower. Lowering the water in the chamber will be more dry, rising will be more wet.

I will try this. Might be my problem

 

[stinkydavis]

Skimmer is in 7"~8“ deep water as per instructions.
Pinch the air line (or remove so it just sucks in water), adjust water in chamber to 3" +/- under the cup. Start the air again.
From there you can adjust the bubbles to spill over the cup. Close the gate to have them rise, open the gate to lower. Lowering the water in the chamber will be more dry, rising will be more wet.

I tried that. Still not working. Here is the best picture I can get of the bubbles

 

[mdb_talon]

I tried that. Still not working. Here is the best picture I can get of the bubbles

In that pic the bubbles look fine to me from what I can tell other than looks like need to adjust valve so they sit lower in the neck

 

[Dburr1014]

I tried that. Still not working. Here is the best picture I can get of the bubbles

What's wrong with the bubbles?
Clean water takes nothing out. When it gets dirty, bubbles get darker and higher.

 

[Dan_P]

Hello,
As the title states I am just overly frustrated by my skimmer. I cannot get it to skim right. I have watched so many videos. I have tried opening and close gate. Skimmer body depth in water, and air flow using Venturi.
it is a Reef octo INT 150, it sits in my 30ish gallon holding sump under my 150 gallon DT. I currently have 5 fish in the tank. Including a salfin tang and a foxface being the big fish. Tank it’s about 2 months old. Skimmers age is unknown as I got it for free in a long story I won’t go into haha.
please help me or recommend maybe something better/different. I am sick of spending hours on this only to find all my efforts and thinking I got it tuned wasted.
EDIT: issue is I cannot get an even remotely dry skim. It has weak bubbles that will pop in the neck or overflow the collection cup never in between. I cannot get big bubbles that will create a dry skim.

Your system‘s water might be too clean for the skimmate to have enough material to form a dry skimmate. Let it skim wet to fill the cup at a rate you can conveniently empty.

 

[Boehmtown]

If it's old, the venturi may be clogged but honestly all my tanks have ended up with no skimmer. I just don't like them. Maybe no skimmer is the life for you??? If one was installed still I'd probably run it no cup at night for co2 drive off. But , my last 3 tanks all had one. It came out one day for one reason or another and didn't go back in.

 

[MichaelReefer]

How deep is it? Generally 8 inches is where you want to be.

The bubbles in that picture look fine.