9410 skimmer issue. Filling cup in 3-5 minutes...

[Jeff000]

I had this skimmer running for over a year now, cleaned it a couple times.
I moved to a house and new tank, moved all my equipment and etc. 230g system for now.

Anyways, I set the skimmer up in 6" of water just as I had it running before.

Plug it in, and do some other stuff, few minutes later the cup is full of water.
Empty it and watch it fill again in just a few minutes. I do this several times hoping it would clear up. No go.

What's going on? This is very frustrating.

No new anything in the system, no filler floss, filter bags, no additives, no change in salt, no new rocks, no new fish, no new corals. Only thing different is I have 200g more water volume. But the water is from the same water supply as before, and using the same RO unit. Still 0ppm as on the unit itself and my hand held meter.

 

[rvitko]

You have 200 gallons of new saltwater though correct? The salt likely has some sort of colloidal additive and this will eventually go away. You probably don't see this when changing a little water, but if you had 30 gallons of old water and 200 gallons of new water, plus whatever onthe sand and rocks that would be stirred up, it is a pretty radical change and the skimmer will react to it. Close the air a little, empty the cup when it is full and eventually it should work itself out, probably within a week.

 

[Jeff000]

You have 200 gallons of new saltwater though correct? The salt likely has some sort of colloidal additive and this will eventually go away. You probably don't see this when changing a little water, but if you had 30 gallons of old water and 200 gallons of new water, plus whatever onthe sand and rocks that would be stirred up, it is a pretty radical change and the skimmer will react to it. Close the air a little, empty the cup when it is full and eventually it should work itself out, probably within a week.

Closing the air all the way gives me a 30 minute cup fill.
I'll empty my tank of water before the skimmer starts to work....

All rocks were rinsed of sand and no sand was moved.

 

[rvitko]

I would just leave it alone, it will start working but for all practical purposes, this is a new set up due to the huge amount of new saltwater, most salt mixes have some organic matter or colloids. If anything you might unplug the skimmer for a few days and run some carbon, but I would not remove the saltwater, that doesn't make much sense and isn't going to help since you will have to put it back. Keep in mind that the pump essentially does 2000lph and you are adjusting the ratio of air to water, if you close all the air, you get more water, so it is striking a balance, closing it all the way isn't the best way to solve this. Make sure only about half- 3/4 of the pump is submerged, the filter bag retainer should be flush with the top of the pipe and the air no more than about 2/3rds closed.