Any advice?????

[matthewmc]

Here is the skinny... My BTA walked up the glass and got sucked into the intake of my mj1200. I can't believe it with how small the slits are. Anyway it was suck up in there 4 inches or so. Well it is out now by the help of me and does not look so good. Only time will tell if it survives. Anyway my Deltec skimmer is not skimming and my water was cloudy so I did a 15 gallon wc and broke down the skimmer and cleaned it with vinegar and it still is not skimming. I also added a bag of carbon in the skimmer body to assist in the cleanup.

The advice I am looking for is what else to do? How do I get the water cleaned up and my skimmer to start producing again?

Thanks in advance!

 

[KevinFJB]

A few suggestions:

1. Get the bag of carbon out of your skimmer body - foam fractionation is what the process is called and the bag of carbon will interfere with it. Drop a bag of carbon in your sump near your returns or better yet in a fluidized reactor.

2. Set your skimmer up (ensure this is done correctly) and let it run without any more cleaning or anything else

3. Get another water change ready and do it once the saltwater has aged for minimum 24hours

4. All you can do for the anemone is leave it and see if it pulls through (and cover all power head intakes and even screen off your overflow - min RBTA was ripped in half by my overflow, but one small piece survived)

 

[matthewmc]

The Deltec rep for the US adviced me to put the carbon in there? This is an MCE600 that has a place for carbon in the return.

 

[KevinFJB]

Got it - i thought you had placed a bag of carbon in the skimmer reaction chamber and not at the water outlet.

 

[matthewmc]

It is not in the reaction chamber it is the return past the collection cup. It is a Deltec MCE600- $600 for a 55 gallon tank- rather pricey but does a bang up job. I have been told due to the mucous excretions and such a large water change it will take a while for the skimmer to start producing. Some advice I received was to continue daily wc of 10 gallons or so and replace the carbon. We will see how it goes.

 

[Craig Lambert]

I agree with carbon in a high flow area of the sump, and water changes. The skimmer will kick in eventually, and the reason it hasn't is probably because it was cleaned with vinegar. I do that to mine because it cleans up so well but in doing so removes a fine layer of biomaterial. My skimmer refuses to produce foam for half a day after a full cleaning. (AquaC EV-180 on a 75G).