is my skimmer "normal"?

[areze]

right now the cup is totally full with bubbles, stubborn bubbles, bubbles that are not popping any time soon. theres maybe a quarter inch of liquid in the bottom, brown, but still very much liquid.

am I skimming it too wet? or what? how many bubbles should i have? should it be filling the cup? or barely cresting the neck rarely?

I feel like I have alot of bubbles, but not very much skimmate. it took about a day to get the quarter inch of liquid.

btw, its an octopus 150 if it matters.

 

[skwirl]

is it new? and have you dosed anything?

 

[areze]

its not new, havent dosed, it got newish baserock, which made it absolutely nuts. but its settled down now and Im trying to dial it in for the first time. before I basicly had it pumping water right up the neck, it wasnt skimming, but it was running for 8 months, so no oil residue, and it does have a decent layer of slime on it at this point.(I think this is good for it?)

 

[Icefire]

It's good, in 1-2d you'll have black liquid.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

Do you dose sugar/vodka/vinegar? When I dosed before, thats what happens to the bubbles. If you want to put some oil, like olive oil or some other in the cup. Just a couple drops, this will collapse the foam immediately.

 

[sjm817]

Is it just the pic, or why is the body brown?

 

[areze]

the whole skimmer has a slight coat of skimmate on it. so yeah, it is a bit brown. maybe discolored even from exposure? hard to say on that, I havent tried to clean it.

I assumed it was better left dirty.

 

[sjm817]

I would not say having skimate collect in the body is "normal". My skimmers have always stayed clean in the body, and I usually have them set to only collect skimate in the top part of the neck.

 

[areze]

well, I did not really care for my skimmer for its entire life...

I didnt care for the tank.

the tank crashed, everything died when a heater stuck on. except for a clam and 2 fish. I tossed all the nasty crap that was left and ran a 75 gallong tank for those 3 small things. I had added the skimmer about a week before the heater screwed up.

anyway, from then on, about 9 months or so, I never touched it... I never changed the water, the skimmer pump was running, but that was all, the level was not set, there was no actual skimming, just a tube full of bubbles, but no foam. so who knows what it did for those 9 months. I didnt look to care.

just now looking at it again, cleaned it all up and finally got around to actually tuning the skimmer for the first time really. thats why Im a bit lost on how it SHOULD be. but it looks dirty, I dont know if thats normal or not or if I caused it. I do know that it isnt new. it was dirty for a long time.

 

[sjm817]

It looks like it is working fine. If it were mine, I would probably give it a good cleaning anyway.

 

[Icefire]

Mine do the same when it's clean