protein skimmer ?

[hybridazn]

hey guys i know i'm a noob but i was hoping for some local help with this. i currently have a coralife 220 skimmer needle wheel and i am having problems with it. when i first got it (used off of someone on this site) i set it up as to the instructions and it seemed to run fine. took a few days to start to pull foam up. after i let it run for about 10-14 days i had my first fish introduced. at this point i unplugged it because it was still producing a lot of microbubbles from the diffuser. after i had the fish in i plugged it back in to only have it be unadjustable and it keeps pushing bubbles to the top of the cup. now some ppl have told me to keep adjusting it but there is just no getting it to slow down. the water level never reaches the bottom of the cup because all that is rising to the top of bubbles, the water level used to be right where it was supposed to be in the cup before i unplugged it. i can take pics of this if it will help.

now for some ?'s on the skimmer. is the red dial knob supposed to continuously spin? or should it stop at some point and only go back in the opposite direction?

and is there any tips to make it not create so many microbubbles thru the diffuser?

my brother (sirus errsomethingorother) has been kinda stumped by this thing as well. if anybody has any ideas i would appreciate the help, and also if anyone is from the greensburg area and would like to stop out and check it out that would be even better. could be a free lunch in the deal for you haha.

 

[raynist]

Is the drain/output of the skimmer below the water level? If so, change it, it will produce backpressure and cause it to overflow.

 

[hybridazn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14744704#post14744704 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by raynist
Is the drain/output of the skimmer below the water level? If so, change it, it will produce backpressure and cause it to overflow.

i just checked it and adjusted to drain and it is still pushing bubbles to the top non-stop, and i still do not see any water itself at the bottom of the cup like its supposed to, still just nothing but bubbles. is there anyway it could have a block somewhere? if so how do i remove it?

 

[jer77]

I am familiar with this skimmer being as I own the smaller 65 gallon needle wheel version, but its no longer in use. I always had the drain/output below the water line Ray, as it seemed not to make a difference because there is a hole on the top of the piping to relieve the pressure. I remember hearing some people talking about the issue of backpressure before with this skimmer as being a problem, and this would seem to be relevant given the problem hybridazn is having. To answer your first question hybridazn, the red knob is not supposed to spin continuously, if it does this may be the problem because the setting may be stuck so it overflows and you can't change it. Also the microbubble issue can be lessened if the skimmer is dialed in correctly, which seems to be your problem anyways.

 

[jer77]

Try pushing down on the red knob as you turn it to see if you can catch the valve on the inside of the piping. It may be that the rod connecting the knob to the valve just became offset.

 

[mjk427]

Maybe a pic would be better. Are you having issues with the water level being too high or just producing too much foam? I had the 125 and I did have issues from time to time with the skimmer going crazy and foaming too much and overflowing. I put a overflow in the cup with a tube that ran into a 1 gal jug. FWIW my red knob did spin 360 so I had to take off the output to see where the hole was in the red tube when I dialed it in.

 

[hybridazn]

producing too much foam.it just keeping shooting to the top and wont stop no matter what i do with the dial. i will take a pic here shortly. thanks for the input so far guys!

 

[hybridazn]

here are a few pics of the skimmer and tank.

basic pic of my tank w/o skimmer running

pic of skimmer pushing nothing but foam bubbles to the top, notice there is no water in the cup, just bubbles completely

pic of it after 20 seconds of run time with valve completely open, if i would have let it go it would have filled the overflow completely within 1 minute.

pic of microbubbles after only 20 seconds of run time.

i pushed down on the red knob and it really didnt do anything, i took off the dump tube and looked inside as i moved it around, if i were to lift up on the red knob the red valve inside just goes up with it.

i'm thinking i should just cut my losses on this skimmer and get a new one, after working on cars for the last 15 years there is always a speed bump in every project haha.

 

[hybridazn]

umm, can i get that last post of mine deleted? it wont let me, i will repost after i upload on this site.

 

[hybridazn]

EDIT: same post as above but now you can see the pics.

here are a few pics of the skimmer and tank.

basic pic of my tank w/o skimmer running

pic of skimmer pushing nothing but foam bubbles to the top, notice there is no water in the cup, just bubbles completely

pic of it after 20 seconds of run time with valve completely open, if i would have let it go it would have filled the overflow completely within 1 minute.

pic of microbubbles after only 20 seconds of run time.

i pushed down on the red knob and it really didnt do anything, i took off the dump tube and looked inside as i moved it around, if i were to lift up on the red knob the red valve inside just goes up with it.

i'm thinking i should just cut my losses on this skimmer and get a new one, after working on cars for the last 15 years there is always a speed bump in every project haha.

 

[bigmatt1992]

mine did that for a while i just gave it time and it stoped.

 

[bigmatt1992]

the micro bubbles are what contain your waste matter .i bet if you let them acumulate and let your skimmer work its self in you will see the brown crud you want to. give it time mine took a while for it to break in and it was used also.

 

[SirusX1721]

Heyy, I'm hybrid's bro. We had it running for a week if not more and still nothing. The knob just spins and doesn't catch anything it seems. It has two speeds...fast and faster hahah. I've dealt with the 65 model and it was easy to adjust, but this one just seems to have some issues when it comes to adjusting it.

And no matter what I do it just keeps spitting microbubbles through out the tank which is annoying. We cut the tube back and moved the diffuser out of the water some to avoid and back pressure, but it spits the bubbles the same. There was an issue with the skimmer when it arrived. There was a small crack on the bottom gray part of it. Where the adjustment tube went into the skimmer. It wasn't visible but when it was on and small amount of water leaked. It was easily fixed with some resin. Maybe this has something to do with it? Maybe the adjuster broke as well? Doesn't sound like anything was broke...who knows!

 

[bigmatt1992]

i say get a new one seems like more work then anything.

 

[vr697getta]

i had a 125 and a 220 ss. that red knob should not move unless you move it. in your case it seems to be broke well at least the the red knob is. if the knob spins and spins then there is no control of the water fed in to the skimmer. what i would do is hold it down and keep the bubbles very low then find a way to stop the knob from moving on its own even if you have to tape it in place.
good luck roland

 

[vr697getta]

also i have a ss 125 that has no pump and i broke part of the collection cup. you are more that welcome to have it and see if you can use part of it. i am pretty sure that cup will fit on this skimmer and both the 125 and 220 use the same pump. so its your if you want it

 

[SirusX1721]

Bro called me from work and said he'd be happy to try that; as long as you think the parts will fit well. I think the knob is definitely broken when I looked at it. It doesn't feel like anything is catching. It's just really loose.

 

[hybridazn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14748500#post14748500 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vr697getta
also i have a ss 125 that has no pump and i broke part of the collection cup. you are more that welcome to have it and see if you can use part of it. i am pretty sure that cup will fit on this skimmer and both the 125 and 220 use the same pump. so its your if you want it

PM'd you vr6. and thanks to all who gave me advise.

 

[SirusX1721]

Your welcome =p LOL