SC 150 skimmer review pics

Need help guys. I've had my 301 for over a year now and just recently (the past 2 days) have noticed that it's no longer skimming. That picture above with very little bubbles in tap water, is what mine is doing in salt water. I have it in 7in of water and usually set to just about 3 on the dial. With that set to 3 now I get nothing but water over flowing into the cup. Now it's on 2 which is still high, but again little to no bubbles. I've taken it apart 3 times already, it's 100% clean. Needle wheel is clean and I even thought maybe the air intake was blocked but that's fine as well. Do I need a new impeller? Thanks Joe
 
can you re-post a pictures ? btw, skimmer only works in saltwater, in tap water it only have less bubbles like this pic:
 
You didn't cement in any new frags did ya? That will cause skimming to stop for a few days depending on how much you use. Or did you add anything else to the tank?
 
The blue part on the end of the pump. Were the hard plastic piece from the airline enters the blue piece. Play around with it, might be inside to far, causing the air to not mix properly.
 
I addd both new frags to the tank and also started vodka dosing. It wasn't untill day 4 of vodka dosing that I notice my skimmer acting up. But I was told when I started the vodka dosing that if anything the skimmer would go into over drive and really start pulling some nastys out. My tank doesn't have high nitrates or phosphates but I wanted to try the vodka dosing just for the added benefits for my sps. As for the new frags I added about 5 new plugs to the system, total of a 40G system, (33l with 20L sump). I'm going to play around with the blue cap this morning, we'll see what happens. I've also been looking online at new pumps and was thinking of picking up the Atman PH2000, almost double what the stock 1100 is putting out. Do you think the pump is just shot?
 
Well, I took it apart again this morning for the 5th time but now once back together, she'll pullen like she should so Im happy. But I think if it continues, I'm going to upgrade to the PH2000. Question though, with the 301 rated for up to a 65G what do you think it's new rating would be with the 2000 pump installed?
 
joeyhatch11 said:
Well, I took it apart again this morning for the 5th time but now once back together, she'll pullen like she should so Im happy. But I think if it continues, I'm going to upgrade to the PH2000. Question though, with the 301 rated for up to a 65G what do you think it's new rating would be with the 2000 pump installed?
Click to expand...

I don't think that pump will fit under the 301 stand.
 
Huh, thought I read somewhere that people were upgrading the 301's pump to the 2000. Either case, with mine working again I'll cross my fingers and hope it stays that way. Worst case I'll order another PH1100, only $44 on Ebay.
 
Either way you can widen the hole in the skimmer base or cut down on the input shaft going into the skimmer. I think it would work. It would be cool to see how much more gunk it would produce.
 
figures, I get it working like new yesterday morning, skimmers fine all day while I'm at work, even looks good when I get home and before bed. Why does everything that can go wrong, go wrong in your sleep? I guess my skimmer got sick through out the night and just started throwing up all over the place. So what was collected in the cup is now back in the tank, thank god it wasn't a whole lot. Setting on skimmer is now about 2 1/2 where before I was able to run it a notch past 3.

I think it's not getting enough air or that the impeller isn't always spinning. When it's producing less bubbles, the water level raises and then overflows. When the bubbles kick into high gear, the water level drops and I have to raise the setting. I should just bit the bullet and order a new pump right?
 
Ordered a new impeller. For $20 I figured why not. I think it's more the impeller than anything so we'll see what happens once it gets installed. When the bubble die in the skimmer the water rises so I think it's the impeller being thrown off and no longer rotating that causing the issue.

Has anyone had an issue with there impeller's?
 
Hi, I have this skimmer for 3 months, running quite and pull out a lot dirty stuff. But whenever i hit it or unplug power cord to clean up, it always happen when i plug it back on. Water level is same as red dish inside skimmer body, and i set at level 1, bubbles still come out. Anyone know how to fix it ? Thanks
 
Had same problem with this skimmer when turned off for maintenance. I unplug and plug it in a few times and the overflowing of bubbles goes away. Probably bad for the pump so keep that in mind...
 
has anyone had any luck with any other pumps? I didn't see anything in all the 61 pages, seems the downfall is the pump. Which mine just took a crap, wondering if i should just order another ph2000 or try something else.....
 
Last night I turned off my skimmer (SC-303) to do some moving of filters around in the sump and when I turned it back on I am getting a bunch of bubble blow by out of the back end stack. The bubbles outside of the skimmer are bleeding over into the return pump and filling the tank. Has anyone had experience with this skimmer and how to adjust to stop it from creating bubbles outside of the skimmer?
picture.php


Thank you for your help.
 
I too get those bubbles that come out of the back bottom portion of the blue tube but not enough to really concern myself with. I also see that your running it with out an air adjuster on the air intake tube. With a air adjuster you can fine tune it and get better micro bubbles in the skimmer which may help cut back on all the excess bubbles in the tank.
 
Thank you, I'll give that a try. I spoke to customer service and they said this would go away in a few days, so hopefully these two solutions will work. The odd thing is that I have had this tank cycling for five weeks now and this is the first time I have seen this happen. Odd....

THANK YOU
 
Not too odd. I've had mine get a little bubble aggressive after a good cleaning but went away in no time so I never really thought much of it. Also never really paid attention because I never had bubbles going back up into the display. Either case, Im sure you'll be fine, no worries.
 
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