Skimmer Overflowing...Suggestions?

[ameares8]

I have the Vertex IN-180. To make a long story short, almost everyone know that the stock Resun pumps suck. Mine finally died, so I bought a bubble blaster 3000. It has been running for roughly 2 weeks. I found the sweet spot on the depth of the skimmer in the sump last week and everything was working fine. Then, two nights ago, the pump apparently kicked into overdrive and now I am flooding the colection cup in seconds. The wedge pipe is wide open and I have played with the water levels. If I pinch off the air tube that just gives me less bubbles and creates back pressure to flood the cup faster. Any ideas on where to go from here. The skimmer kicked @$$ with this new pump when I plugged it in, so I really don't want to swap it out for a smaller pump.
<br>
Thanks in advance!
<br>

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ooIFovKIgFI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ooIFovKIgFI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

 

[poolkeeper1]

Anthony, I had the 3000 on my IN250 and had great success with it, Yours being a 180 you may have over estimated the air/water that body is able to handle and that pump is just too much for your skimmer. The only thing i know that you can do is raise the body up as high as you can to get it under control, Or you may try putting a valve on the airline to restrict the pump. But these pumps have an electronic chip that may shut it down if you do that. All you can do is try these ideas and see what you get. You may need to go with the 2000 pump for that body, Or there is a guy selling a IN280 for a good price (Less than the pump) if you are interested. Also do you have the return pipe under water if so raise it above the water in the sump as this creates back pressure.

 

[GT_Jacket]

Did you clean the skimmer real good a couple of weeks ago? Wondering if it is just now getting "slimmed" up and re-broken in. Might need to either raise the skimmer or lower the level in the sump... if you can.

 

[ameares8]

Do you have a link to the 280 thread or is it someone local? I am about taped out on funds for swap prebuys unless I can get another website built, so hopefully it is cheap enough. Your suggestions are where I was headed. I just dont have much head room left unless I can repipe my return line. I guess I will cross my fingers and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[ameares8]

Did you clean the skimmer real good a couple of weeks ago? Wondering if it is just now getting "slimmed" up and re-broken in. Might need to either raise the skimmer or lower the level in the sump... if you can.

I thought about that as well, since it is a new pump. I did not really clean the body out, just the cup. The body was not gunked up too bad, so I really did not touch it.

 

[GT_Jacket]

Do you have a link to the 280 thread or is it someone local?

???

 

[ameares8]

???

<br>
I was refrencing this.
<br>

You may need to go with the 2000 pump for that body, Or there is a guy selling a IN280 for a good price (Less than the pump) if you are interested.

 

[cee]

I suspect you've finally removed the manufacturing oils from the new pump and now it is working the way it should. That or something in the air got into the skimmer and caused it to foam excessively.

 

[ameares8]

Thought about the air, because I believe Bill or someone else had an issue with Co2 causing his skimmer to act goofy. Debunked that because I am out of Co2 and need to go get more. Manufacturing oils being gone is more of a likely solution. Going to try moving the skimmer to the intake compartment, since it has more head room and see if raising it helps before I go spending more money. Also going to move the pipe out of the water as Bill suggested. Back to twidling my thumbs at work...

 

[Pickupman66]

Interesting.. as for that chip, it said it controls the startup direction and senses teh RPM. I would say that if you were using a valve on the air intake, it shoudl not effect the RPM of the shaft in sucha way as to cause it to shut down. much like the tube building some salt creep inside the venturi. I would venture a guess that the chip would sense a drastic change in RPM indicating a blockage in the water in or out or a foreign object in the housing itself to prevent overheating the motor. maybe a simple air line needle valve would suffice to fine tune the air. I know I fine tune the air entering thru the beckett on my MRC to make it happy.

then again, I dont own one so my comments may be irrelevant.

 

[poolkeeper1]

Anthony, If you have the return pipe under water that is your problem, I'll bet you money as mine did the same thing if that pipe was submerged! Hurry Home and fix that sucker, I just angeled mine at a 45 degree angle so as the water flowed freely from the pipe. Good luck
PS I'll find the link to the 280 and post it.
Bill
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1952758
Here it is, The guy already said he would take 200.00 for it but we were talking without the pump. I was going to put your BB3000 on this if i wound up with it. But i got the ATB!

 

[ameares8]

Bill is a genius! So, I removed the long piece of PVC so that only the 90º elbow is coming out of the wedge and turned at a 45º angle to the surface of the water. I also moved it over to the first chamber and moved/cleaned a bunch of junk that needed to be done anyway.

The skimmer is no longer overflowing in less than a minute. When I turned everything back on the skimmer pulled 1" of water in roughly 20 minutes. After the initial 20 minutes, I no longer have a bubble column at all. I left the wedge pipe wide open to be sure that it does not flood overnight and will adjust accordingly tomorrow. Thanks for all of the input.

 

[poolkeeper1]

Hardly

Hardly

Bill is a genius! So, I removed the long piece of PVC so that only the 90º elbow is coming out of the wedge and turned at a 45º angle to the surface of the water. I also moved it over to the first chamber and moved/cleaned a bunch of junk that needed to be done anyway.

The skimmer is no longer overflowing in less than a minute. When I turned everything back on the skimmer pulled 1" of water in roughly 20 minutes. After the initial 20 minutes, I no longer have a bubble column at all. I left the wedge pipe wide open to be sure that it does not flood overnight and will adjust accordingly tomorrow. Thanks for all of the input.

Genius No, Made a lot of mistakes in the past Yes so been there done that is all. Glad to help Anthony.
Bill:dance: