skimmer trouble

[useskaforevil]

my skimmer (asmg2) hasn't been producing much/ anything for awhile and i couldn't get around to it and didnt see much point as my tank has been doing great. ayway after finding out my nitrates are now in the 150ppm range. heh anyway i cleaned out my skimmer pump as best as i could and turned it back on. it seems to be producing pubbles but they seem to not be gross or kind of "sticky" they seem alot more wet and small and its not producing any skimmate. however i do notice it is producing small amounts of thick disgusting mud on the top of the collection cup and on the side walls of the inside of collection cup (where the bubbles come up) is there a break in time for skimmers you just cleaned? or am i missing something?

my tank is an 100 gallon system and i feed daily

 

[mrkalel]

What type of Skimmer...

 

[smalls383]

I kinda had the same trouble with my skimmer. Did some work on the collection cup (drilled a hole for an overflow into a jug) plugged it back in after about 2 hours.....now I cant get the skimmer to function like it used too. Can't seem to get the dry "sticky", large bubble foam anymore...just smaller wet bubbles??????? EURO Reef RS80

 

[useskaforevil]

its an ASM G2

 

[teamdulski]

There is some break in time when you do a thorough cleaning. May want to think about mesh modding the G2. I did it to mine and am highly impressed.

 

[useskaforevil]

hmm, maybe i will i can't find a good description of the mesh mod do you have a link? have you tried the recirc?

 

[dendro982]

ASM G3 and ASM Mini here - the same story, you can find more on ASM skimmer club thread. All mods are there too, but too many pages.

I'm just raising level of bubbles to get at least some skimmate, but overflowing happens frequently.

Do you use any silencer on airline tubing? Removing may slightly help, but will not solve the problem.

I still wonder, why ASM works for may people right out of the box, without modifications, but not for the others.

To keep nitrates lower with such skimmer, I had to use daily changed micron sock - allows keep them at 20-30 ppm with heavy feeding. I know, that that is not recommended, but had to do something.