Tunze 9004 foam

nano427

Member
Been running a Tunze 9004 for several months. I've always had to have the air adjustment almost all the way closed to keep from getting overly wet skimmate. I accidentally left the skimmer unplugged overnight. Now foam production is way way down. I now have to open the air valve all they way. It is producing dry foam now and seems to be working fine. But my question is why do I now have to have the air valve fully open when just the night before I had to have it almost fully closed? I checked the basics like salt creep blockage, snails, etc and I didn't see any issues.
 
Problem fixed! For anybody following along, the problem was a little sludge built up in the nipple of the pump where the air line pushes on. I think it happened because the skimmer was off for a while and allowed the gunk build up.
 
Is it possibly submerged very deeply? That will tend to cause both issues. The skimmer should never have more than half the intake grate submerged, between 1/4 and 1/2 is ideal. Also, keep in mind that small skimmers do skim wet, it generally is not realistic to expect dark/thick skimmate as there is not the column height to allow the skimmate to dry. I would typically expect with everything set correctly a skimmate about the color of iced tea and the cup needing to be emptied every 3-7 days depending on waste load.
 
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