skimmer dilema

leslie hempel

leslie hempel

Professional Aquarist
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guys i have a friend whos system just wont pull any skimmate

We took out and retofitted an BM sp4000 to his octo skimmer thinking the pump was the problem and it skims perfectly in my system but nothing when i return the skimmer to his.

this has been going on for about 2 months now

he has a nitrate reading of 50ppm, and is running sure pure pellets in a bubble magus mini reactor, has BIG fish and feeds propperly!

yet the skimmer cup looks like day one when it was added.

any suggestions welcomed.
 
His skimmer works in your tank right, have you tried running your skimmer ( or a different skimmer ) in his tank?

Sorry if this is a dof question.
 
No stress got to ask, we put a brand new jns co3 in his system, it was run for 3 weeks with no skimmate pulled (we let it run the required 10 - 12 days to remove the oils).

Hes running the 2 together rite now. I'm probably fetching the co3 to see if it will pull in my system as a double check.

Very confusing.
 
What else is in the skimmer chamber? Does he dose or auto top up into the skimmer chamber?
 
What else is in the skimmer chamber? Does he dose or auto top up RO water into the skimmer chamber? Any other reactors outlets in the skimmer chamber?
 
Skimmer chamber is a set water height. A few frags alongside the skimmer on the raised platform, he was running ozone directly in the sump through an airstone in the return chamber, I've advised him to stop this, the chambers prior to skimmer have sure pure beads. And ALOT of fanworms and some macro algae.

System seems pretty normal barring the o3 addition.

I took atmospheric variances into account. A bit stumped in this one.
 
Why I'm asking, I had my ATO in the skimmer chamber and the moment the RO water is added the skimmate drops in the skimmer and it took about 3 hours for the skimmer to return to normal skimming and foam height. Was strange, first time I saw this happening.
 
Joshua1 said:
Why I'm asking, I had my ATO in the skimmer chamber and the moment the RO water is added the skimmate drops in the skimmer and it took about 3 hours for the skimmer to return to normal skimming and foam height. Was strange, first time I saw this happening.
Click to expand...

Good point, on addition of any fe to my system my skimmer overflows, but I have witnessed what you seeing.. ATU is in return chamber (after skimmer)
 
Joshua1 said:
Why I'm asking, I had my ATO in the skimmer chamber and the moment the RO water is added the skimmate drops in the skimmer and it took about 3 hours for the skimmer to return to normal skimming and foam height. Was strange, first time I saw this happening.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the tip. Guess who just changed the ato placement in his own tank:m12:
 
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