Skimmer: Big Bubbles at kneck!! help

[perikaruppan]

Dear Friends,
i had done my DIY Cone skimmer. I am using a Reef Octopus 3000 pump - needle wheel, initially the system was on a DIY Venturi and it did really well. this is my skimmer





After changing the pump, what i realize is that the air intake is more or less the same as venturi driven, but didnt measure though, but by the sound of it it was the same the bubbles in the kneck are quite large, unlike a needle wheel skimmer. this is how it is :







After reading many articles found that that i can take the air intake of my pump into the collection cup to make it perform better, but there is more skimming closer to wet skimming, but the bubbles are still bigger.



What is the problem? is the pump a problem? or what can be done to make the bubble at the kneck smaller?

If the bubbles are larger at the kneck i feel they pop more quickly, so after a clean it takes some time say a day, for the froth to form again and skim again. But it is skimming so shall i just leave it? or work on it?

if so what should i do?

[Percula9]

I think the skimmer is fine. The bubbles in the mixing chamber look fine. You could raise the water level a little so the bubbles don't have so far to go up that neck. Your skimmer neck is long. A nice build though. You should post in the equipment forum. The bubbles in the neck is foam already that's why they look like that.

[perikaruppan]

thanks percula. i did raise the water level, the bubbles are slightly more compressed, initially if they were 6-8cm now they are about 4-5cm...
but with the venturi the foam was more closely knit kind, meaning more smaller bubbles closer to each other.. whereas here it is different, larger bubbles. thats where the concern was.

sure, will do make a post of my skimmer.

[Percula9]

I'm a little confused about your venturi. There are two types of venturi's, one pulls in air at the pumps intake the other at the pumps output. What type do you have?

[perikaruppan]

venturi at the output of the pump .... pump ---> venturi ----> skimmer.

[perikaruppan]

Now another interesting factor i noticed:

the skimmer works only when i feed food . otherwise the bubbles stay at the junction of the cone and the kneck. the moment i feed, the bubbles start to rise and froth... is this because my tank is so clear of excess nutrients? or is it because my skimmer is crazy?

[brandonb8]

It's been my experience that my simmer actually goes down when I feed. That's when I normally clean it so I don't have to unplug the pump.

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[Chris27]

It's not that it only skims when you feed, it's just that when you feed the skimmer is going nuts, and you have it adjusted to compensate. By you having it adjusted that way, it's not skimming very well otherwise. Adjust the skimmer so that it skims throughout the day, and turn it off when you feed. Given that you DIY'd it, how do you adjust the water level in there?

[Percula9]

Can you switch the venturi back to the intake? Where the venturi is should not affect whether it skims at feeding at or not. Most skimmers stop skimming when you feed.

[mooka151]

I spend hours a night on here taking in information on the hobby, but this is my first post here or anywhere for that matter so please forgive me if Im not following some type of protocall. Here it goes, I have a reef octopuss internal skimmer. Been up and running without issue for 2 years. Clean the cup every 3-4 days and I pull the skimmer from the sump and clean the body every 3-4 months. Like I said earlier been running without an issue. The a week ago it just stopped making skim. I didnt just clean it or do any type of service on it. The foam inside the neck is still reaching about half way up, everything appears to be normal but it is just not producing that fluffy head ontop of the foam? The bubbles in the neck are as they should appear, tinny white bubbles, very densely packed, but within the tinny bubbles I see pea sized bubbles. It almost looks like there is something in the water thats affecting its surface tension and not allowing the froth or head to form. Everything in tank is ok and I cant think of a scenario where the water was contaminated by something to cause this?? Any ideas

[bertoni]

There are a number of contaminants that can flatten a skimmer. A bit of oil can do that, for example. I'd also clean the air intake and path for the skimmer. Something might be lodged in it or there might be calcium carbonate buildup. Is the air intake plastic? If so, soaking for a minute or two in a 2:1 mix of water to vinegar might be interesting. If there's much bubbling, there might be buildup.