Skimmer tuning?

vbsaltydog · 06/06/2012, 10:30 PM

I have had several skimmers over the years and managed to get them all dialed-in pretty well but I have never read or heard of a "best practice" for tuning a skimmer. Does one exist? It seems like most people are just guessing and going through trial and error?

Since the three variables of tuning a skimmer are

water depth
gate valve
air valve

and you cant always easily change the water depth that your skimmer sits in, this leaves you with the two controllable variables of

gate valve
air valve

and since the gate valve does the same thing as the water level but with tighter limitations than dropping/raising the skimmer 4 inches deeper in the sump, as long as your skimmer is within the recommended depth range that the manufacturer suggests, you should be able to run the full operating range of the skimmer using the

gate valve
air valve

but you are left with a large number of possible combinations of valve adjustments so my question at this point is

Is it standard practice to open the gate valve wide open (leaving the lowest amount of water in the skimmer body), adjusting the air valve to get the optimum bubble climb rate and then adjusting the gate valve to raise the water level to the neck area?

or is there a standard practice at all?

06/06/2012, 10:30 PM	#1
vbsaltydog Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne Beach, FL. Posts: 603	Skimmer tuning? I have had several skimmers over the years and managed to get them all dialed-in pretty well but I have never read or heard of a "best practice" for tuning a skimmer. Does one exist? It seems like most people are just guessing and going through trial and error? Since the three variables of tuning a skimmer are water depth gate valve air valve and you cant always easily change the water depth that your skimmer sits in, this leaves you with the two controllable variables of gate valve air valve and since the gate valve does the same thing as the water level but with tighter limitations than dropping/raising the skimmer 4 inches deeper in the sump, as long as your skimmer is within the recommended depth range that the manufacturer suggests, you should be able to run the full operating range of the skimmer using the gate valve air valve but you are left with a large number of possible combinations of valve adjustments so my question at this point is Is it standard practice to open the gate valve wide open (leaving the lowest amount of water in the skimmer body), adjusting the air valve to get the optimum bubble climb rate and then adjusting the gate valve to raise the water level to the neck area? or is there a standard practice at all?