Did I break my skimmer?

[spazthecat]

Hi,

Last weekend, I took my skimmer (Octopus NW-150 recirc) apart to give it a good cleaning (it's been a while). While I had it apart, I thought it would be a good idea to bore out the air intake a little because I've been having problems with it clogging up. So, I got my dremmel out and started enlarging the diameter of the intake stem that sticks off the side of the elbow that connects the pump to the skimmer chamber. Well, I kind of goofed and ended up boring through the elbow and into the lumen of the PVC elbow.

So, now I basically have an extra hole in that connecting elbow. I put everything back together, fired up the skimmer and it is producing WAY more foam/bubbles than it ever had before (pulling in more air). Which, I thought would be a good thing. But, it isn't producing any skimmate. It's been a week now, so the skimmer has had time to "slime up" again.

Is it possible to have too much foam in a skimmer? Did my unintentional mod alter the bubble size too much?

Thanks,

Andy

[danorth]

I think we need a pic of the skimmer.

[NealNano]

Give it few more days my octopus took a while to break in.

[spazthecat]

Hi,

OK, three pics:

This one is just the skimmer itself. The neck getting dirty, but no skimmate.

This one shows the pvc elbow connecting the skimmer to the pump. Note the air intake coming off the left. I went through this opening into the lumen of the elbow.

This last picture is a top down view of the pvc elbow. The normal air intake hole is facing you. I drilled through the stem that sticks out on the left into the lumen of the elbow.

Thanks,

Andy

[A sea K]

Judging by the first pic I would suggest raising the water level a little at a time until it starts skimming again. Looks too low IMO.

This does'nt make sense unless you lowered the water level after you did the mod. If your pulling more air with the same water level on a recirc skimmer it should overflow if anything.