Skimmer size

[shackman]

I have a vertex IN-100 on a 29g tank with a 10g sump, i know its over kill but I am wondering if it is too much of over kill to where it will not pull anything out. My tank has been set up for about one month now and I have a Dino break out starting. The skimmer just seems not to be pulling out much. thanks in advance

[shackman]

Any help?

[ReefPlants]

Does it have any kind of flow control?

[cloak]

Do you ever think you might be able to get by without a skimmer? Go from there first.

[jflick345]

Depending on your stocking you might just not have that much for it to pull out. I have an IN-100 on my 45g w/ 20g sump and it pulls out tons of gunk but I also have 7 fish. I would just try playing with the control tube and try to get it skim a little wetter, i.e. more closed, to have the water level higher in the neck of the skimmer. It took me a while to get the hang of dialing it in

[mark54321]

do you have any fish? how many? If your bio load is very light you might not get ton of skimmate , I have Vertex 180 on my 65 gal. and works great but I have a lot of fish and inverts

[mikid]

it might be a little much,but how many fish and how often do you feed,i feed 3 times a day...8 med to lrg fish....my octo extreme 160 pulls everything out well,so maybe to much but if you dont have many fish or are not feeding much,maybe you need more fish or need to feed more?.....any fish list?....mike

[DeepFreeze]

If you don't have any livestock, or not much, it will not pull out much skimate. Basically there has to be crap to pull before the skimmer will pull crap....lol

[shackman]

I have two clowns, one six line, bangai, and algae blenny, four emerald crabs, and about five hermits

[shackman]

I think I have enough in their to be pulling stuff out.??????

[Palting]

One month in, there may not be too much to skim. Yet. Here's a trick I found. Do a water change. You should get a lot of wet foam with light yellow skimate. Not the kind you want, but at least it will let you know that your skimmer is doing something. If you get nothing at all, and everything else looks good, like lots of foaming bubbles and a good water flow, try cutting back your outflow control to almost completely shut. Again, you should start getting very wet foam in a few minutes. If you are not, then maybe, and I stress maybe, there might be something wrong with your skimmer.

[shackman]

I am getting good foam but it just dosne't reach the cup. It reaches the lid but dosent flow over very much. I really am thinking tank is just to new for such a big skimmer. Do you think once the tank matures the skimmer will work even though it is big?

[Palting]

I believe size of the skimmer shouldn't make a difference. I have the Turbofloto multi by Aquamedics, a skimmer rated up to 1,0000 gallons on my 110 gal tank, and it makes nice dark thick stinky stuff. Whenever I do a water change, I have to open the outflow valve all the way, otherwise the cup will fill with very wet bubbles and water in a matter of minutes. I then adjust it next day by closing the outlfow to about 50% to make the nice thick bubbles. If I don't adjust the next day, nothing happens other than a lot of bubbling in the chamber and no output.

Generally you should be able to adjust the skimmer to so that it makes either very thin watery stuff or the thciker stinky stuff, usually by adjusting the outflow. I don't know Vertex, but you may be able to put a ball valve on the output side and adjust it to let the water level/bubble level rise just enough to give you the "dry" foam and dark stinky skim. More complex systems allow you to adjust airflow, inflow, etc. That's beyond me.

Another thing you may want to check out is the height of your pump relative to your skimmer. If the pump is too low relative to the skimmer, the pump has a higher "head" to work with and consequently lower flow and low water/bubble level in the chamber. I hang my skimmer on my sump and I put my pump as close to the surface of the water as I can. Almost no "head'.

Check your air inlet and lines. Make sure they are not clogged with salt creep.

Lastly, clean your pump and wheel.

Hope this helps. Good luck.