Help! SWC Xtreme Cone 120 Not Producing Skimmate... Pics/Video inside...

[KromiX]

I'm not very knowledgeable of skimmers and how they work, but I assume it should be working better like the video/pictures I've seen of others SWC 120 Cones and how much gunk they pull out.... Skimmer has been in use for a few months now, and I clean out the collection cup AND neck of collection cup every little bit...

Tank 40Breeder, 29g long sump, Lots of SPS some softies, 7 Fish.

Filtration Equipment:

- SWC Xtreme 120 Cone Skimmer
- BRS Reactor running Carbon and GFO


Problem:

Won't Produce a decent skimmate.... I see a foam head, but the majority of what I dump out looks to be clean water from overfill into cup not dirty skimmate...

Tried:

Changing Height of skimmer (as you see I made a stand for it from eggcrate)
Increaing/Decreasing how much air is going into it
Tuning the knob that controls water height

What's the deal anyone see anything wrong or needing tuning??? All I see of "dirt/gunk" is some mud looking gunk on the neck of the collection cup (which I clean out and remove each time I dump out what little is in the cup, and some spray on the top of the lid as seen in the pics, I never get anything else thats nasty in the collection, just some light crud stuff in what mostly seems like clean water in the collection cup.... Anything look wrong? Water height of skimmer? How high I adjusted the water rising? I want some nice thick nasty gunk, there has to be some crap in my water its nicely stocked???

Video of it in action: http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7569/test.mp4

[Slim_jim989]

If I remember right the hight is Max at 8 in you might be to deep. Also have you tried the other impeller I think you should have the nw/pw and then the mesh mod one.

[KromiX]

too deep? if you look at the picture closely, its in about 7 ish inches of water (not 10) as the base is there taking up 3 inches.... Should I make it even higher and in less height???

I'm using the Needlewheel impeller....

[Omega_rains]

Sorry your having the skimmer issues - That's why I went with a Becket Skimmer. I pour out some nasty stuff out of my waste collector. I was looking at the Reef Octopus cone but went with the Beshsea Twisted skimmer after seeing it in action at the LFS - have not been happier with a skimmers performance.... Good luck and hope you get your problems figured out.. Nothing more frustrating than havings a piece of equipment that you spend some serious cash on and it is not working.. Been there done that!!!!

[reefnewbie2]

I'm having same problem but with two different skimmer, the swc 160 and the marineland 100 skimmer both on a 125g. need help aswell

[BigKahuna]

From the pictures in the original photos I think the eggcrate needs to go. I have a 160 sitting in 10 inches of water and it pulls dark goo all day long. I have the gate valve open all the way and the air valve closed off a little to get the bubbles to break where I want them. The 120 is a bit smaller but I think you need to run it at least an inch or two deeper than what I see.

[KromiX]

I had it on the floor (no eggcrate at all), and it was doing the same, so I tried building a stand......
no eggcrate its around 10", which I thought was too deep, because the manuf. suggests water depth 5-8 inches.... which is what prompted me to create the eggcrate and raise it up a bit...


so maybe I need to close the air a bit? Where exactly do I want the bubbles to break?? lol

[BigKahuna]

From looking around the web and personal experience over the last few months I think you want the uniform small bubbles to break just past the neck/body junction. After breaking it in for a week i turned the air valve all the way down then slowly brought up to get the bubbles to that point. If you almost instantly get foam hitting the cup lid you have it too high.

[KromiX]

bump for any other assistance/input..

[stanlalee]

Originally Posted by Omega_rains

Sorry your having the skimmer issues - That's why I went with a Becket Skimmer

and what possible use could anybody who's tank is small enough to use a SWC-120 cone have with a beckett, com'on man!

[hammmerhead]

Why is the intake of the skimmer jammed in the corner of the sump? How are you supposed to get a good source of raw tank water there? The size of the skimmer in your bubble trap has the whole section blocked off. I cant see where your water comes in to the sump but it obviously is no where near the intake of the skimmer. You need that intake as close to the raw water flow from the tank as you can even if you use socks or what not.. The skimmer appears to be skimming just fine from the pics. If you get that intake out of the corner you will see a big change in its performance.

[KromiX]

hammerhead, I'll try that, the water coming from the display is right behind it, i'll flip it around then and see , good suggestion, hopefully it produces more crap when i flip it, will report back

[solitude127]

I 2nd what Hammerhead said. I think you'll get better skimmate with the intake turned around

[KromiX]

Never thought of that, I just set it up that way because it puts the valve closest to me, ill flip it around ASAP when i get home

[hammmerhead]

Originally Posted by KromiX

Never thought of that, I just set it up that way because it puts the valve closest to me, ill flip it around ASAP when i get home

Take a pic of your whole sump setup so we can see the layout.

[ibnozn]

My 160 is sitting in about 7.5" of water. The sump water level is just at the top of the horizontal part of the Tee where water exits the skimmer. IMO you could go 1" shallower but try adjusting it first. Open the air up all the way and adjust the gate valve so the bubbles rise to about half way up the neck inside the collection cup, about 1" to 1.5" below the rim. The foam should not overflow into the collection cup. Leave it there. Let the head build and get funky for a day or two. If it doesn't start producing skimmate then just close the output valve a touch (meaning like 1/50th of a turn) at a time until the head starts just to reach the rim of the neck and leave it at that level. You should start to produce skimmate then.

Right now it looks like you are skimming way too wet. You shouldn't try to adjust it so foam overflows into the cup immediately. You'll just end up with the light, watery green tea like you have and you might overflow it too.

[WI reefer55]

yea you got it set to high. Leave the water level in the middle of the neck so that it does not over flow and leave it there for a day or 2. You will see a foam head start to develop and adjust it from there.

[Reefobsession]

Make sure your air intake valve is wide open. Also check and see if you haev any salt creep. I think this may be your issue. It looks like you are getting less air and lots of water.
Also lower your sump to 8"

[hammmerhead]

Originally Posted by Reefobsession

Make sure your air intake valve is wide open. Also check and see if you haev any salt creep. I think this may be your issue. It looks like you are getting less air and lots of water.
Also lower your sump to 8"

X2

Looks like you have the air cut back some. You shouldnt be able to see the bubble plate that well...(in your photos). That whole cone should be white with shredded air. Un-plug the air line from the muffler and let it take in all it can until you get this sorted out out.

[dzhuo]

I have very similar experience with my ATB 840. In the beginning, it was overflowing. After a few weeks, the skimmer settled down but it wasn't producing skimmate like I saw others had. I am now beginning to think there is really nothing wrong with the skimmer at all. It's just there isn't enough organic matter for it to pull out all the time (my tank has 9 small fish). I came to this conclusion because:

1. My tank is incredibly clean despite the skimmer not pulling out much. For example, I have not clean my front glass in almost 3 weeks now and the small batches of hair algae and bryopsis are rapidly vanishing.
2. I see a definite correlation when I feed and skimmate production. Whenever I feed the fish, a semi-foam head (still nowhere near what I saw from others but definitely better than when I am not feeding) will form which produce darker skimmate. A few hours later, the foam head disappear until I feed next time. I believe if there are enough organic to sustain the foam head, I will consistently get skimmate.

Are you having nutrient issue? If not, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[anen]

I have an SWC 120 and after a while it stopped pulling out gunk. What I had to do was clean the entire thing out, not just the neck or cup. When I took the pump apart, I had a whole bunch of stuff clogging up the intake and pump impeller, bits of macro algae, sand, and a snail! You might want to try that as well.

After cleaning it, I can tell if this is the problem depending on the motion of the bubbles in the skimmer chamber. I don't know how to describe it, but you should see "waves" within the main chamber. If you don't see this, it could be your problem.

[chadfarmer]

did you say the main tank is a 40 gallon breeder?


sandbed?

[viggen]

not familiar with their skimmers but it looks like it's not producing a lot of bubbles. When you flip the skimmer around take the pump apart & like anen states it might just have some stuff stopping the impeller from working properly. Easy to get stuff sucked in reducing the flow of air & water.

I wouldn't think flipping the skimmer around would make much if any difference but it's worth a try. Depending on the flow & current the dirty water could get pushed to where the intake is or it could be better if you flip it around.

The biggest thing to me is the h20 level is just set to hi inside the skimmr. Clear water means to high & with the size tank like others stated there might not be much to pull out thus difficult to set.

[KromiX]

Yes, 40 Breeder with 60 lbs of sand...

I'm gonna try taking it apart, cleaning, disconnecting air from muffler to suck in more air, etc..

Between each change give it 2 days to see if it did anything right?

[chadfarmer]

im going to blame it on the sandbed seen this once when a friend had a skimmer kicking butt than swapped a broken tank and the skimmer bearly skimmed for the first 6 months with a new sand bed