Aqua C Remora Pro Break In Time?

[rileybb]

i hear that skimmers take a bit to break in i bought this skimmer used its on my 135g i have bought two but only have one at the moment. it started off great then just stopped the constant foam into the cup.
should this skimmer take a few days to adjust to my tank even tho it was already running on a tank previous, i just don't understand the break in. when we say this is this only on brand new skimmers fresh out the box or every time there are relocated on a new tank any help would be great especially if you own or owned one of these skimmers and had this problem.
thank BJ

 

[natclanwy]

Skimmers have to be broke in every time they are removed from the water and dried out or cleaned. The length of time depends on how thouroughly and what was used to clean it. My estimate would be 2-3 weeks before it starts consistantly producing foam and then it may take another few weeks to adjust it where you want it. The best part about AquaC skimmers is once you get them adjusted apart from weekly cleaning you never have to touch them again.

 

[natclanwy]

Also another thing that may be going on is when these skimmer get close to breaking in they will produce foam like crazy, mine overflowed about 5g of water onto the floor when it did. It could be the foam you were seeing was from this break in and now you need to lower your skimmer cup because it has removed the impurities that were causing it to overskim.

 

[rileybb]

in the first 12 hours it pulled out a full cup of green/brown thick water and then stopped i put some purple up in the tank to see if this would affect the skimmer as i was doing my weekly dose and yes it did do basically what you said in your second post started to skim again so what does this mean and is that good sign or bad.....is it saying i have junk lets get it out the tank or when dosing these type of product do you unplug.

 

[natclanwy]

I'm not sure how purple up normally reacts with skimmers since I don't use it but many chemicals can either collapse the foam tower or increase the surface tension of the water causing the skimmer to overskim. Also feeding or putting your hand in the tank can cause the foam to collapse due to the oils in the food and on your skin and it can take a couple hours or so to break them down before the skimmer will start again.
I do shut the skimmer off while I am feeding so that it give the tank inhabitants time to eat the food before the skimmer removes it. Other than that I don't shut the skimmer down and I stay away from additives that cause it to overskim.

 

[stanlalee]

If it was cleaned out with vinegar it goes thru another little mini break in. I found this out when I ran mine thru vinegar. needless to say I wont do that again unless absolutely neccessary. just being left dry and a basic water and wiping clean wont cause it to break in again. I have put two skimmers out of commision for 6+ months and they started working right back up within minutes from a rinse and wipe cleaning.

 

[reeferrookie]

Mine took about three weeks to start pulling out good skimate. I also had a very light bioload at that time. As others have said, these are very sensitive to water additives and changes.

 

[triggerz92]

My Remora took a little over three weeks to break in