Orca skimmer issues.

[jaymz]

Hello everyone it has been a very long time since I have posted here as i had been out of the hobby for a few years.
Anyway, i have recently taken over care of a 300g tank at a university and I have been having some issues with the skimmer.
This skimmer is a fairly new large Orca brand skimmer. This skimmer is way bigger than any I had ever used personally but is generally the same. The issue is I can not keep the skimmer producing enough microbubbles to make foam. Sometimes I will walk in and it is working fine out of the blue and then tomorrow its not. I can usually tweak the flow up and down and get it to work but it will stop working after a matter of hours or a few days.
I have taken then pump off and made sure there was no obstructions in an lines. Maybe the pump is going bad? it seems to be pushing water fine.
Any help/advice is greatly aprreciated as I am not a fan of the extra glass cleaning.

 

[2quills]

It may not be a problem with the skimmer itself. Can you tell us more about the system? There's a pretty big list of possibilities that could be attributed to what you're seeing in the skimmers performance.
What's the maintenance schedule like? What types of additives are you using in the system, if any? Other forms of filtration being used, etc...that kinda stuff.
BTW, WB!

 

[acrylic51]

The Orca's are needle wheel based pumps, and there are quite a few things as Corey mentioned that can affect the operation of the skimmer. My first check would be the air line to the skimmer......Constant fiddling with the adjustment on the skimmer isn't a good idea.....Any skimmer can take off wildly, and without being there an a ATO shut off on the collection cup could spell disaster as well.

 

[jaymz]

Ok, the Tank is a 300g reef like tank. reef fish not much coral at the moment. Maintenance schedule is me monitoring the tank everyday to see what needs done. The tank is pretty self sustaining. It has a 75g sump with lot of live rock and RO autofill. Main tank has 6-8' sand bed with live rick and multiple in and out flow ports. With metal halide lighting. No additives are being added at the moment. The calcium reactor has not been running for a few weeks now but don't see that as a skimmer issue. I would say there has not been enough organics for the skimmer to go but there tank is full of fish, inverts and coral. And the glass is getting dirty way faster than usual. The skimmer has only been this was for about a month it seems.
The air tubing to the pump is not clogged. I have been suspecting something with the air flow tho because it is just not sucking any air. The pump seems to be pushing enough water past to make suction. Really not sure.

 

[acrylic51]

Good deal on the air line not being clogged......Again there are so many things that can affect or influence the skimmer action.....Even a change in the air quality where the skimmer is housed could affect it's operation. When I ran my MRC beckett skimmer, just me lighting a cigarette in my fish room would cause the foam head to collapse. I would adjust it and leave it run and see how it goes.

 

[2quills]

Yeah it just makes me think that there's something not quite consistent going on. Curious to know how the water top off's are being performed and what model Orca is it? Agreed, small adjustments at a time spaced out over a day or two before you make the next adjustment. Might take a minute to get it dialed in to what the current conditions are in the system. But as with everything, consistency is key.