protein skimmer is releasing lots of air bubbles into the tank
- Thread starter joec21
- Start date
cincyreefer
Active Member
I would turn the skimmer off until the cycle is complete.
S
slofish
Guest
Ive got the same skimmer. Just like kipass said, it does take a couple of weeks to break in a skimmer. mine took about two weeks before the bubbles started to disappear. also, if its a new tank, it wont skim anything for a couple more weeks. Give it some time, its normal
S
slofish
Guest
Originally posted by cincyreefer
I would turn the skimmer off until the cycle is complete.
IMHO, i dont see any problem leaving the skimmer on, it'll let your skimmer break in while youre waiting for your cycle.
hookedonreefs
Member
SLOfish -
from all i've read on this forum, and what I thought about in my seemingly logical mind....
running a skimmer during the cycle process increases your chances of having a longer cycle. Rather let the tank cycle, then throw on some bioload and let the skimmer crank up. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that's how I did things, and the cycle was fairly short, and the skimmer broke itself in pretty quickly.
...FWIW
from all i've read on this forum, and what I thought about in my seemingly logical mind....
running a skimmer during the cycle process increases your chances of having a longer cycle. Rather let the tank cycle, then throw on some bioload and let the skimmer crank up. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that's how I did things, and the cycle was fairly short, and the skimmer broke itself in pretty quickly.
...FWIW
moonrs
Member
Are you still having problems with the air bubbles? In case you are, I had similar problems until I realized that I'd not adusted the airflow properly. Believe it or not, when the air flow was set to minimal, there were more bubbles than with an increased air flow. Whenever you adjust the airflow in the skimmer, do it VERY slowly. Doing it too quickly makes it very difficult to determine when you've adjusted it enough. Turn the air-adjustment knob maybe one cm at a time and then wait several minutes to see the effect. Also, the water level can affect the level of bubbles you see. If your skimmer is emptying back into the tank above the surface of the tank, the turbulence alone could be enough to cause additional bubbles in the tank. Hope this helps, if you still need advice.
doodle1800
Active Member
I have the same skimmer - it didn't need a "break in" time. You need to play with the air flow more and not observe results in an instant - give it a few minutes. Take all the air out and open the air valve up until you see bubbles in the chamber - then open it more - use your ears - seriously, listen to the airflow - you'll hear it top out. When it does back it off just a little and wait a minute or 2...
let us know if this helps
ps.. I ran mine through the cycle and my cycle time was normal.
let us know if this helps
ps.. I ran mine through the cycle and my cycle time was normal.
soupysteve
Member
How much bubbles should you have anyway? I wait until I can see a faom building up at the top of the cylinder - as I would think that's needed to get the gunk up in the collection peice - but MAN does it ever send bubbles into my tank when I do...
moonrs
Member
The goal is to not have ANY bubbles that are being sent back into your tank. The water flowing from you skimmer back into your tank should be free, or nearly free, of bubbles. This is because the more bubbles that go into your tank, the less efficient it is. The whole concept with the skimmer is that the stuff you're trying to get rid of (the extra protein, which comes from a number of things, like un-eaten food, fish waste, dead fish, etc.) "sticks" to the bubbles that are rising up through the water. So, the more bubbles you have rising up through the skimmer's cylinder (but not going into the tank) the better it's doing it's job. Your skimmer is not working as good as it should if you have alot of bubbles going into the tank. Just the opposite, in fact. With a large number of bubbles flowing back into your tank, your basically defeating the whole purpose of the skimmer in the first place, because a majority of the water flowing back into your tank is "unskimmed." Adjust your airflow intake until you don't see any bubbles, or very few. BTW, I run my skimmer 24/7, with good foam production. Good luck.