Skimmer efficiency affected by return rate???

[barracuda]

I am just curious, if water return rate to sump may affect the efficience of protein skimmer, which is sits there. It's already 2 weeks since i installed Red sea Berlin classic skimmer, and i'm not getting almost nothing in the collection cup. I tried it with EHEIM 1060 pump. I have just bought RIO2500 and IMO it cannot drive the skimmer. At least that's what i see. Any suggestions???

 

[adrian]

Im a little confused as to what your asking, whether its if the return rate in your sump, or the rate of the pump on the skimmer that effect its performance? In either case its normal for a skimmer to have a break in period, especially on new tanks in which there may not be enough organics to be skimmed. I have a berlin classic that has run on three of my tanks, on each tank I had to use a different pump, on a 29 I ran a mag five, on a 75 it was run by a mag 7, on my 55 the mag 5 was too big, so If I ever put it back on I will try a mag 3.5. Have you adjusted the venturi? The key is experimenting with different pumps and adjustments, but if this is a new tank you might be wasting your time and money <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" /> HTH

 

[uncle fester]

Been using this skimmer for several years now. Love it! Cleanliness is an issue, but it's part of weekly maintenance for me. As far as the returns needing to be above the water level in sump...not 100% true. I hard plumbed in a 90 degree elbow then pvc all the way to bottom of sump. The catch is, there must be a way for excess air to escape. I took the pvc pipe and using a table saw, cut slots halfway thru the pipe. Voila! No problems.