Skimmer Help

bbb

bbb

Member
I'm trying to get my skimmer working but I have a few questions.
1. Is this how it's supposed to look?
2. Any ideas as to what the little white thing does? (circled in red in third pic) It goes in and out of a little hole in the side.
3. Water is leaking out of somewhere around the white piece. Any suggestions on how to stop this?
4. If I turn the piece on the collection cup (circled in green in the third pic) up the water slowly drips out of the top. If I turn it down the water quickly flows out. Which way should it go?




 
jlm48

jlm48

Member
I'm not familiar with this brand of skimmer, as I'm a Euro-Reef guy, but It looks like it's skimming pretty good! Sorry I can't help with the other problems, but it looks as if it's pulling a lot of junk out of the water and minus the leaks I think your alright.
 
bbb

bbb

Member
I figured out that the air tube goes through a couple of little holes by the white

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so that you can adjust the amount of air.
Any ideas about the leak or a way to tell where exactly it's leaking at?
 
sign guy

sign guy

Active Member
Originally Posted by BBB
I'm trying to get my skimmer working but I have a few questions.
1. Is this how it's supposed to look? yes
2. Any ideas as to what the little white thing does? (circled in red in third pic) It goes in and out of a little hole in the side. looks like an adjustment valve of some kind
3. Water is leaking out of somewhere around the white piece. Any suggestions on how to stop this? depends on what the matirial is where the leake is acurrung at. is it a gaskrt or a hole?
4. If I turn the piece on the collection cup (circled in green in the third pic) up the water slowly drips out of the top. If I turn it down the water quickly flows out. Which way should it go?
what comes out of that hloe skimemate?
 
bbb

bbb

Member
It's a drop of water every 5 seconds or so and it's somewhere around where the white piece comes out at. I'm not sure exactly where it's coming from.
 
bbb

bbb

Member
It's right in the middle of Pitt County. We're about two hours away from Atlantic Beach. According to google it's 241 miles away from Monroe and the trip would take 4 hours and 18 minutes.
 
trippkid

trippkid

Active Member
Where is the tubing going from the collection cup fitting(green circle)? It looks like it is going back into the aquarium. If it is, that is wrong. It needs to drain into another container, or plug the fitting and you'll have to empty the cup manually. I may be seeing it wrong from the pics, but that is what it looks like to me.
 
trippkid

trippkid

Active Member
Do you understand what or where you need to go with that hose? The skimmer looks like it is working good, I would just get a 1gal or larger container and run the waste hose to it. I use an old salt container, it holds like 3gal.

Matt
 
bbb

bbb

Member
Yeah, right now it's draining into a 64 oz. cup from the gas station. Do you think that will be big enough? My mom will have a fit if I try to run the line to a bucket outside of the stand. The cup fits inside the stand and it's not feeling up all that fast. I'm glad you said something because that stuff is pretty nasty looking. I guess when it was draining back into the aquarium it just defeated the purpose.
 
bbb

bbb

Member
Here's what it looks like now. I figured out where the air hose goes and the dripping has slowed down a lot even though I didn't really do anything to stop it. The larger cup is where the collection cup drains to and the smaller one is catching the drips. The second picture is what has collected in the cup since about 6:30 this mourning.

 
trippkid

trippkid

Active Member
Put some teflon tape(get at any hardware store) on that white piece, it should stop the leaking. Also, with using such a small container to catch the waste, make sure you keep emptying it daily. Sometimes your skimmer will kind of have a mind of its' own and start wet skimming(a lot more water, less dry foam), when this happens, you'll wish you had a bigger jug. It may happen while not home,sleeping, etc.. I'm not trying to freak you out, but with having the skimmer external and collecting the waste in such a small container, I'm afraid at some point you will have a mess on your hands, I meant to say floor. I would do the teflon tape on the back pressure adjustment, you may want to run that as open as you can with out leaking, less chance for wet-skimming scenario. And get the biggest container you can get to fit in there. It can pretty much be anything to catch the junk. Maybe a tall tupperware container would fit better. It is good to have a lid on it, helps keep the smell in a little. Just drill two holes in the lid, one for the tube and a breather hole, doesn't have to be as big as the other. Hope this helps you some.

Matt
 
trippkid

trippkid

Active Member
It should be the white piece that was leaking. By turning the

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in or out should raise or lower the water level inside the skimmer, allowing you to adjust the type of skimming you want, wet or dry. Try turning it in, and see if the water level rises inside the skimmer, if it does, the little white nylon

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is acting kind of like a ball valve of sorts. I would adust all the way out, then slowly turn in and get it where you have bubbles coming into the collection cup(darker green), you don't want a lot of water(light green). I hope this helps and not confusing for you. If you have any more ?'s, please ask, I'll try to answer what I can for you.

Matt
 
bbb

bbb

Member
It's starting to make more sense. Should the stuff coming from the collection cup be liquidy once it drains into the cup or do I did to adjust the white piece some?
 
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