skimmer question

[ren99]

I have a new setup, is my skimmer suppose to have bubbles going up the central cup and overflowing into the collection up all the time? because I have only seen bubbles going into my collection cup once.

 

[snipe]

It should be mostly bubbles you shouldnt have water flowing over into it though.

 

[ren99]

hm, but there is almost never any bubbles that come close in height to overflow into the collection cup.
Is this normal for a new setup?

 

[swnewb]

How long has your tank been setup? What is you livestock list? It is possible that there simply is not enough crap to be skimmed. If it is a new tank and/or there are few fish, this could be the case.

 

[snipe]

Most skimmers are set low and when stuff start collecting it sticks to the bubbles and instead of the bubbles popping they go up and over into the collection cup give it time it will work. The bubbles will go in and turn into water if you have water in there then your skimming you just dont want the water overflowing into the cup cause then it will over flow out of the cup.

 

[ren99]

My tank has not started cycle yet. I just put in sand and salt water to do a wet test.
Snipe, the problem rigth now is that no bubles ever come close to go up and over the top into the collection cup. In fact there is no bubble visit at the top area.
Is that normal?

 

[snipe]

Very normal for an uncycled tank. You wont start getting collection until you start adding live things to the tank. Or till the cycle is almost done.

 

[ren99]

great to know !
I thought somethign is wrong with my skimmer.
but if the skimmer is going to have nothign to skimm, then why bother turning it on during cycle? my LFS said i must have a skimmer even during cycling.

 

[ohiorn67]

good morning!! I also have a tank that is new, but I just got done cycling, I was told by most to not set up the skimmer during cycle, it is very unnecessary for there is nothing to skim and actually could make your cycle run a little longer. Good luck! I just put my first bit of cleanup crew in and I am awaiting our new skimmer in the mail any day now.

 

[ren99]

thansk for the information!.

 

[yacobito]

Hey ren99. When I first had my skimmer running I had the same problem at first. My problem however was that I had not opened the cap on the tube that air comes in through. My instructions never said to do anything with it, but when I unscrewed it tons of bubbles starting flowing into my collection cup! I have a bak-pack skimmer. This might not be your problem, but I just thought I would share.

 

[ren99]

did you have bubbles going in to the collection cup even before your tank cycled?

 

[snipe]

You dont have to run it durring the cycle and it shouldnt do anything to the cycle since it isnt do anything. Its just skimmers take anywhere from hours to weeks to break in before they start pulling anything out so most ppl let them run through the cycle so they will be working when they put stuff in.

 

[yacobito]

I figured out my problem about half way through the cycle. When I let the air in I had bubbles moving to the base of the collection cup, but didn't really collect a whole lot in it until after I finished the cycle.

 

[snipe]

That is about the way it goes.