Deltec Mc 500

[tomo_garf]

Hi guys, bought a second hand skimmer off ebay for my office tank set up. The tank was filled with re mineralised RO and the salt went in yesterday. overnight i left the skimmer going and when i left it there was no bubbling over into the cup.

To my horror this morning very wet froth is spitting out of the hole in the top of the cup! the wier plate was all the way down and the cup was a good 5-6cm above the unit. How do i calibrate the cup/wier plate height? if i put it too high nothing enters the cup at all- i cannot find a happy medium.

The tank contains some dried out live rock which i hope will recolonise with bacteria after adding some fresh living rock, this is why i have the skimmer on a new tank ^^.

heres a pic

the cup was actually higher when i left it overnight.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[PaulasPets]

Right now there is not much in your water to be skimmed out. I see almost perfectly clear water in your skimmate cup which means that your skimmer is working on a too high setting. Try adjusting the air input to a lower setting instead of adjusting the cup hight. It can take a day before the foam rises high enough to spill into the cup.

Paula

 

[tomo_garf]

thanks paula, that was exactly what i needed to know. The instructions say to turn the air tap to about the 2 'o' clock position, seems that this is too much.

I was expecting a lot more as the rocks in the tank were plucked straight from my previous reef and left to dry. surely all the dead matter will pollute the tank?

 

[tomo_garf]

hmm, im also getting quite a lot of micro bubbles. Is this a problem? makes the water look a little fizzy and I know seahorses dont like them (not that i plan on keeping any).

 

[PaulasPets]

I'm not sure how your skimmer works but my skimmer will only release bubbles into the tank when too much air is put in. Other possible sources of microbubbles would be the water plunging into the sump or your pump output, but I don't know what your total setup looks like.

Paula

 

[tomo_garf]

Tank shot 1 day old


you can just about see the fizz coming out fo the skimmer at the top left. I turned the air right down and now i am getting a constant but slow supply of skimmate.

ta

 

[PaulasPets]

what's your skimmate like? It should be a nice dark color (dark like coffee) if its too light turn down the air a little more.

Paula

 

[tomo_garf]

theres practically nothing in the cup at the moment, maybe in a couple of days i will be able to tell you