skimmer??

[taylorab85]

I have a 35 gallon FO tank that I house a Volitan Lion, Heniochus Bannerfish, and a long nose yellow butterflyfish in.I purchased a Aquarium Systems SeaClone 100 for it and it has been up and running for about a month now.The tank is pretty established (about 4 months) and I have no sign of anything in the collection cupThe only other filter I run on it is a Magnum 350.Is there any reason why nothing is coming out?I know I have it all correctly hooked up.Could anyone help??????

[MikeS]

hmmmm...well either the tank does not have enough nutrients in the water column to produce skimmate (which is doubtful) or something is wrong with the skimmer itself (more likely).

Do you run carbon in the magnum filter?

Also what is your SG? If your SG is too low, the bubbles won't be fine enough for the skimmer to work properly.

How is the airflow through the skimmer? If improperly adjusted, this could also explain the lack of production. With mine, I open the needle valve ( I replaced the cheesy air valve that came with the skimmer with a simple plastic needle valve, works much better) until air starts to bulid up at the top of the tube running from the powerhead to the skimmer. Once it does this, I back it off just a little until the air pocket no longer builds up. This seems to be the air mixture at which my seaclone works best.

Mike

[taylorab85]

yes I do run carbon in the magnum and right now my sg is at 1.014 due to the overcrowding.Can you show me what a neddle vave looks like?Also, how do i adjust the airflow on it??? :?

[MikeS]

Your SG is probably your main problem....this value needs to be around 1.023-1.025. At that low of SG, the skimmer probably cannot make fine enough bubbles to be productive. That's why skimmers don't work on freshwater tanks, the SG is way too low.

My needle valve is just a simple T-valve like you would use on an air line...the advantage over the cheesy twist top one that came with the skimmer is that you can make much more fine adjustments...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=3690&Ne=40000&R=7624&N=2004+113029

follow that link....that's what I'm talking about....

I put this valve at the end of the airline leading to the powerhead, you then just simply adjust the valve until you get the desired amount of air mix in the skimmer...

hope this helps....

Mike

[taylorab85]

so should I just unplug it??

[MikeS]

Probably no harm in leaving it plugged in until you get your SG up where it needs to be.

Mike