My Skimmer won't foam up

[safety4fire]

My skimmer is not foaming up and collecting waste, It used to fill up once every two-three weeks, does any one know why it does nothing now?

[Scavenger]

Without knowing what skimmer you have, we can only guess. A good start would be a thorough cleaning. I know my venturi (aka air intake) sometimes clogs with salt buildup blocking airflow. Hence no foam. Hope that helped.

[niloc16]

while the skimmer is running stick the air tube for the venturi in a big glass of hot water and it will clean out the airline and venturi from salt creep

[Scavenger]

while the skimmer is running stick the air tube for the venturi in a big glass of hot water and it will clean out the airline and venturi from salt creep


Slapping self upside head!! Why haven't I tried that? I've been taking it all apart to clean out manually. Thanks for that tip.

[andresont]

Slapping self upside head!! Why haven't I tried that? I've been taking it all apart to clean out manually. Thanks for that tip.

Stoping the skimmer for an hour and injecting small ammount (just to fill in the tube and ventury) of vinegar in to ventury works really well too.

[safety4fire]

I will give it try

[supersmile]

I am now having the same problem. I put my air intake thing into a glass of hot water and that seemed to work for about a day but now again it isn't foaming up again???? Now what could be wrong. My skimmer is only about 1 month old!

[mr_alberta]

Is there no foam at all (i.e. no bubbles whatsoever?). Have you cleaned the skimmer neck? What skimmer is it?

[bubblepuffer]

Do you have a power head blowing to the intake of the skimmer in the tank? or too much water floor that blowing directly to the skimmer intake might cause the problem. Noticed that everytime I move the power head around and my Remora Skimmer won't foam bubble or skim less when power head blow to the intake

[kwirky]

have you removed the venturi from the pump and had a visual check of the venturi nozzle? I've had to clear rock hard blockages with a meat skewer before. Sometimes it's a little too hard for hot water to clear out.

your pump might need an entire cleaning with a vinegar solution. pick up a 4L of vinegar from superstore or something, and remove your pump, venturi, and impeller, and let them all soak in a vinegar solution of 2 parts vinegar to 1 part water. If you're nervous pulling your impeller out, it's usually fine to just drop the entire pump into the vinegar solution (just have to leave it in longer). I was having the same problem, and when I called euroreef, the guy suggested that once every 2 months or so. fixes most of my problems every time I do it.

oh, and if there's a valve on the end of the airline tubing, maybe try removing that? could be restricting air flow

[Jaws]

I have similar problems with my Euro Reef. I used to have to pour hot water into the airline tubing once every two weeks or so. My frustration is that once the airline tubing blocks up then the skimmer starts to overflow. Now, even after taking the pump apart and chipping away some salt crip with a knife, I have to use hot water every three days. Only on one pump though. I haven't done a good vinegar cleaning in a few months so maybe I'll try that.

[Palster]

One thing I found after many months of struggling to get my protein skimmer to work properly is how important it is to have a constant water level in the sump around the skimmer. My old sump did not have baffles in it so I would often (mistakingly) let the water level drop a fair bit before topping off the sump. I have since installed a sump that has baffles in it to allow the water level around the skimmer to remain constant and my skimmers performance has improved very dramatically. Now I just need to install an auto top off. I know a lot of people have baffles in their sump to keep the water level constant around the protein skimmer but I thought I would offer this suggestion for those that don't and are having problems with their protein skimmer.

[crystalz]

If the hot water trick only lasted for a day there is still probably salt creep in the venturi intake. if the skimmer you have has a small venturi air intake you may have to clean it by taking it apart . I have a css 65 and have to clear the creep manually unless i catch it when it's just starting to build up