62G Starfire Reef [40x18x20]

[JDigital]

Operation "Skim Damn You!!!"

I can't recall if I made any mention of it in this thread but I have had a lot of frustrations with trying to dial in my Reef Octopus XP2000sss skimmer since day 1.

From what I can remember I read that 9" was the optimal depth for the water level in the sump, I'm almost bang on 9" so you can see how things could get frustrating when I can barely get this skimmer to skim.

By my math, I've MAYBE collected 3/4 of the skimmer cup full worth of skimmate since I started this tank. Really not that good and I considered myself to be feeding rather heavy, so this lack of skimming has not been ideal.

While my PO4 reading this week gave me a 0.08ppm reading I still feel this lack of skimming has had a part in my difficulties with this tank so tonight was the last straw. The boys at Concepts had suggest that I raise this skimmer to around 5" of water depth rather than 9" to get better performance from this thing.

So I went out to Home Depot to pick up some egg-crate. Home depot here in Airdrie apparently closes at 8pm now!! I ended up finally finding egg-crate Rona. $12.59 (and 1 Large Steeped Tea) later I was on my way home.



I didn't go right up to 5" yet. I built my skimmer perch to 3" to raise my skimmer to 6" depth and in doing so my sump level dropped somewhere between 3/16"-1/4" putting me at approx 5.75" (which just so happens to be what Bulk Reef Supply has on their site for optimal depth). I'll try that out for now and see if my skimmate increases.

[daplatapus]

Ya, I had an SRO int2000 as well and it didn't work well at the depth they said either. Mine seemed to work the best right around 6" if I remember correctly. One thing I found though is that it raised the effluent discharge a fair bit and the water exiting the skimmer got noisy. I put an elbow on it which did quieten it down but I found out that if you turn that elbow down all the way so that it's totally submerged, it air locked. SO I had to turn it a bit so at least a bit of the elbow was out of the water so that air could escape.

The other problem I had was that piping isn't standard size and I had to use a bit of spa flex filed down on one end to connect the elbow to the discharge of the skimmer.

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Ya, I had an SRO int2000 as well and it didn't work well at the depth they said either. Mine seemed to work the best right around 6" if I remember correctly. One thing I found though is that it raised the effluent discharge a fair bit and the water exiting the skimmer got noisy. I put an elbow on it which did quieten it down but I found out that if you turn that elbow down all the way so that it's totally submerged, it air locked. SO I had to turn it a bit so at least a bit of the elbow was out of the water so that air could escape.

The other problem I had was that piping isn't standard size and I had to use a bit of spa flex filed down on one end to connect the elbow to the discharge of the skimmer.

I'm curious where you had your gate valve set on the outlet nozzle. Mine doesn't seem to be much more open that it was before.

As of this morning I still didn't really have any substantial amount of skimmate in the cup. Good amount of foam right at the top of the collection cup neck though.. I've had this thing overflow on me a few times so I'm nervous to close down the gate valve much more than it already is.

[daplatapus]

It's been almost a year since I've had that skimmer, but it seems to me I had it closed a fair bit.