Skimmer

[Conroy3000]

Hi all, Ive been running a 40 gallon setup for over 3 years, in it are a pair of perculas, a flame angel, a regal tang and a yellow tang, all of which were purchased when only a few months old. There are various corals in there all doing brilliantly. My only problem (other than quite a few Aiptasia) Is that im only having to empty my skimmer about once a month. Its a deltec MCE600, (a bit OTT for a 40G, but will do for when i go bigger) which has been in for over 2 years. The staff in my local shop say i should be emptying it 1 - 2 times a week. ALL my parameters are perfect, crystal clear water etc. Im feeding my fish flakes in the morning and 2 frozen cubes of brine shrimp etc in the evening. The corals get a cap of marine snow every 3 days. Its probably nothing to worry about but would like to hear anyones views on this. Sorry to go on and on about what ive got and what i do but i figure the more you know the better.

Cheers

 

[Musho3210]

with that heavy feeding and bioload, id say something is wrong with the skimmer or its adjustments.

 

[jflowers]

How much is in the cup after 3 - 4 days? ours only has a couple of mm of skimmate, but needs cleaning anyway as the bubbles will not stick properly to a slimy tube. Even if the cups not full, it needs cleaning twice a week at least.

Jon

 

[Conroy3000]

Ill clean it all out now and let you know how much is in it in a few days.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

I use a mce600 on a similar sized tank 180l , i don't feed as heavily as you do and I have to empty the cup twice a week(could do it once but it would be brim full).
To get mine running as good as possible,I ran it without the cup with the valve on the air intake fully open then measured how far it was from the top of the bubbles to the top of the skimmer and then closed the valve a tiny bit gave it five minutes and measured again.I repeated that until I found where the bubbles came highest and thats the most efficient point
Having said that though if you've got good water stats and everything is thriving......

Hope that helps
johnny

 

[SkiFletch]

My guess would be that your skimming "dry" and not collecting much water when you do skim. Try to follow the tweaking methods for the skimmer to raise the air-water interface and skim a little wetter.

Might be time to give the powerhead operating it a little clean

 

[Conroy3000]

After 4 days got about 20mm in cup, (cup goes to a point though). I found a bit of fluff in air valve, hopefully will be ok now.


Thanks for help

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

The other place to look on a mce600 for airline blockage is the little bit of hard plastic tube that joins the airline to the pump they tend to get alot of crust in and need periodic cleaning.