New Eschopps S-200 Help!

fishguy242 · May 28, 2021

yes leave on till breaks in ,stopping and restarting is not going to allow it to settle .

Lavey29 · May 28, 2021

JuiceByCliff said:
It’s at 7 inches now, still overflowing like a champ. If it’s still overflowing like this after the weekend, I may call Eschopps and ask for the 120. I agree, this may be too big for my tank. Rep at Reef a Palooza assured me it would be fine for my tank, Red Sea reefer 250.

I have the Red Sea XL300 with the same skimmer and problems. Do you have the air intake wide open and the water gate wide open also? I let mine overflow like that for multiple days and it did calm down a bit but still not performing the way a skimmer should. I think also my problem is I only have 2 fish so not much waste to skim in a new tank.

JuiceByCliff · May 28, 2021

air is wide open and gate valve is fully closed. When I open the gate valve it does go down, but throws massive amounts of bubbles. I guess The correct answer is feed my corals Even more and buy more fish, hahaha.

Lavey29 · May 28, 2021

JuiceByCliff said:
air is wide open and gate valve is fully closed. When I open the gate valve it does go down, but throws massive amounts of bubbles. I guess The correct answer is feed my corals Even more and buy more fish, hahaha.

The Eshopps guy told me to leave the water gate wide open till it breaks in. Now mine is 3/4 closed and it has settled down somewhat but still not producing skim foam waste in the cup.

jgirardnrg · May 28, 2021

I had an S-150 I sold to a buddy for his tank. I refurbished it to like brand new condition and it took a couple of weeks for it to break in. Raise it a little more and let it run. It'll start breaking in and you can slowly lower to the desired height. For whatever reason those seem to take a bit to break in.

Lavey29 · May 28, 2021

Here is a current picture.

JuiceByCliff · May 28, 2021

Thank you! As long as there is light at the end of the tunnel. TBH, had I known this was such a pain in the butt I would’ve put it in a 5 gallon bucket with tabk water. Dump some reef roids or something like that in it to get it going

logansreef · Jun 25, 2022

Old thread but I'm having the same issues. Read all threads related to this and no one has a good answer. The one guy is still dealing with this 6 weeks later.....I'll sell or take it out back for target practice before I let this go on for 5 additional weeks!!
I transfered/upgraded from a 60 cube to a 120 and have the S-200 and can't get it to stop the micro bubble. I have it in about 5" of water now with a diy stand. Eshopps recommends 7-9" of water, yeah right......When I raise the gate up to lower bubbles the micro bubble shoot out the gate valve area like crazy into sump then tank. If I close air valve any the cup over flows with all the bubbles and water rushing up and in and bubbling cap off skimmer. It was a used but clean skimmer. Can't get it to stop and its been a week and a day or 2.
I've never had this issues with a reef octopus before. People say eshopps is a good skimmer but I don't see it, anything that takes this long to work right can't be that good. My display has looked like garbage for the last week now.
I should have plenty of skimmate for it to operate properly as it was a fully stocked 60 I transfered using all old water and 60 gallon new water so it got a 50% water change basically still plenty of organics in water for it to break in without it taking this long.
Now since its not in right amount of water the pump is loader than any protein skimmer I've owned. Its not as loud in 7" of water but didn't even attempt to work right at that depth.
I'm at my end with this skimmer, I have a nice trigger 39 sump (blue one) that I can adjust water level down to 7" so I had to make a stand so it stuck out more. If I would have bought retail it would be returned by now for sure.
Any tips would be appreciated, and if your tip is wait a month then please just recommend something different like,getting a different brand or something cause I can't take this for too much longer. I have hours into this stupid thing so far,lol going nuts trying same thing over and over.
Thanks

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Jun 25, 2022

Picture? Get a different skimmer. Lol.
D

Lavey29 · Jun 25, 2022

logansreef said:
Old thread but I'm having the same issues. Read all threads related to this and no one has a good answer. The one guy is still dealing with this 6 weeks later.....I'll sell or take it out back for target practice before I let this go on for 5 additional weeks!!
I transfered/upgraded from a 60 cube to a 120 and have the S-200 and can't get it to stop the micro bubble. I have it in about 5" of water now with a diy stand. Eshopps recommends 7-9" of water, yeah right......When I raise the gate up to lower bubbles the micro bubble shoot out the gate valve area like crazy into sump then tank. If I close air valve any the cup over flows with all the bubbles and water rushing up and in and bubbling cap off skimmer. It was a used but clean skimmer. Can't get it to stop and its been a week and a day or 2.
I've never had this issues with a reef octopus before. People say eshopps is a good skimmer but I don't see it, anything that takes this long to work right can't be that good. My display has looked like garbage for the last week now.
I should have plenty of skimmate for it to operate properly as it was a fully stocked 60 I transfered using all old water and 60 gallon new water so it got a 50% water change basically still plenty of organics in water for it to break in without it taking this long.
Now since its not in right amount of water the pump is loader than any protein skimmer I've owned. Its not as loud in 7" of water but didn't even attempt to work right at that depth.
I'm at my end with this skimmer, I have a nice trigger 39 sump (blue one) that I can adjust water level down to 7" so I had to make a stand so it stuck out more. If I would have bought retail it would be returned by now for sure.
Any tips would be appreciated, and if your tip is wait a month then please just recommend something different like,getting a different brand or something cause I can't take this for too much longer. I have hours into this stupid thing so far,lol going nuts trying same thing over and over.
Thanks

If it was used when you got it, did you take it apart and clean it prior to install? Mine was finicky the first 2 weeks but has been fine the past 14 months now except when it needs cleaning. I can tell when it needs to be cleaned because I can not get the bubbles to stay low in the cup to allow foam to build. Once cleaned which is very easy to do it works fine again for like 6 months. I run mine dry with the air valve all the way open and just adjust the water gate valve only.