Skimmer Fizzing but not Foaming

[Scottiemac]

Newish Great White DC12 skimmer. It worked great at first, but then stopped foaming. I cleaned it after a month and it worked until the last week, when it started fizzing again.

I cleaned it with vinegar and RO water and it started to produce great foam again until today.

This morning I looked at it and it was overflowing. The foam from last night was in the cup along with a lot of water and had overfilled my skimmate container. The chamber was again fizzing and not foaming.

I've tried various pump speed settings and airflow adjustments, all with no luck. The thing just won't foam.

Any suggestions?

 

[Scottiemac]

Answering my own question. I reduced the air flow. Not enough organics in the tank to support the higher air flow so I got weak bubbles. Reduced the amount of air and the bubbles had time to collect the organics and produce foam.

 

[Nano_Man]

Hope it is working good now

 

[provia]

Do you think we are having the same issue?
I posted my problem with the skimmer in another thread. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...n-1-2-days-of-cleaning.1044694/#post-12360327

 

[Scottiemac]

Do you think we are having the same issue?
I posted my problem with the skimmer in another thread. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...n-1-2-days-of-cleaning.1044694/#post-12360327

Sounds pretty similar. I've been closing the air a little bit at a time to produce foam. Seems to be working, but I've never had to deal with this problem before.

 

[esquare]

As long as I have been in this hobby I've never understood how to tune a skimmer. The easiest for me is a cheap old Skimz SN143 DC skimmer that allows me to adjust the speed of the DC pump which, in turn, adjusts the air. From what I understand, less air is better with less organics/bioload so I think you hit the nail on the head by turning down the air.

Please keep us updated on performance so that we can all learn with you.

 

[Scottiemac]

As long as I have been in this hobby I've never understood how to tune a skimmer. The easiest for me is a cheap old Skimz SN143 DC skimmer that allows me to adjust the speed of the DC pump which, in turn, adjusts the air. From what I understand, less air is better with less organics/bioload so I think you hit the nail on the head by turning down the air.

Please keep us updated on performance so that we can all learn with you.

It's taken a few adjustments but I think it's now dialed in quite well. Gotta say I didn't know the first thing about working with skimmers before this issue. One important thing I've learned is to just give it time. It may be fizzing at the moment, but once a few fish poop it's going to start foaming again.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Yeah when my water is too clean similar happens

 

[ScottB]

Once a month or so, I have to inject RODI into the air feed line to help break up salt deposits on all my skimmers.

 

[Scottiemac]

Once a month or so, I have to inject RODI into the air feed line to help break up salt deposits on all my skimmers.

Yes! That was the problem the first time I took it out for cleaning. Hardly any bubbles at all and then suddenly it started working again after injecting the RO in there.

 

[Kodski]

I think Ryan or Randy at BRS said that if the bubbles in the neck look like boiling water (fast popping & turbulent) then that meant there was too much air being injected. I've always tuned my skimmer using this notion and its always worked well for me.