I hate my protein skimmer, please help me.

[reefrefresh]

I have a 65 gallon mixed reef, which is currently thriving. However I am really struggling with my reef octopus 1000 hang on back protein skimmer. I will start with a disclaimer, I know a hob skimmer is not the ideal setup, I would love to have a sump and refugium and and and, not possible at this time, so I am doing my best. The tank parameters are good, cycled, with about 10ppm of nitrate, which I think could be improved by more efficient skimming. The skimmer has been running on this tank for four months, I waited to post any questions to allow for break in of the unit, but things are getting worse not better. I need to know how to most effectively adjust it because currently it runs 24/7 and the cup either yields nothing, lower the cup a millimeter, and it fills then overflows with what appears to be clean tank water. So I know different chemicals or other miscellaneous events can cause it to go crazy like this, to be expected. I am waking up in the middle of the night to buckets of water on the floor. Is there any simple way to divert this overflow straight back into the tank? This would be preferable to further damage to the floor. And why isn't it seeming to skim out organics? The skimmer cup is consistently devoid of any of the nasty kind of smelly stuff I need it to remove. I do have a bioload, and obviously the nitrates indicate this. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a hob skimmer in the $200 range that has an automatic overflow back into tank? I have heard great things about the reef octopus line but something here isn't adding up. I appreciate any feedback.

 

[dz6t]

Can you post a photo of the skimmer setup? How old is the pump?

 

[reefrefresh]

I am trying and trying and failing to add pictures. They have to be resized and cropped and edited and I just don't know how to get them right. I am going to keep trying but might I ask is there a hang on back protein skimmer that addresses the issue of overflow by diverting back in to the tank? I should add that I don't have the budget for the deltec 600 that I drool over. Since I already spent money on the reef octopus, I am aiming for spending another $200 if possible. Does anyone know if the remora skimmers address the overflow concern?

 

[phg1960]

I am running one of these on a 30 gallon seahorse tank. It seems to pull a pretty good amount of skimmate.

When I was researching this skimmer, I read a lot about it overflowing and that was a major concern. I have yet to see that happen though.

Most of the posts that I read did mention that the output tube was too long and created back-pressure in the return. I was going to experiment with the length, but when I first installed it, I didn't like the look of it sunk so deep into the tank and just went ahead and cut the output tube to half the length. That might be something to experiment with.

Another thing that comes to mind is to make certain the pinwheel is clean. The Bubble Magus 180X in my display tank will overflow when it's pinwheel start to clog.

 

[Bobbofin]

Octopus skimmers are usually pretty good. I never liked HOB skimmers or overflows because of the chance to overflow. I vowed 15 years ago to never have HOB devices ever again for this exact reason. I always have a sump even on my 40 breeder. You could drill a hole in the cup just below the height of the inner tube, attach a fitting and hose so if overflow occurs it will go back into the tank or the open side of skimmer. Since I stopped put all kinds of supplements in my tank other than alk, calc, mag or AcroPower my skimmers is very stable.

 

[CoralJunkie]

Are you dosing anything?

 

[s_kelley]

There are a bunch of mod's that can be done to those hang on's
Search your model online

 

[reefstarter]

I had one when I started , but having no experience with them after a while I went with a sump and internal skimmer . good luck wish I had some way to fix or help it

 

[CrypticLifeStyle]

http://postimage.org/ You don't have to do anything except upload it, then paste the link here.