Bullet skimmer adjustment tricks

[Randy]

Hi Gang,

I just read a recent post regarding Bullet skimmers. Everyone said good things. I have one and am not as happy. It seems that it either gives dilute skimate or none at all. I have a hard time getting that happy medium.

It is equipped with a gate valve for control and I use a external Iwaki pump to run it.

How do people adjust this unit? And do they have to constantly readjust it (daily or even more often)??

Thanks.

 

[DavidY]

I just followed the instructions. First make sure the air valve is off. Then slowly close the gate valve until the water level is about 1/4" up the clear body, above the gray box (it takes a couple of seconds for the water level to adjust after turning the gate valve). Then open the air valve to 3/4's full. The entire body (not the neck) should slowly fill up with white foamy water. You may need to leave it for an hour or so. Keep checking on it every now and then to make sure it's not overflowing. Make adjustments to the air valve slowly and in small increments until you start to get some skimmate moving up the neck. Also, adjust the gate valve if necessary so you can still see the water line just above the gray box. It may a take a day or two before you get the adjustment just right. After that, you should be able to turn it off, clean it, and turn it back on again without having to fiddle with it too much.

 

[JohnK]

yea, david covered it well.

You do most of the adjusting with the air valve. Set the water height, open the air valve part way and let it run for a while and adjust from there.

It will seem like it's doing nothing but then after a day or two it will be overflowing with faom if the air alve is open too far. Check it frequently during the first few days, you'll probably need to keep restricting the air more and more, but after a while you'll hit the sweet spot.

The thing that makes it confusing to dial in is that you won't see how your adjustments are working until it sits and runs for a good day after each adjustment. I drove myself nuts at first with mine because I would make an adjustment and expect to see nice foam after a matter of minutes. If it was foaming in that short time, it would be going totally nuts the next day. If it's set right it will seem like it's doing nothing until the next day.

Once you get it right it will need little to no fiddling. If it's working for a while then suddenly seems to stop producing, the beckett probably needs to be cleaned.

It's a lot less frustrating/flood inducing if you have a waste collector attached so it will shut down if it overflows. Otherwise it's very easy to make a wrong adjustment and have it pull out 5 gallons overnight.

 

[doog]

cleaning

make surfe you clean the injector regualry also. Calcium and salt buildup weekens the airintake. Took me a good 4 months to get dialed in now it cranks

 

[JohnK]

Also sometimes a valonia bubble or odd crud will get pumped into and stuck in the in injector.

(that's what I was referring to when I said "If it's working for a while then suddenly seems to stop producing, the beckett probably needs to be cleaned.")

 

[onespot]

I also have a bullet 2. I am having a few problems with mine and getting the "right" setting. If I leave mine sit for 24 hours with the water level low in the first neck...it will fill with foam, BUT...as soon as I feed, the level will drop again and I need to wait again.
I just recently made a few mods to my set up(not the skimmer itself) by adding a vented drain, but, I still need to keep the water level about 1/2 way up the first neck and adjust air from there. And the skimmate is tea colored at its darkest. I cant seem to get that elusive coffe colored skim that I get with my HOB remora on my othre tank
I just plumbed the drain straight into my sump to see if that will help and not much better...maybe even not as good as the vented drain.the drain is barely covered in water and I think this is effecting the performance. I think I need to have it pour out into open air to work right.
Anybody else got suggestions?

 

[Aquaman_68]

I also have a bullet 2. I am having a few problems with mine and getting the "right" setting. If I leave mine sit for 24 hours with the water level low in the first neck...it will fill with foam, BUT...as soon as I feed, the level will drop again and I need to wait again.
I just recently made a few mods to my set up(not the skimmer itself) by adding a vented drain, but, I still need to keep the water level about 1/2 way up the first neck and adjust air from there. And the skimmate is tea colored at its darkest. I cant seem to get that elusive coffe colored skim that I get with my HOB remora on my othre tank
I just plumbed the drain straight into my sump to see if that will help and not much better...maybe even not as good as the vented drain.the drain is barely covered in water and I think this is effecting the performance. I think I need to have it pour out into open air to work right.
Anybody else got suggestions?

Keep the drain above the water level & it will work better.

 

[JohnK]

"BUT...as soon as I feed, the level will drop again and I need to wait again."

Don't let that throw you off, the foam should collapse when you feed or stick your hands in the tank. Just leave it, and the foam will be back to normal in a bit.

for the drain pipe, up size the PVC if you can fit it, I run the 1.5" outlet on my bullet 2 into 2" pipe. Where the drain goes down, use a T fitting with an open end pointing up and insert a short section of pipe up high enough to contain any splasing. Leave the pipe sticking up open, don't cap it. This way the drain is fully vented and should be unrestrictive. If it's noisy, insert a wad of filter floss in the top of that vent pipe to contain the noise.

Also, if the water level in the sump varies, it will cause lots of fluxuation in the drain flow. If the pipe is out of the water, you won't have that problem, but you may have a lot of noise, splashing, and possibly increased microbubbles in the sump.

 

[buddie]

the drain can go into the water as long as you have a vent if you want to reduce noise and splashing this works well

 

[DavidY]

My skimmer sits in my sump with the output fully submerged and it works fine. I have a float-valve RO/DI top-off so the water level rarely changes (only when I forget to refill the RO/DI reservoir). When the water level drops it does reduce the output of the skimmer, so it would be best to have yours setup so that the output remains constant relative to the water level.

 

[Aquaman_68]

My skimmer sits in my sump with the output fully submerged and it works fine. I have a float-valve RO/DI top-off so the water level rarely changes (only when I forget to refill the RO/DI reservoir). When the water level drops it does reduce the output of the skimmer, so it would be best to have yours setup so that the output remains constant relative to the water level.

It cuts down production when fully submerged & PM doesn't suggest it!!

 

[DavidY]

It cuts down production when fully submerged & PM doesn't suggest it!!

Interesting. Now I'll have to mess around with it and see how it does if I elevate it above the water level.