SC65 Microbubbles.

Have had the skimmer for about two months now and still haven't been able to stop the microbubbles. Have it running in about 6.5" of water. Here is a video of it in action. Sorry can't get a good angle because of its placement, anywho: SC 65 Skimmer - YouTube.


As you can see there is serious amounts of bubbles coming out of the skimmer. I have talked to the manufacture many times and he has no real answers. I can't even really get the thing dialed in and steady. It will work nicely for a few days and then all of a sudden the cup with fill full of water, even when nothing has changed and the water level remained the same. I am running it at about ~4 on the adjustment knob. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

Try running at 3.5 for a few days it will be a dryer skim but should would more Effecent and have less micro bubbles

Mine skimmed wet at 4 and would over flow the cup randomly
3.5 helped me tons and then I fell in love with my skimmer lol

 

i had such problems with a similar skimmer. Mine worked fine for about a week and then one day micro bubbles began to push out from the bottom, a good quantity. I have tried everything to fix it. I have tried to adjust the amount of air going to the motor, the hight of the cup, the placement in the tank, re assembling it. But nothing worked. After 5 months it still has micro bubbles with the cup dispenser full of water. I'm in the process of buying a new protein skimmer as there is nothing to do for mine atleast.
Sorry to be a downer.

 

This is exactly my problem. Microbubles are blasting out the bottom of the blue adjustment tube. Is there some sort of baffle/bubble guard that goes into the blue 3-way tube?

I have even tried placing the skimmer in the bath tub hoping that there was less bubbles but no avail.

 

Turtle, I have the SC150, and it works great.

Is the fitting between the pump and the skimmer body tight?

That's way too many bubbles, something is wrong somehow.

 

Yes the fitting is tight. Here is a picture of it in the DT, you can really see the problem. imgur: the simple image sharer


You can see the bubbles in the cone go all the way down to the output exit, so there is nothing stopping all the bubbles from launching out. I have tried it at every water level possible and always same results. Are the bubbles supposed to be down that far in the cone?

 

Turtle,

Do as I did for a solution to your problem, (if you haven't already tried this)

I have an air adjuster I got from one of my MaxiJet powerheads that I put on the end of the air intake. It adjusts the amount of air being let in. An air adjuster like this may help you.
I use it on mine so that I can get more flow thru the PS, my SC150 runs on about #2.8-3 ish, without it, I have to run it at 2-2.5 to get the skim good.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/protein-skimmers/cheap-ez-mod-ps-sc150-126888.html

Changes in the production as I'm sure yhou know can also be influenced by the amount of solute in the water. Things like water conditioners skim out big time.

Good luck

 

holy smokes, I have exactly that piece already. Will try that right now!


edit: dude, you are the man. That literally fixed all my problems.

double edit: I'm so happy now.thanks dude