Aquac HOB Remora Pro Questions

I hooked up my Remora Pro tonight. I think I have it correct, but I've got a few questions.

1. Does the pump have to be positioned any specific way? I'm actually kind of disappointed that the pump is so big and intrusive.
I have it facing out, but could you turn it so that it's more sideways?

2. Is my Nano powerhead fine right under it, or should I move it? Will that affect it in any way?

3. I see a few threads about "Overflowing". What's the chance of this happening?
I plan on checking/dumping the cup daily, but I mean if it's something where you have to do it multiple times or it overflows... that's not going to work.
Are the overflowing because people are leaving them un-watched for days?

4. The Break-In process, is that how long it's going to take for foam to flow into the collection cup? Right now, only 30 minutes in, it's only going like 1/4 of the way up the tube.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

Oh yeah, one more thing.

The flow knob, where do you think it should be right now?
All the way straight up and down seems to be 100% power.
I have it like 80%, is that good?



Also, there was a little black hose piece that I couldn't figure out what it was for. Is that just an extra part like a lot of the stuff that come with the pump itself?
I don't need an air-intake and such do I?

I just have the pump with the clear hose connected to the Skimmer opening, and turned it on.

 

1) As far as I know the pump can face anyway you want it to.

2) It should be fine and I don't think it will affect it in any way.

3) Overflowing can occur if you have the collection cup too low, causing it to wet skim. Or if you don't check it often enough (once a day is plenty fine), such as once a week.

4) The break in period could take up to several weeks before you get consistent foam production. My first time using a Remora it took 3 days before it started to make steady foam. To a degree it depends on how "dirty" your water is. The more polluted it is, the faster it will break in. The 2nd time I used a Remora, it took 2 weeks before it started to make foam (the nutrient level in the water was much lower so it took longer).

Hope this helped.

PS- I have no idea what the black tube is for, but if you are starting to get some foam, and the skimmer isn't pumping water all over your floor I think it's not needed.

 

Thanks for responding.
The cup right now is as low as possible.

Would you raise it up some? Like I said, there's nothing even coming remotely close to the top right now though.

The black tube I guess is just another Pump Part. The Pump came with a ton of parts that I guess you don't need for a Skimmer.

 

I'd move the cup up. Where you have it set now could cause an overflow pretty quickly once it's broken in. I would probably start it at mid way up and once it breaks in, adjust if needed.

 

Thanks
I'll move it up now...

This is what I've got in basically the last 24 hours. Seems like it's going well, and isn't too wet.

This is kind of what you want, right?
And then there's like half a CM of watery green/brown stuff at the bottom of the cup.

I checked the cup like a crazy person last night, over and over to make sure it wasn't filling up.

 

New question bump...

So it's been 12 days, and I'm not sure it's working at full throttle.
The first 7-10 days or so I basically produced what's above in that picture.

About a half a CM of gross water and some dryish bubble stuff.

For the last 2-3 days I've got nothing foaming over at all, it's only going about 1/4 of the way up the tube.
I have the collection cup as low as possible too.

Is it just that there's nothing in there for it to skim? Or is there something up?
Thanks.

 

if you have the collection cup as low as possible and its still not collecting much it might be your bio load is that small, but i doubt it. Whats your salinity like?? if its low that will affect it. also a lot of addidtives, esp medicines will make it do weird stuff.

your water level isnt really low is it??? like the pump has to push to much??

 

I own one of these and it works great took a week or so to kick in but does the job. You may want to adjust the Injector Access Screw # 7 Look at the skimmer exploded view to see what i am saying.

http://www.proteinskimmer.com/User's Manuals/Remora.pdf

E

 

i have an urchin pro, and for whatever reason it will NOT skim anything with the cup all the way down. it doesnt really make much since, but it's been that way on 2 tanks now over a years time. Try setting your cup to have about 1" above the skimmer. Have you cleaned out the neck of the cup yet? If it gets too gunked up it will block the bubbles. But, i find mine doesnt skim well until the neck gets a little bit of a brown "coating." So keep it somewhat clean, but only clean it every 1-2 weeks.