ASM skimmer ?

I currently run my asm G3 with a Sedra 3500 (bought the wrong pump) skimmer in 8" of water which seems to be the recommended depth. The bubbles in the skimmer body stay in the top half of the skimmer body, when I tried running the skimmer in 14" of water the bubbles completely filled all the skimmer body and the skimmer flows more water through it.

I am right in thinking its better to run it at 14" and get more air and water passing through the skimmer than the slower flow/less bubbles at 8"

My tank has been running a couple of months but I have not seen the performance I expected from the skimmer I have the water level set so the bubbles are half way up the collection cup, it builds skim up thick on the inside of the cup but does not collect in the cup.

 

Get the right pump. I have the exact skimmer(no mods), the right pump Sedra 5000, and the height of my water is approximately 10-12" of water in that part of the sump.

I adjust the lift tube until I have mass bubbling at the base of the neck where the collection sits. Doesn't matter for me how much water is the sump, as long as the suction is not grabbing air, the ventri tube isn't blocked, and the lift tube (where the water spills back into sump) is at the correct height, it works awesome.

Tell me about your system. Gallons of the tank and how long you have had it setup

 

Tank is a 180g with a 55g sump, sump has skimmer, return and approx 20g refugium I also have a 3ft 39w UV sterilizer. Tank has been running with me for about 2 months but when I bought it the previous owners were running the tank but left everything turned off for about 1 month before I picked it up.

Tank has 220lbs of live rock 3 RBTA's some hammer and torch corals. Fish I have are 5 damsels, 1 chromis, 1 gold head goby, 1 engineer goby, a 18" snowflake eel and a 8" porcupine puffer.

If I drop the skimmer deeper into the water it flows a lot more water and air through the skimmer. The bubbles completely fill the skimmer which is what I expected it to do.

Could this also be caused by the skimmer not having the correct pump on it, the difference between the G2 and G3 is only a 1" difference in how tall the skimmer is.

These pictures may help explain what I mean about the amount of bubbles in the skimmer.

Skimmer at 8" chamber is half full of bubbles.


Skimmer at 14" chamber is almost full of bubbles.

 

I have the asm g2, and have run it for a year on a 120. I had to borrow a friends sedra 5000 for the whole year, and just recently bought the sedra 3500 to replace it, and what a difference! The 5000 consistently pulled out thick, nasty skimmate, but the 3500 is barely pulling light tea. I've read a ton on these skimmers, on reefcentral, and everybody says to upgrade the pump to the next level up, so, if you normally use a 3500, go with the 5000, and so on. Even on the g2 it makes a huge difference. I even did the venturi mod, on my new 3500, and still, not as good as the 5000. I ended up buying a used g2, with pump, off of a clasifieds section, on another forum, because it was as cheap as a new pump. Both g2's, with 3500's underperform the one g2, with the 5000. Some people recommend a better brand pump, while othera say the sedra.works better than the others. I'd go with the sedra, unless you want to experiment.

 

I've had the ASM G2 w/ Sendra3500 running on my current tank for 5 yrs now. I had similar issues initially until I did the gate valve mod. The mod allowed me to tweak the skimmer to achieve the performance I needed, my total volume is ~115g. It pulls thick gunk weekly, anyone that seen my tank (or pics) will tell you it's very clean...too clean for some of the corals I keep. I don't ever target feed my coral, instead I dump a teaspoon of skimmate back into the tank when I clean the cup, the corals go crazy. I would suggest doing the gatevalve mod. good luck

 

I wish I could do that, too, but I have limited space in my sump. If you decide to do the gate valve mod, check out reefcentral's asm threads. There are a ton of mods you can do. Mesh wheel mod, gate valve mod, venturi mod, recirculation mod, drain cup mod, and a bunch no one named. Just google reefcentral asm or reefcentral asm mod, and several different, connected threads should come up. Be forewarned, they are 30 pages or so, each, and you have to read a lot of repeated info., to get the good stuff. The only problem with the gate valve, and recirc. Mods is, they take up a lot of space. Other than that, I've heard good things, about both. Let us know what you decide.