Marineland 100; cannot get broke in

Mine did have a kink in it from the mfg... i fixed before ever using it.

If my bubbles are lower, I get the dark pastey stuff sticking to the neck.... I clean out and wipe off every day or 2.

Overall, I love the design of the skimmer and am pleased with the output. I just wish it was not so tempermental.

 

So does any ever make it over into the cup, or does it all just accumulate in the neck?

 

+1 on that. I notice much better performance if I clean out the inside of the neck every couple of days.

In my experience, I clean the pump every 3 months. When I did it monthly, I wasn't noticing that there was much of anything to clean. I was also having performance issues once I reassembled it and turned it on. It would be a total pain to get working correctly again.

I sometimes would even have to turn it sideways in my sump, or lift it up and down a few times to get the pump to prime.

I actually have it working perfectly right now, and I'm afraid to touch it for fear of screwing up the balance I have. In some ways it's like having some really old car that you constantly have to tinker with to keep running properly. LOL

The biggest performance improvement I got was when I replaced the original airline tube with a more flexible one.

To the OP: Is your skimmer still shooting out micro bubbles into your sump? If you're not getting micro bubbles anymore, then the skimmer is broken in.

Also, are you using any sort of pre filter in your sump? I have a media tray that I use filter floss with. I change it on a frequent basis, but I notice that when the floss is new and catching more debris, I get less skim mate.

Also, if you've taken it apart already, did you make sure that you pushed the pump ALL the way back in? At least with mine I REALLY have to shove to get the neck of the pump back into the fitting all the way. If it's not all the way in performance will suffer.

I'm just throwing every idea I have out there now. LOL

It's the only one that fits the footprint I have in my sump... so I'm stuck with it until I upgrade everything.

 

I may have to look into changing the airline tube. There are only micobubbles if I shut it off, and then turn it back on. But they usually don't last too long. 30 min. max.

I do have a small filter that I keep a little GAC in. Guess that may be catching some of the junk.

I don't see it happening anytime soon, but when I do upgrade, I'll make sure I have room for a skimmer with a bigger footprint.

 

You may have a faulty pump. I seem to remember reading a thread somewhere where a guy had the same issue, called Marineland and they just shipped him a new one.

The airline is a pain because of the way it wraps around the intake of the pump, and because it's too rigid to give it any slack when you're attaching it, or replacing the pump after cleaning it. It can get kinked or come loose without you noticing it.

 

Sorry I've kinda hijacked this thread. I thought I had the skimmer dialed in and doing good stuff before I left for work yesterday morning. Sometime during the day tho, the power went out, causing the refugium/sump to fill up with more water. This water level change was enough to make my skimmer produce the wet bubbles. When I got home this morning (I work 24 hour shifts) the cup was about halfway full of water, but very dark, almost brown water. I think I'm finally getting this thing dialed it. I'd loved to have seen what it would have looked like without the water level change.

 

Wet skimming will greatly help with nutrient removal with these skimmers, BUT they are very sensitive to water level changes. Wet skimming can turn into overflowing before you know it, even if you use the drain line to a larger container.

 

has anyone experimented as to wether it performs better in lower water or higher water? I did a water change a few days ago and my sump has another inch or so of water in it. I dialed it in bur it isnt quite as good as it was when the water was a bit lower. I am wondering if I should tinker with sitting it on a little stand to see how it acts in lower water. Right now, it is in 8 inches of water, about the max.

 

Mine has been running in just shy of 6 inches. It seems to have been doing pretty good after the break-in. I may adjust it so that it is in about 8 inches of water just to see if there is a difference in going from one extreme to the other.

 

Mine was in 8 inches... Seemed to work better in 7. Raised in a few. It is in 4.5 now. Gonna see how that does. I got a lot of think junk collecting inside the neck.

We will master these things yet!