Skimmer Trouble Shooting Help....

Alright.... I am stumped.....

All was working great..... except I had too many bubbles coming from my drain lines and over flowing into the pump section. I ended up deciding to tear out my sump plumbing to correct some previous errors and add a bubble tower to correct the bubbles issue.

Completed that, plumbing all working well. I had too much flow going into the refugium before, now less into the refugium and more into the skimmer section. Water level is rock solid.

BEFORE dorking with it, my Warner Marine K2 Skimmer was working awesome and skimming away.

AFTER.... it is overflowing with the gate valve completely open.

The water level might be slightly higher because of the increased flow... maybe an 1/8" of an inch.

So I raised the skimmer by putting an extra layer of egg crate under it to raise it 1/4 inch.... still overflowed.... raised it 1/2".... 3/4".... 1.5"..... Still overflowing!!!!

Now during this process.... of course.... nothing can be simple.... Somewhere in there taking the skimmer in and out of the tank I bumped the neck where the gate valve connects to the cone and broke that connection. I re-exopy'd it and am confident I fixed that.

The pump it producing massives bubbles... I am out of ideas as to what it wrong....

I really can't make the water any shallower... and besides it was working perfectly before I changed the plumbing.

Can't figure what I did to cause it to suddenly be such a bubble monster.

Any ideas??

M

 

Weird. When you say massive bubbles are you talking quantity or size?
FYI - Jon at Warner Marine does take calls and will help here..

 

Quantity.... they are microbubbles.... there are some larger ones... but so many smaller ones that it just fills up and overflows....

I let it run for a few hours with the collection cup valve open.... constant stream of water flowing out from the overflow.

I sent John an e-mail at his support@ email account.

Really weird....

It is an awesome skimmer.... I just can't figure it out....

M

 

Might sound too simple, but try feeding a small amount of RO/DI freshwater into the air line. You'll be surprised how little dirt or dried salt it takes to partially block the intake, which will cause such an issue.

Hope this helps.

 

Before... when you say it is putting out too many bubbles.... what you really mean it is overflowing. The only thing that causes it to overflow is a blocked air line. The venturi was cleaned when I sent it, but it could have some build up now. You could have trapped something with the changes.... but something is clogged.

If you changed your overflows and put a mix of bubbles and water to the skimmer... it would just put out more air, it would not overflow. Overflowing is caused by air restrictions causing the impeller to pull more water than the air it was designed to.

So look at the air line.... take the venturi off the pump.... it just pulls off.... inspect the clear plastic tube to make sure there is nothing in it. Then look at the impeller and make sure there is nothing in the pins.

When it was running for me... it put out some micro bubbles.... no other owners said theirs did. I didn't care because my bubble traps were effective at removing them. Jon and I figured I only saw the MB because I was at higher altitude. My point is that you do not have a MB problem, the venturi can not pull TOO much air.... it can only pull what it can pull. You are pumping too much water and not enough air.

What does the air meter say?

 

Air meter bounces but it is around 17 l/min

I'll take the pump off tomorrow and inspect it....

M

 

Sounds to me as if after re-doing the sump lines the water is as if an additive was added, what I mean is we all know from time to time when we add something to our tanks the skimmer can go "crazy". Sounds like it is breaking in again. I would let it run half open or a little less for as long as it takes to settle down, within reason, of course. I have had a Coralife skimmer take about 48 hours to settle down, real aggravating.

 

If you changed how the water enters your sump, it's possible that you are getting more back pressure on the output of the skimmer which could cause the bubble height in skimmer to run higher.

I agree with everyone else though. It sounds like it's most likely something in the air line that got knocked loose.

 

unclejed wins the prize.... very odd...

While having the skimmer raised 2" higher than normal, I let it run for over night but having the valve in the collection cup open so the water would just drain back into the sump.... the overflow rate slowed... so I closed the valve.... the collection cup filled about 1/3 fairly quickly.... then it slowed some more and then stopped.... I turned the gate valve to try and raise the bubble line.... let it run several hours..... finally, I lowered the skimmer back to its original level.... gate valve all open.... and it appears normal again....

very odd.... don't understand completely.... but it appears to be working.

Mark


K+ to unclejed.