Trying to understand my skimmer

I have a MRC MR1 skimmer on a 90 gal system, it is powered by a reeflo blow hole 850.

I recently cleaned my riser tubes and since then I cannot get a consistent skim.

I'm not sure if it was always like this and I couldn't see it because the riser was dirty but 60 % of the time the water isn't even in the riser, 30% of the time it is skimming nicely and 10% of the time it over skims bad. This drains my system and causes my top off to flood the sump.

I have tried every adjustment with the Beckett and the drain gate valve.

Seems I had it set prior to cleaning ... What went wrong ??

Does the skimmer skim differently because of tank conditions ?

How often do you clean the riser, my skimmer ran for a month and a half with no issues since I cleaned it its been a mess.

See picture below. I have since swapped out pumps that iwaki was new and real loud. No comparison to a reeflo.



Thanks for any input.

 

Have tank conditions changed any? Any new chemicals, food, medicene, etc? I'm guessing it could be it needs to sort of recoat the inside of the skimmer since you cleaned it. One thing that effects me is pump cleanliness. If my pump is dirty and not functioning at max the amount of bubbles can be decreased. Less bubbles will cause a decrease in skimate production. My immediate reaction would be to mess with my gate valve and raise the water level because I cannot tell of there is a slight drop off in bubble production. The fluctuations in sump water height effect my skimmer a good deal. The answer to this maybe some controlled testing. If you take away one variable you can see how it effects your system. Perhaps shutting down your ATO for a day to see if it settles your skimmer to one water level. Not sure exactly whats causing it but I guess you can start testing like I mentioned. Hope this helps!

 

I would agree that it is where you cleaned it. If nothing in the tank has changed, then it just needs to recoat it's self.