Skimmer help

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opie77

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So I managed to get my 125 up and running. Rock in, sand in, sump running. Skimmer doesn't want to cooperate. Had my bro in law Bobby give me a hand. Hes lost too. I bought the http://www.scaquariums.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SCA-302 SCA-302 skimmer. Every review said it was awesome for the price.

So I put it together, ran it a day in a 5 gallon bucket of WC from my 37g tank. Once my 125 was full of saltwater and rock/sand, I put it in the sump and plugged it in.

All it will do is overflow with bubbles spilling out of the collection cup and pour micro bubbles out of the return. Even with the setting at 0. Twist the return tube to max and it overflows the collection cup with water. I let it run for 4 days in the sump to break in and no change. Its putting out so much micro bubbles that my bubble trap cant keep up.

The skimmers is supposed to be a knockoff of a Bubble Magnus. I have my skimmer chamber depth at 11". Skimmer is sitting in 8.5" to 9" of water. If I put the skimmer in deeper water, it overflows the cup and pours out bubbles out of the return. Shallower? water drops out of cone, but still pours out bubbles out of return.

Im lost. I have everything up and running. Seems this tank did not want to run again. Between heaters being too small, pump going bad, too much sand, RO gravity feeding onto my floor (DOH!) and a hundred other stupid mistakes/problems, and now this skimmer, Im determined to see this thing go!

HELP!!
 
I don't know if it helps but I have the little one and it really works best in a much lower water level than I expected (or stated if I remember correctly). I built an egg crate table and it helped a ton. I love the skimmer but it is finicky. Any increase in water level seems to overflow the cup pretty quick. Not sure if the 302 is the same design but tiny increments are required on the flow control pipe to dial it in. Tiny. Hope it helps
 
I think if you raise it up out of the water a little further it will function a lot better. I have the same skimmer that is rated for 65 gallons and it works great. But I had the same problem with it sitting too low in my sump. Try raising it up out of the water a bit and see how it does.
 
Thanks guys! First thing in the morning Ill be cutting some egg crate to raise it up.
 
If it is brand new and there isn't a lot of crud in the tank to skim you won't see the bubbles rising that high up the cone. I just bought a new RO skimmer and had to get used to the whole overflowing thing...my old skimmer was fine no matter how deep it was in the sump. It took a few days to break in before I was getting some good skimmate. Now since it is rated higher then the size tank I have it goes in spurts producing skimmate, it needs enough organic matter to rise up the cone. +1 to what was said above, build an eggcrate stand.
 
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