etss skimmer won't foam

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freetareef

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Joined
Nov 15, 2007
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393
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arlington, wa
:?:i just set up my etss skimmer and it was foaming for one min then i unpluged it and set up the rest of my plumbing and when i pluged the pump back in it didn't foam at all. it is the 800 modeli think... i have a iwalki 55 hooked up to it... the twin towers are full of bio balls to the top... i tried it half full of balls too... i really need this skimmer to work and i have no idea how to make it work... any help is appreciated.....:?:
 
You might have to prime the line and may need to do what I do to one of my pumps I have a Duo Bakpak and one of my pumps is a pain in you know what so I take the airline remove the air adjuster and blow into it and it starts working.
 
:?:i just set up my etss skimmer and it was foaming for one min then i unpluged it and set up the rest of my plumbing and when i pluged the pump back in it didn't foam at all. it is the 800 modeli think... i have a iwalki 55 hooked up to it... the twin towers are full of bio balls to the top... i tried it half full of balls too... i really need this skimmer to work and i have no idea how to make it work... any help is appreciated.....:?:

Ah! ONe thing I know for sure cuz I made that mistake before. Each tower should contains exact 22 bio balls (large). These balls should fill up about 3/4 height the tower or less... You might need to adjust air and the return water for best result but you have to have the right balls count first. Check out this link for more info:
http://www.superskimmer.com/Bio%20Balls.htm
 
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ok...22 in each tower now. thanks ilovereef... there is no way in hell i would have found that out with out you. i just read the entire manual and i didn't see that, so thanks for the link. i guess i have to wait for it to "kick in" now. it said one hour to one week!!!! wth!!!
 
:?:i just set up my etss skimmer and it was foaming for one min then i unpluged it and set up the rest of my plumbing and when i pluged the pump back in it didn't foam at all. it is the 800 modeli think... i have a iwalki 55 hooked up to it... the twin towers are full of bio balls to the top... i tried it half full of balls too... i really need this skimmer to work and i have no idea how to make it work... any help is appreciated.....:?:

Give it time. They are one of the best but one of the most tempermental skimmers out there when it comes to oils and/or what ever in the water. When you finished up your other plumbing is what caused it to stop skimming.

Be very patient. It can take a few days for the initial break in. When you do make adjustments, make VERY small ones.
 
okay thanks. it is starting a small head of foam now... just looked like that thing would never do the job lol!!!
 
I would also suggest you run your skimate into a bucket when (not if) if overflows, it goes to a drain or even the sump.
 
close the gate valve a little more to raise the water level in the skimmer. it takes a while to find the sweet spot also make sure the water level in the sump stays constant as the change in back pressure will also change the level in the skimmer. i have had mine for years and i think i finally have it figured out. oh i also forgot, make sure you keep it clean or it wont perform very well
 
take a pic of how it's set up in the sump, if you can...
but, the things that i would suggest would be to restrict the air inlets with valves, and to make sure the gave valve outlet is above the water level in the sump, and, an iwaki 55 isnt enough...you need i'd say at least 900gph feeding each injector, so i would suggest a 1800-2000 gph pump with a valve on it for adjustment, or like 2 smaller pumps, one feeding each injector.

i even had a rio 3100 (950 gph) feeding my reef devil and i didnt have to throttle it back at all, and the entire reaction chamber was filled with foam, no visible water line...
another thing i did to increase performance was to take out all the lame ass bio balls it comes with, and replace with some i had lying around that had 1/2 the thickness of needles on it, as well as the needles being more numerous,
and they were diamond shape, not round.they had little male and female parts on the top and bottom so you could stick them together if you wanted, i'll try to see if i can find a pic online of the ones im talking about, they were very large bio balls that took up almost the entire space of the downdraft injector, and, i only had 2 of them in the bottom, that's right, only 2.
massively better performance than stock.....
 
these are the ones...
you might need more than 2 in your injectors, as i recall they are bigger than on a reef devil,
but i just stuck 2 together and dropped it in.
probably like 2-4 for each of yours
 
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hmm... ok i'll take some pics and you can give me some pointers skim.

the manual said to use the iwalki 55 but i've been reading up on these skimmers and a lot of people use the 70's and even a few had 100's on them!!!

so i hope this can get figured out cause it is a mass $$$ skimmer and it acts like a old guy hobbling up the stairs...
 
hmm... ok i'll take some pics and you can give me some pointers skim.

the manual said to use the iwalki 55 but i've been reading up on these skimmers and a lot of people use the 70's and even a few had 100's on them!!!

so i hope this can get figured out cause it is a mass $$$ skimmer and it acts like a old guy hobbling up the stairs...

I am running the iwaki70 and it skim great, Anyway, the water lelel should be raised up close to the bottom of the neck and buble will fill up the neck when is adjusted appropriately.
See my picture below, I clean mine twice a week for the best performance.
dsc0934zz9.jpg
 
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