OBD Signature Protein Skimmer Owners Forum

[mfinn]

OK, Mike.
I did turn the air volume down, and kept turning it down looking to see if the larger bubbles would go away. I went down to near shutting off the air completely and the larger bubbles never went away.
I only turned it down this low for a couple seconds. Didn't want to mess up the pump.

 

[mojoreef]

Marty you should get some larger bubbles coming off the ends of the stones as it is a crosscut but all the bubbles acroos the stone should be tiny. That is what I am saying normal operating look is. If it looks to you that you are not getting that then we can swap out the stones and perhaps they have gone to large a pore.

 

[mfinn]

Marty you should get some larger bubbles coming off the ends of the stones as it is a crosscut but all the bubbles acroos the stone should be tiny. That is what I am saying normal operating look is. If it looks to you that you are not getting that then we can swap out the stones and perhaps they have gone to large a pore.

Even when I turned down the air flow, you could still see the larger air bubbles coming from the whole lenght of the stones. Both sides.

I'll give you a call tomorrow.

 

[mfinn]

If I needed to reduce the airflow to my skimmer I would put a tee in the line and valve the line going to the skimmer, the excess would then exit thru the tee, I have seen people use an air-stone at the end of the tee for this purpose. I'm not saying that valving without a tee would harm it, but I'm a little OCD and err on the side of caution every time. Of course I am the kind of guy who buys special soap to wash my hands with before touching aquarium stuff.. I have been called excessive lol

The air is going to go the path of least resistance. Wouldn't the air stone on the tee be it?

 

[Ichthys]

The air is going to go the path of least resistance. Wouldn't the air stone on the tee be it?

I imagine you would have to valve both legs of tee, and fiddle with it, tbh it seems like more of a pain than its worth. I guess Im kinda lucky, my skimmer seems to produce decent foam and good skimmate, it is a little wetter than i would like but not enough to mess with it. I run my skimmer intake thru the pellet reactor and the gate valves on the intake and output are both wide open. My air pump is not valved or teed, i run it wide open as well. All in all I am satisfied with the performance of my OBD skimmer, it seems to do the job without too much fiddling. I will try to post some pics later this week.

 

[mfinn]

I'm also curious about how much air needs to be restricted. I wish I had a air flow meter that would go up to the maximum of the air pump output.
I do have one, but it only goes to 50 scfh. The pump is 85scfh I believe.

 

[txaggie09]

Also interested in this. If the potential is there to have too much air why isnt there a way to regulate the flow included with the skimmer. The reason I didnt go back with reef octopus is because I didnt want to have to modify another skimmer to get it to work correctly, at least not in this price range.

 

[mfinn]

I imagine you would have to valve both legs of tee, and fiddle with it, tbh it seems like more of a pain than its worth. .

yeah plus the fact the one 3/8" plastic needle valve cost me about $8 plus shipping.

I do want to figure a way to cut down on the flow and not put any strin on the air pump. Even if it is just for a short time.

 

[mojoreef]

Ok so Marty we are going to swap out those stone for ya because you should not be getting a bubble that large across the face of the stone. So hopefully that takes care of the issue.

As per restricting the air, I was just looking to see where the water line was with out the air mix, also I wanted to see if their was any difference when the pressure was lowered. As Ichthys said you never want to restrict the air pump for any long period of time as it will make the pump work to hard and can damage the diaphrams.

txaggie09

Also interested in this. If the potential is there to have too much air why isnt there a way to regulate the flow included with the skimmer. The reason I didnt go back with reef octopus is because I didnt want to have to modify another skimmer to get it to work correctly, at least not in this price range.​

They are several ways to regulate the skimmer in terms of size of tank, bioload and so on that the skimmer has, as in the water coming in, the water going out. The air input is normally something that your not going to have to play with on this skimmer. But in light of Marties issue we will include a valve for the air from here on.


Hope it helps

Mike

 

[txaggie09]

They are several ways to regulate the skimmer in terms of size of tank, bioload and so on that the skimmer has, as in the water coming in, the water going out.

Appreciate the reply, but a little more on this would be helpful. I have a 120 gallon tank, 55 gallon sump (running with probably 30 gallons in it). Fish include a foxface rabbitfish, kole tang, flame hawkfish, 6-line, dwarf flame angel, and a snowflake eel. Any advice on how to adjust the skimmer would be good. Right now a lot of "crap" is building up on the neck of the skimmer and on the inside of the pipe that goes up into the cup but nothing is producing into the actual cup. If i block the flow coming out of the skimmer any more it just fills up the cup with water. So there doesnt really seem to be a good in-between.

 

[mfinn]

Ok, I have been getting a little more in the way of darker skimate in the past week. It's taken a couple two or three weeks trying to find the sweet spot where the skimmer works at it's best, even with some larger bubbles.
With the air going wide open and the incoming water wide open, I have just been using the outflow gate valve to make any adjustments.
Each adjustment with the gate valve is just a tiny turn on the valve, then let it sit for a day or two.
Too big of a turn and water just goes up way too high, or foam head just drops out of the neck all together.

 

[txaggie09]

Ok, I have been getting a little more in the way of darker skimate in the past week. It's taken a couple two or three weeks trying to find the sweet spot where the skimmer works at it's best, even with some larger bubbles.
With the air going wide open and the incoming water wide open, I have just been using the outflow gate valve to make any adjustments.
Each adjustment with the gate valve is just a tiny turn on the valve, then let it sit for a day or two.
Too big of a turn and water just goes up way too high, or foam head just drops out of the neck all together.

Thats what ive been doing air and water in are unrestricted, just using the gate valve to adjust water output. Problem is the smallest turn (as small as possible) seems to be too much one way or the other. Could be that the skimmer is too big for my tank, but not sure. Its either one of two options. 1. crud builds up in the skimmer neck or 2. the cup fills up with water. Right now i am letting it do option 1 as at least that is taking some junk out of the water but I am hoping to get it producing better.

 

[ReefPestSolutions]

txaggie you should be able to dial it in to perfect. can you not dial the water in back a little?

 

[txaggie09]

As far as i can tell there is no way to adjust the water in. I will have to check when i get home to see if there is an adjustment on that pump.

 

[mfinn]

As far as i can tell there is no way to adjust the water in. I will have to check when i get home to see if there is an adjustment on that pump.

You would need a gate valve to adjust the flow.

 

[txaggie09]

I dont think im spending any more money on this for something that may or may not work. I'm curious to see what mojoreef has to say before i buy anything else.

 

[mfinn]

I stopped by OBD Friday since I was working a couple miles from there and picked up the new air stone from Mike.
As soon as I got home I started put it in without the air pump on and let it soak.
This morning ( Sunday @ 7am) I flipped the switch on the air pump and I can see a big difference.
I don't see the larger bubbles and I can hardly see the air stone.

 

[mojoreef]

Hey Tex I am going to pm you my cell number so we can just talk you through it, a lot easier then trying to go back and forth here.

Mike

 

[txaggie09]

Thanks, i got your PM. Gotta say, thats great customer service giving out a cell number on a Sunday. Ill give you a call later on and we can get this thing straightened out.

 

[mfinn]

Anybody have pictures of their skimmer with skimate?
You know,,,

Lets see some dirty pictures.