Wet foam... how do I adjust skimmer for drier?

[FlaTidBit]

I have a Precision Marine Bullet 1 with a Mag 12 pump that I bought used. It's up and running but I can't seem to get it adjusted. I have either no foam or it is very wet. Whenever it appears to be drier it won't bubble up and flow over the neck into the cup. Any hints or suggestions on how to get a dry foam would be greatly appreciated.

 

[trido]

First of all, I dont have a PM skimmer and am not familiar with them so my solutions may be unacheivable. How much time are you giving the skimmer to settle in after adjusting it?
Any skimmer will usually take a couple of hours after messing with it, to skim like its supposed to.
IME this is what happens with my skimmer. I adjust the water level and walk away. It skims very wet for the first day until the neck gets a bit dirty and it then skims like I want it to. I usually clean it every four days due to a very heavy bioload. Alot of reefers clean thier collection cup once a week. When I used to skim dry the skimmer would act like you are describing, it would barely get a foam head to the top of the neck and would eventually give me dark green gunk in the cup for the first couple days. Then the neck would get so gross that the skimmate actually couldnt foam up over into the cup at all. When that happened I figured I wasnt getting the best of my skimmer so I started skimming wetter.
I would recommend trying to skim wet to start and see how the skimmer settles in after a while. A new (or newly cleaned) skimmer can take from a few days to a month to break in and skim to peak performance.
As long as you arent pulling out a gallon a day its worth a shot. I hope that helps. Good luck

 

[nowood]

I did the same thing; got a used p.m bullit 1 and have the same problem as you are having too wet foam that seems to be comming out like clear water in my overflow cup or it seems I get really dry skimmate but it won't travell up the neck of my skimmer... I don't have the instructions for the skimmer, but here is what I have found out.. Oh by the way I'm using a mag 7 for a pump... thats what the guy gave me with the set up he said it worked, my p.m looks older than the newer ones posted on the p.m. website, but same design... wondering if i mabe need a larger pump... mine is installed out of sump... step 1 open gate valve on drain fully open... assuming you have a gate valve. 2 turn off all air blue vale on injector. 3 ajust water level no more than 1" above black/grey box or just inside reaction chamber. 4 turn air on to the 5 or 11 oclock position, waterlevel should raise and then lower. 5 re-adjust gate valve so that water level is around the same spot 1" mark and let skimmm..... dont touch any thing. the p.m websight says this will work remember not to touch the water or adjust the valves it takes 24-48 hrs for this skimmer to break in and even feeding your fish will foul up your skimmate and make your skimmer run flat. though | really have no luck with mine.... yet mabe togeather we can figure this problem out. I don't think its my pump being underpowered but rather my bubbles being unstable. I have this skimmer running in my 75 gal bow frnt which i am cycling as we speak and it should be pulling crap out like crazy (tank looks really dirty) and has been cycling for about 4 weeks. my best advice is to go to there website check it out and see if yours works mabe ours both will magicaly start to work... i think I just have to leave mine alone for a couple days good luck let me know if you get fed up with yours and just get a different skimmer, i'm starting to think that way.....

 

[Skimmy]

3 yr old thread...

and yes, get a larger pump for that pm 1 bullet...
like at least a 1200gph pump.
700gph isnt enough to do crap for a beckett injector

also take the black beckett injector out of the clear housing, take it apart and make sure it's clean