ETSS 800 Skimmer Help

[ChuckG]

Originally Posted by primereefaquatics

Here is what happened to me everytime I kicked up a new ETS skimmer. It may take a day or two before dry foam begins to occur. It will be wet. You will have a solid white column of bubbles which will overflow regularly until the break in period is over. Your 5 gal bucket will fill up real quick and overflow if you don't keep an eye on it.
I suggest if you are going to be gone long like at work, for example, I woud lower the water level down just under your first black ring. When you are home and able to observe it turn it up midway into the second riser chamber.
Your adjustment should be made from the outlet valve and not the pump. If your outlet valve is wide open and it still overflows then you can adjust it from the inlet .

Nice job on your plumbing upgrade and you turned your air intake up I see.

I haven't upgraded any plumbing yet. Still just thinking about changing some things at this point.

Thanks for the advice on the skimmer. I turned the air intakes up because I noticed once the water/bubbles got to a certain height that water was dripping out of the intakes. I turned them up to see if that would help.

Originally Posted by primereefaquatics

I just noticed in your last picture you have another skimmer running. Are you using it for the same system and are you just playing with this one?

Both skimmers are on the same system. That other skimmer is a Deltec APF 600. I've pretty much decided to stop the ZEO and go back to more traditional approach. SKIM the hell out of the tank, carbon, GFO and water changes. I "may" consider a denitrator at some point though.

So I'm hoping this thing does really well. Then I'll replumb it into the system when I make the other plumbing changes I'm considering.

Plumbing problems/changes: I've got a micro bubble issue that I haven't been able to resolve. I know that it is because my drain from what used to be my fuge dumps very close to the main return pump. This was puposely done at the time to get pods as close to the pump as possible. Now the fuge isn't a fuge. It was converted to a ZEO reactor holding area. I have now removed the ZEO reactor and it is empty. I'll either turn that tank back into a fuge or use it to run this ETSS skimmer as an in sump skimmer just as a safety precaution for floods.
I want to change where this tank drains into the sump to rid myself of the micro bubbles.
I also have a few connections that are showing salt creep. Guess I didn't glue things too good the first time around so I may redo some of the plumbing just to get rid of the creep.
And lastly. The two 29 gal tanks that I have plumbed together as the main sump doesn't flow as effeciently as I'd like it to. I'd like to add a second pipe just to help the water flow from one to the other.
Not quite lastly: IF I really get antsy I may decide to change my overflows. I've been reading about a 3 pipe DEAD SILENT overflow system.

I probably should have wrote all that in my build thread. I will when I actually get around to doing those things. Right now I just need to see how well this new skimmer will work.

[ChuckG]

Need more advice on this skimmer.

To me it appears that it isn't running right. I realize it needs to break it before I'm going to see a foam head but the head of bubbles I see now don't seem right. The water level surges by about 1 inch and I'm getting some BIG bubbles that come to the surface as well as tiny bubbles. I could understand this if I was feeding it from an overflow but the pump "should" be keeping things constant - shouldn't it? The surface just seems why to chaotic to me to even form a head if it wanted to.

Video of ETSS 800 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[Patrick™]

You absolutely need to keep the level half way between the square base and the top of the large tube. Once it breaks in and starts to foam you may still have an overflow. Your video looks normal. These can take up to 9 days to fully break in and then the minute you touch the water in the tank it will kill the foam head and take about an hour to re-establish. But man o man do they skim the crud!

[ChuckG]

I think I know what you mean. Good thing I didn't leave it like I had it set. I opened the drain wide open and it was just a bit over half the first chamber. I'm choking the pump back just a bit to make sure I don't flood over night. Of course I bought a damn defective HD ball valve. I have to take a wrench to the darn thing. This will be one area where I will use a gate valve when I replumb it for the long term.

[DaveK]

Originally Posted by ChuckG

Need more advice on this skimmer.

...

This thread is three pages long and that skimmer still isn't working right yet!(grin)

Sometimes the effect you see in an incorrect air to water mix. This can be adjusted by connecting a valve to the air intakes on the towers, and adjusting that to control the mix. You can also fine tune the skimmer by adding or removing some of the 1" bio-balls in the tower. The exact number of these is may vary because of the pump being used, and the exact flow. Some testing is need to get this just right. You only want to adjust by 1 or 2 bio-balls at a time.

The effect can also be caused by the water level varying in the sump, but we have covered that previously.

When set correctly, these skimmers tend to produce a thick, dark skimmate. I cleand mine today, and you wouldn't believe the amount of "glop" that get picked up inside the skimmer. I got to "muck it out" for real. I will admit that I have been lax about cleaning it lately.

[Patrick™]

You definately want to spend the money on a spears gate valve. To set the skimmer correctly it should look like a rolling boil at the surface. Open pump fully, then adjust wit h the air until you get the rolling boil effect. Not big bubbles but the surface kinda dances.

Then adjust the water height in the tube with the gate valve. You do need the precision of the gate valve to set it appropriately.

[DaveK]

I have to agree with Patrick here. A gate valve on the skimmer's output side is an absolute requirement to it to work properly. I think I mentioned this before, but a 1/8 turn on the gate valve makes the difference between the skimmer working correctly, not working at all, or flooding.

Yea, I know gate valves are expensive, but they are needed in this application.

[ChuckG]

I have a gate valve on the outlet side of the skimmer. It's the pump outlet that I just slapped a cheapo ball valve on to see how this thing would work.

No foam yet.

[DaveK]

On the supply side, it's not really an issue. A cheep ball valve will work fine.

[ChuckG]

Can't say I wasn't warned.

I "thought" I had things dialed back enough but today was the day. I came home to the bucket overflowing and the tank water diluted from 35 ppm to 30 ppm. Not sure how much water I lost but I think a lot of it is underneath the wood flooring. Guess I have to worry about a mold issue now.