Protein Skimmer Trouble Shooting
 

Hey guys,

so Ive got my Aqua Medic TurboFloter Shorty 5000 skimmer that Im trying to get it to start collecting.

It seems to be running very well, now that I can run it in my new sump rather than externally.

As soon as I get the venturi going after the chamber fills it has a ton of fine bubbles and the foam goes up the reaction pipe quite heavily. At the start it collects somewhat brown water but not that much. I think it might be running too wet, but I havent ever run a skimmer before.

What do you guys think Id do? I feel like at the rate it goes right now itd fill with not that dirty of water in like a couple hours. I obviously dont want to be changing it every couple hours, and Id also want it to collect more scum, less water.

Can anyone help me tune this thing?

I am not familiar with the design of this particular one ,but usually raising the collection cup will help with this or if you can not raise the collection cup try lowering water level in the sump, or raise the whole skimmer assembly
hth

Make it run so the skimmate is just trying to come over the top for at least a day until it breaks in. (They need some time to break in.) After a day lower it down a bit so it is just coming over the top and go from there.

I have a T1000 it is very similar there is 2 knobs at the outlet tubes they turn you have to turn them so the water in the horizontal tubs are about half full. (When the knobs are turned towards the body it will produce wetter skim and when turned away from body it will produce dryer skim.) Then let it be for an hour and then you can adjust so the foam only just comes out the top of the collection chamber. It will pull very dark brown to black stuff out of your tank, mine does. You have to clean the riser tube once a week or so if there is a buildup clean it use a paper towel that is all I do and once every 3 months clean the pump.

Bill

Thanks guys,

Ive got it to "work" or so I think. It is pulling out some dark crud already which is nice. Hopefully my corals start to like the water quality better. They havent been doing that well lately :/

i hear that people are taking the Askoll pump and running it with the shorty.