Remora not skimming so much.

So, the Ol' Remora skimmer isn't skimming so much anymore. After recently switching to a sump filter the Remora started working a lot better. Thicker greener slime in the cup. It's been running in there for a few weeks now and has seriously dropped off in slime production. I cleaned the pump out and the injector and still very little slime. I'm looking for opinions on what's going on. I have two theories myself. The good news theory is the sump filter system is just that awesome. I have heard of such a thing and I built it so I'd like to think I'm just that awesome lol. The bad news theory is that in fact I'm not that awesome and the flow through the skimmer section of the sump is to high. Not sure on that but it seems to me that it could be an issue except for the fact that it ran like a champ for a week or two. I'm going with, I'm just that awesome. ;D What it does skI'm is nice and green and everything is AOK water quality wise. Anyway, what do you guys think?

 

Being the progressive, positive thinker that I am , I'm going with the good news theory. The thing pulled a lot of gunk at first while it was cleaning things up, and now your system has reached an equilibrium point and the skimmer has settled into a new norm. Of course, I could be wrong.

 

What about tryin a new or different pump with it to see what happens? Maybe the pump's getting old? Or moving it back up into the main tank for a few days to see if there's any change?

 

I have read that people had replaced the rio pump that comes with the skimmer.

 

Yep, I use the maxi-jet 1200 pumps with mine

 

Is that a pretty easy switch? (Just curious...I don't have a remora)

 

If switching from the rio to the maxi-jet 1200, yeah it should be an easy switch.

 

What is the gph flow through the skimmer section of the sump ?

 

I bought mine with a MagDrive 3 so as to avoid the Rio all together.

I'm not totally positive on the flow through rate of the skimmer section. I figure I'm getting about 800 GPH total and somewher around half of that is going through the skimmer section. Probably less than half because of my plumbing. The Magdrive is pushing around 300 or 350 GPH. There is likely a bit of water making it by unskimmed. One thing I didn't mention is that I added a DIY Nitrate reactor as well. It's pump is in the same section pumping about 100 GPH. It may be working better than I had expected. All in all the tank is extremely well filtered so until I see bad tests come up, I'll just keep patting myself on the back. I did fool with it a bit today, took the pump apart again, cleaned the tubing and some of the skimmer parts. Afterwards there was a descent increase in outflow so we'll see if my collection cup overfills lol.

I love my DIY Nitrate reactor tube by the way. Ingenius if I don't say so myself.

 

Why the need for the DIY Nitrate reactor ? Reactors never reduce nitrates below 10ppm long term.

 

Oh summer time, so much to do lol.

I should clarify on the Nitrate reactor thing. Kind of was using the term loosely. It's what I keep my Matrix and DeNitrate in. I got the idea from a Nitrate reactor DIY I read about. It's a PVC pipe filled with Matrix inside a larger pipe filled with DeNitrate. The water is slowly pumped down through the Matrix in to the bottom of the DeNitrate. 100 Gph give or take. It was an effort to make effecient use of the biofilter and to contain all those little pebbles lol. Didn't have a specific Nitrate problem just love my biological filter. Bio is the Best!! ;D;D

Anyway, the skimmer is back on par now. Sadly it wasn't my awesomeness. The PVC portion of the input is horshoe shaped and I had to "modify" a scrub brush to get through it. I think it was cloggy. There was also a tiny pebble in the injector area. It was just moving to the side when I put the injector bush through. I had to rinse it out backwards. Grrr. The outflow just didn't seem as strong as it had been. Poor little pump. Everything is flowing fine now. I even rinsed out the skimmer body. I hesitated because it had become a right nice refugium of sorts. I have to admit it works much better now. So this lesson is. CLEAN YOUR FREAKIN EQUIPMENT. lol ;D