Skimmer Problem

[abe77901]

Well I finally got around to hooking up the 29" dual becket skimmer I got from Pete and have a problem. My water level is coming up over and into my skimmate cup. I am using a mag 18 for power on both beckets. My skimmer is sitting ground level with the sump, do i need to get it up and above the water level of the sump? I have included a pic for reference. Any help appreciated.

[Gator]

upen the gate valve more to allow the water level to drop, that is what i do on my skimmer

[abe77901]

its opened all the way

[Gator]

mabey the pump is pumping more water than can be returned through the return, would the height of the return effect where the water level is in the skimmer

[jaded]

cut down the ball valve you have in front of the skimmer... if you have no ball valve then you may have an issue

[don-n-sa]

Scaling down your mag may help , but what I think is happening is back pressure due to the way you have the skimmer return plumbed. Backpressure will cause your skimmer to overflow and act erratically. The elbow going up immediately after your skimmer is causing some and the fact that the return plumbing has to go up is causing more, and then there is another elbow after that.

Chew on that for a little bit while I think of a solution...don't worry there is always a way. ;)

[scuba_steveo]

I think Don is right. It needs to drain back into the sump. The water level is high because the plumbing is high after the exit. Do you have room in sump for the skimmer?

[don-n-sa]

ok...ideally skimmer returns should drain freely into the sump or back pressure will occur, back pressure can be overcome by scaling down the pump, but that can seriously affect the skimmmers effectiveness. I have a ETSS 800 professional that I had trouble with initially because I had no idea that just submurging the skimmer return ( to keep it quiet and stop splashing ) causes back pressure. I got it to work ok by messing with the gate valve and skimmer pump but when I would simulate a power loss it would overflow when power came back on , and that was even with the skimmer being higher than the water level in the sump :angry Now I have my return draining freely into the sump and out of the water, I just put a filter sock on it.

Anyway about you...check with Pete before you change anything, he knows more about his skimmers than I do , but IMO you need to clean up your plumbing that is leaving your skimmer AND raise the skimmer above the sump water level. Now judging from your pic, you do not have the room under your stand to do this so this will take more thought.

One thing that you could do is drain your sump...drill a hole in the sump above the water level of course and install a bulkhead so you can directly connect the skimmer return to your sump without the elbow.

HTH

[NaCl_H2O]

One thing that you could do is drain your sump...drill a hole in the sump above the water level of course and install a bulkhead so you can directly connect the skimmer return to your sump without the elbow.

Pete is the right guy to ask, but I'm not sure if Don's suggestion above will work (not being able to see your sump water level in the picture).

If you run the return into the side of the sump, I still don't think the skimmer water level will go any lower than the level in the sump. If the neck of the skimmer is higher than the sump level, then this suggestion may work, but it would be MUCH better to elevate the skimmer so the output can freely "drain" into the sump.

Don's right - currently you are pushing water up through your plumbing, and the skimmer level can't go any lower than the highest point in the plumbing - make sense?

[brewercm]

would the height of the return effect where the water level is in the skimmer

Definately. The water is not free flowing out of the gate valve. It is acutally having to flow (be pushed) what looks like to a level above the neck of the collection cup from the picture. This is going to cause massive back pressure since it is taking pressure to push the water up to that level rather than freely flowing out the gate valve.

I actually always thought that the outflow of these skimmers was supposed to be above the water level in the sump to avoid the little back pressure that can cause also. Anyone have any other info.