PM HOT-1 Problems

[mtellin]

I was wondering where everyone sets their water level for those that have a PM HOT-1, mine is set like 1/3 of the way up in the neck where the directions say with the venturi almost completely open and it doesnt skim worth a &%$# :) The only stuff that does get skimmed once in awhile is a very wet white foam, I have the upgraded maxi-jet 1200 on it(just put it on a few days ago, does it maybe need to break in?) and the skimmer has been running for 2-3 weeks now. Any thoughts? Also does it matter how far in the screw on the venturi is if the water level is 1/3 of the way up? IE is more air better or doesnt it really matter?

Thanks,
Mike

[Jack Napier]

How long has the tank been up and running? If it's a newly set up tank then it's not going to skiim a whole lot until the tank is cycled.

[mtellin]

Its been up for prob 5 months now, and all my live rock, most of my live sand and about 50% of the water came from an already established tank.

[Capt.Dave]

Had you been running it for a couple of weeks with the rio pump, before upgrading(how did that work)?

What, if any skimmer were you using before on the tank(how did that compare)?

One time I had a problem with my Hot 1 producing watery foam, it happened because the drain tube was below the skimmate level. This skimmer is works extremely well, I would suspect a problem, if you are getting a watery output.

Is most of the skimmer filled with tiny white bubbles?

Maybe an air hose is blocked or some other pump malfunction?

Maybe you don't need a skimmer? (I doubt it):)

Dave

[mtellin]

I was probably running the rio pump for about a week or so before getting the maxi-jet, the rio seemed to do ok....not much foam but at least it was fairly dark(it was a very wet foam tho, which made me think I was still doing something wrong with that one too) Thats why I thought maybe its because its a new pump and just needs to break in a little or something, there is tons of little bubbles in the chamber but its just not creating any foam at the top of the chamber and what little it does is very white and very wet when it gets down below from the drain in the collection cup. The output of the hose connects to the top of a rubbermaid container in my stand so thats not below the skinmate level or anything.

Mike

[Capt.Dave]

Before you got the HOT1 were you running a skimmer, if so, and it worked better than the HOT1 then I still think you have a problem, but if not, then maybe you don't really need one? What size is your tank, fish, feeding, other nutrient export?

Getting back to your original question,

I was wondering where everyone sets their water level for those that have a PM HOT-1, mine is set like 1/3 of the way up in the neck

I'm not sure what you mean by 'neck', if you mean the last tube the foam goes up through before it spills over then, that is much higher than I have mine set. I have mine set so that the level is about a 1/2 inch below the final chamber.

The bottom line is that I don't think your foam should be wet, even if there is very little to skim in you water, what little there is should be brown and somewhat thick.

Dave

[mtellin]

I wasnt running a skimmer before, this is my first :) When i said 1/3 up the neck I was reffering to the part between the flange and the collection cup, or the skinny tube between the 2 4" tube parts...make sense? So apparently I was running that a little low because that would be about 3 inches below the bottom of the collection cup height, but now I adjusted it so its about 1/2 inch below the collection cup height which is where I think you said yours is. If my foam is wet, does that mean there is a certain thing Im probably doing wrong? or could wet foam come from many different things? My guess is that its not because of the pump itself since when I used the rio it was wet too.

Mike

[Capt.Dave]

Now I understand what you mean. I don't know that I would raise the level any if you are already getting wet foam, I think this will only make it wetter. Being that you system is not accustomed to a skimmer, I would guess that other creatures (sponges, algae, filter feeders) are making use of the available nutrients and there is in fact very little to skim.

Are you having any unwanted algae problems? If not why did you get the skimmer?

Dave

[mtellin]

Im not having any unwanted algae problems, I got the skimmer because I felt eventually I am going to need one anyways, basically its just a FOWLR right now, all I have for corals are one tiny rubble rock piece with some brown button polyps on it, 75 gallon tank with 100 lbs live sand 80 lbs live rock, 3 blue damsels, 1 domino damsels, royal gramma and yellow tail damsel. However I will be adding corals here and there and replacing some of the damsels(if I can catch the little buggers...) so maybe the skinmate im getting now is all I should be expecting?

[Capt.Dave]

I guess "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." As long as the column is filled with white tiny bubbles, the skimmer is probably working as well as it can.

Dave