my protein skimmer stopped skimming

[marinerules]

does this mean that thereis no more junk in my tank ,

my nitrates read 0 before i hooked the skimmer up and they are still 0 , but its not pulling as much out as it used to , I have a sedra 9000 pump on a diy skimmer and it worked GOOD first day now , its just bubbly

 

[Colin]

quite possibly but there could be other factors...

have you got your hands in the tank a lot?
done a water change?
use dechlorinator?
checked the airsupply to the venturi?
cleaned the neck of the skimmer inside?

these could all affect a skimmer

 

[marinerules]

is it better ot have the direction of water pointing down in my diy skimmer or turned to a 90 degree elbow making a whirlwind,

i have it on the whirlwind right now

but someone told me that if i point the direction fo my pump down that the water will hav emore contact time with the bubbles.

 

[Colin]

yes, point it down, a downward current forces the water to spend more time in contact with bubbles in the chamber and allows the proteins etc to attach to the bubbles... its called counter current skimming...

...ever heard people slagging the seaclone skimmer and calliing it crap? That skimmer worked on the vortex (whirlwind) idea, looks nice but as they say, crap!

 

[dbbga]

I have a Seaclone, and so far it works really well. I had to do some modifciations on it, so far I have no problems out of it on a 50-75gal. BUT, now that i have moved to a larger tank 125 with 30 gal sump, I think that I will be building a new DYI skimmer. I have the plans and material, just have to get up off my rear and do it LOL

 

[Colin]

LOL yeah, thats the hard bit