Help! skimmer problems

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Dj1259

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 27, 2011
10
0
0
Ohio
So i finally took the plunge and switched over to SW today i have about 45lbs of dead rock and about 10 lbs of live cured rock. I did my aquascaping plugged in my Bak Pak 2R and it started just fine(its a used one) but any ways no skimmate at all has been produced is this normal?? I was expecting some clear stuff but nothing at all?? Also since I dont have all of my rock seeded yet since i just set it up should I leave my filter running untill it is???
 
Dj1259;5041020; said:
So i finally took the plunge and switched over to SW today i have about 45lbs of dead rock and about 10 lbs of live cured rock. I did my aquascaping plugged in my Bak Pak 2R and it started just fine(its a used one) but any ways no skimmate at all has been produced is this normal?? I was expecting some clear stuff but nothing at all?? Also since I dont have all of my rock seeded yet since i just set it up should I leave my filter running untill it is???
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The collection cup should have a rubber band (or something similar) around it. Adjust the band up on the cup to get a wet skimmate, and adjust it down on the cup to get a dryer skimmate.

There is a break in period, so it may take some time to produce something, but you can adjust the band if you want to get something in the cup.
 
ya i adjusted it to around an 1/8" into water and nothing adjusted it further and still nothing
 
are their bubbles going to the collection cup? if so, then leave it. most skimmers have a break in period, around 2-3 weeks. also, your tank is fairly new so i wouldn't expect their to be much waste.
 
man it takes at least a week with animals in the tank for you to finally see stuff happening .. just get it something to collect :)
 
Thru the Ammonia and Nitrite stages of the cycling process I left my skimmer off. The whole point of "cycling" is the building of micro-biology within the tank which will only build as much as it's food source allows. This starts will the bacterias that breakdown organic matter creating ammonia. Skimmers remove and QT organic matter.
 
the tank is already cycled i have been raising the SG .002 every week for 3 months or so and the tank was cycled freshwater before then puffer has been in there the whole time when i was raising it so the bacteria didnt die off thats why i figured the skimmer would just start pulling stuff out pretty quickly.
 
A lot of skimmers take a lot of tinkering.

If it is used are you sure that nothing is broken or missing?

I have one bakpak that doesnt work at all, but if you saw it you probably wouldnt be able to tell that anything was wrong.
 
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