Hello,
Not really sure this is a problem. Recently rebuilt my skimmer, and think I got it right this time. I managed to get my hands on a 3ft piece of 4" clear pvc. using basic parts, I have put the input and output pipes near the bottom, with a 90' elbow on the input pipe to direct the water upwards. the water adjustment is made by moving the height on the output pipe.
The skimmer is driven by 4 2" limewood airstones powered by 2 dual output airpumps (had lying around), 100% of the tank water flows thought the skimmer at a rate around 800 gph. The total height of the skimmer chamber is 24" but due to placement of the ports, the airstones are about 6-8" above the bottom, leaving only 16" of air/water mixing area.
Ok, the "problem" I'm trying to skim wet. but all I'm getting is "dry" as seen here.
I've adjusted the water height to max., the foam chamber is only 2" tall. any higher and I'll have water leaking from below the collectin cup. I'm getting about a 1/2tsp to 1 tsp of thick dry crud a day, but still no wet stuff. Does this simply mean there isn't enough organics to skim wet? My Xenias went downhill real fast once I started this skimmer, but have started to recover after moving them to a 'fuge with a sand bed to give them more organics (main tank is BB). I was wondering if I added in the last ft of clear pvc, to give the mixing chamber more height, if the increased contact time would help get the "wet"? Or am I already overkill with this on a 75g system?
Thanks,
Chris
