Well, I've finally had it with my skimmer and its time for a change. I pulled it out of the sump yesterday and brought it over to Frankie's Skimmer Body and Repair Shop for some modifications. I just can't get it set to where it can skim properly. It either immediately floods the collection cup within seconds of twisting the adjusting tube, or the level just isn't high enough for the skimmate to flow into the collection cup. We are basically going to make 3 modifications to it. The first is to modify the collection cup. The drain stem empties directly over the body of the skimmer and in order to use it, you have to place a flexible tube on it (metric of course). Between the bend in the tube as it clears the skimmer body and the second bend as it clears the top of the sump, the tube drains slow and has the chance of of clogging. What we are going to do to fix it is to cut off the drain stem, seal it closed, and then drill a hole on the side of the collection cup. Using standard and not metric parts, have an extension come off the collection cup about 2-3" into a 90 deg elbow and into a gate valve and flexible tube to drain into a soda bottle.
Here is the drain stem.
Here it is cut off.
Frankie is sanding it smooth.
The second mod is to cut off the effluent plumbing from the body of the skimmer and place a gate valve on it. That way I can accurate control the water level in the skimmer. The knife edge adjusting pipe just can't be finely adjusted, even with silicone grease smeared all over it.
The third mod is going to be with the pump and bubble production. The Sicce PK 2500 that came with the skimmer just isn't cutting it. The water level has to be at or just slightly above where the body turns into a cone in order to get skimmate close enough to empty into the collection cup. There is a couple of options we're looking at. I was thinking of getting a Bubble Blaster 3000 which has been recommended in the past but after reading so many wildly different specs on it, we need to find out what the specs really are before making any decisions. More to follow as we get more info.