HELP! Skimmer nightmare

[Jerrycobos]

Hi everyone! I'm slowly but surely getting my tank lined up. I have been testing all my perimeters and pretty stable on everything but nitrates and phosphates. My nitrates are about 50ppm and my phosphates have been reading 0.03 but have a lot of green algae growing and I believe it's going to be alot higher after the algae is gone. I have purchased a very large clean up crew.
20 dwarf cerith
10 hermits
2 trochus snails
5 zig zag periwinkle
1 emerald mithrax crab
And my very favorite.... a dolabella sea hare
I have also ordered lots of seaweed to keep them full after all my green algae is consumed. Unfortunately I just bought a lawnmower blenny but seen where their lifespan I'd very short sadly. I have 4 Mexican turbo snails and about 15 hermits now along with one saddleback clown fish, 2 clownfish, I stripped blenny, I yellow watchman gobey. I have a few small pieces of coral and that's all so far.
My big problem now is this dang hob skimmer. It's a eshopps hob 75-100. I have it wide open, with the sponge off and this thing just overflows. I actually have the drain line going back in the tank and the lid duct taped on. I have had it 3+ months with no improvement. I would love any advice yall have on anything on the adventure I've started in reef keeping. I just set up my rodi system last night and now dont have to purchase water from the Lfs whoo hoo!!

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[DaveK]

...
My big problem now is this dang hob skimmer. It's a eshopps hob 75-100. I have it wide open, with the sponge off and this thing just overflows. I actually have the drain line going back in the tank and the lid duct taped on. I have had it 3+ months with no improvement. ...

Skimmers can be very tricky to adjust initially. You need to get the flow and air mixture just right. Most likely you want to cut back the amount of water flow or the amount of air mixing with the water. When it's set up correctly, the bubble height should be about 1 inch below the bottom of the collection cup. This often seems like the opposite of what you want to do.

Also, your tank may have a lot of waste products that need to be removed. When a skimmer is first used it can overflow easily. This is why you restrict the flow. As the waste products get removed you can often increase the flow. Also some additives can cause a skimmer to overflow. Stress Coat is well known for doing this.

The other issue is he sizing of the skimmer. How big a tank are you running this skimmer on? Skimmer manufactures are well know for being "very optimistic" about how large a tank a skimmer will support. Generally figure you want a skimmer rated for about a 200 gal tank on a 100 gal tank.

 

[Jerrycobos]

I have a 75 gallon tank, I will sure look and see if I can adjust the bubbles because they are just shooting straight up to the collection chamber

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[Uncle99]

Have you checked and cleaned your Venturi?
Did it originally work then just began overskimming?

Some details of its behaviour

What colour is the skim?

 

[Jerrycobos]

I have never cleaned or taken apart the skimmer, I will get on that asap. When I say wide open, when I first set it up it said to match up the dots on the air intake so it won't overflow and to close it off for more bubbles when it levels out, so far I have taken the pipe completely out for the most air flow as possible with no luck. I have tried closing it and it made the problem much much worse. I do have some scum sinking and it's the brown film like in most I've seen, not much tho because I have my line going straight back in due to it overflowing so much. I can send pics tonight if that will help describe what it is doing or whatever you need me to do. I really appreciate all your help yall

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[Uncle99]

Is the Venturi plugged?
Soak Venturi and use a small drill bit exactly the same size and ensure it goes right through.

This is the most commmon reason of overflow. The procedure should be done monthly to ensure the skim does not end up on your floor!

When restarting, normally you should have two controls, flow of water, bubble mixer (an air adjustment)

Does your HOB have a height adjustment?
When I first put mine in it always overflowed as there is a operating height.

It may be easier to put the thing in a bucket of water and “play” with the adjustments until you get micro bubbles half way ish up the cone without overflow.... then just HOB of your DT

 

[Uncle99]

If I could add, when the dots are in line, that’s fully open and highest water level. As you move the dots apart that lowers the water level in the reaction tube.

Have you tried lowering the flow by turning the tube either right or left of the white dot?

This skimmer takes around 5 - 10 days to breakin, it needs to build a slim coat on the reaction wall before it will skim.

Maybe that helps. The skimmer is not overly different from most on the market, a control of water height and a tube allowing air into the Venturi where the spinning motor chops and mixes air allowing tiny bubbles to rise in the reaction tube

Maybe that helps?