treesprite July 17, 2007 Share July 17, 2007 (edited) Ok, well, I got my package today, with the skimmer and the uv sterilizer. Got home around 10:30pm this evening and took everything out like a little kid at xmas. Nothing has instructions. The UV sterilizer has a ittle diagram on the box that I may opr may not understnd - I think I do. The skimmer has nothing at all, and the picture on the box isn't that helpful. I've not had this kind of equipment before so I really don't know what Im doing. I thought I had the skimmer all set, turned on the water pump and ended up with a 2 second rush of water that filled the skimmer, the collection cup, and went out all over the place. Ok so, figured that problem out, but I must have something very wrong because all that's happening is that the skimmer is filling with water, no action. I gave up on that for now. I will wait on trying to hook up the uv sterilizer until after I get the skimmer working. In the meantime, how the heck do I set this thing up to get it to work? It's an Odysea ps160 skimmer. Help anyone, please! Edited July 17, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugar Magnolia July 17, 2007 Share July 17, 2007 What kind of skimmer is it? Most have a place where you can throttle back the flow or raise the skimmer cup to reduce the intake of water/foam. I can't answer the UV question - don't have one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 July 17, 2007 Share July 17, 2007 OK, I don't know for sure which ones you have, but I'll give it a shot. Looked up a picture on e-bay of the skimmer and it's a self feeding skimmer from what I saw, not a reciruculating one. That means you stick it in your sump and turn it on and then use the valve on the exit to control the water level. Since it is a venturi, there should be a venturi attachment after the pump that leads into the skimmer body. On this you should have a small airline that allows air to be sucked into the system creating bubbles. You need to have the airline tubing come out of the water and I typically would attach it to the top of the collection cup to prevent water from coming out of it. Adjust the level of the skimmer to slightly below the neck of the riser (the part under the collection cup) and let it "break in" for a few days. When it starts to collect gunk in the riser area, then you can start adjusting it to either skim dry (lower the water column so it skims only the bubbles that rise highest), wet (raise the water column so that it skims a lot of water as well), or somewhere in between according to your preference. You will need to readjust a lot over the first few weeks until you get it dialed in to what you like. As far as the sterilizer, generally they are in-line or hang on back. Either way, you should have an in and an out, hook up your pump to it, make sure it's got the appropriate flow rate, and then turn the pump on. Once you have checked for leaks and are sure that water is in the sterilizer (I usually try and shake it gently to make sure it has dispelled any air bubbles) you can turn it on. Make sure it's running and then leave it alone. Don't ever come into contact with any direct light from the sterilizer. It will burn you severely and can cause a lot of eye damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatortailale July 17, 2007 Share July 17, 2007 your talking about this? http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageA...&ProdID=319 do you have the clear tubing above water level so it can suck air into venturi? does the exit pipe where water come out of skimmer go up and down to adjust height of water in skimmer chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak July 17, 2007 Share July 17, 2007 See if you can contact another member from MOCO to come give you a hand. It's probably a lot easier in person than trying to read a description. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsaavedra July 17, 2007 Share July 17, 2007 (edited) Do you remember the post you made about the skimmer about a week ago? The RC Links I posted in there some where in those threads I saw a walkthrough and information on how to set them up, there were a couple of people having the same problems. Raf *** Here is the link I mentioned earlier: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=15439 Edited July 17, 2007 by rsaavedra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 17, 2007 Author Share July 17, 2007 (edited) It's an Odyssea ps160. There's a needlewheel if that makes any difference. THat's the right skimmer in the picture, but the picture on the box isn't put together that way, things are hooked differently and the box picture doesn't show the pump. I put things together as best I could from what was on the box, which is not correct. I read up to like page 8 of the thread on RC about the mods on this skimmer. I have to see if on the rest of the pages there are more pictures. What I have seen of the pictures there has let me know for sure that the picture on the box is wrong. do you have the clear tubing above water level so it can suck air into venturi? I have the clear tubing - the picture on the box has it in a different place hooked to something that isn't visible in the picture, and it's on the side of the skimmer not in front of it. does the exit pipe where water come out of skimmer go up and down to adjust height of water in skimmer chamber. as far as I can possibly tell, it doesn't. Theres a valve to regulate the amount of water pumping in. Edited July 17, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gman91 July 18, 2007 Share July 18, 2007 usually the sterilizer will run in-line from you return pump or off of a powerhead or something of that nature. water flows through, gets sterilized, and is then pushed back into the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 July 18, 2007 Share July 18, 2007 It's an Odyssea ps160. There's a needlewheel if that makes any difference. The needlewheel does make a difference. With a needlewheel, the air gets sucked into the water before the pump as the needlewheel impeller is supposed to chop the bubbles up even smaller than they were before through the venturi. THat's the right skimmer in the picture, but the picture on the box isn't put together that way, things are hooked differently and the box picture doesn't show the pump. I put things together as best I could from what was on the box, which is not correct. I read up to like page 8 of the thread on RC about the mods on this skimmer. I have to see if on the rest of the pages there are more pictures. What I have seen of the pictures there has let me know for sure that the picture on the box is wrong. I have the clear tubing - the picture on the box has it in a different place hooked to something that isn't visible in the picture, and it's on the side of the skimmer not in front of it. as far as I can possibly tell, it doesn't. Here's how it should go if it's a needlewheel. The pump should be in the water and pumping water to the skimmer via a single pipe. The pipe will most likely be straight and then go through a 90 and then go straight into the skimmer. If the pump is closed off with some sort of protection to keep fish and snails from being sucked into it, there should be a feed somewhere on there to hook up to the air hose. If it's not covered, you should have a venturi piece that the air hose will hook up to. It's important to remember that the smaller inside diameter side goes towards the pump, the larger side goes away from the pump. This venturi should attach to the intake, or where the water gets pulled into the pump. The airline hose should extend upwards from there so that it's out of the water. Water will then get sucked in, pull air through the venturi, and then the pump will chop the bubbles up so that they are smaller and then it goes into the skimmer body. Theres a valve to regulate the amount of water pumping in. The valve is regulating where the water comes in or where it comes out? This is important as you don't want to restrict the amount of water going in necessarily. I would see if the valve can be attached to the output of the skimmer and then you can use it to control the amount of water in the skimmer itself. Take a picture of the skimmer and all of the parts and post it so you can get some help! It really doesn't matter if it's not a good picture as long as the parts are distinguishable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 18, 2007 Author Share July 18, 2007 i'll have to take a picture of it tomorrow because there's too much going on right now. Problem is I got all the little pieces mixed up with little pieces that came with the pump and little pieces that came with a powerhead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 19, 2007 Author Share July 19, 2007 (edited) I finally had a chance to deal with this thing again last night. I'm going to have to go back to that thread on RC and see if the pages I haven't yet read have additional pictures on them. I did get around to test-running the UV sterilizer without the bulb. It was leaking, so I used some silicone on it which should fix the problem.... I don't want to go through the mess of sending it back and waiting for a replacement. Infortunately, I'm about a half inch short of being able to put these devices in a convenient place - at the moment I'm having to hang them over the side. That problem is to be resolved at a later time. Edited July 19, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 July 19, 2007 Share July 19, 2007 I finally had a chance to deal with this thing again last night. I'm going to have to go back to that thread on RC and see if the pages I haven't yet read have additional pictures on them. I did get around to test-running the UV sterilizer without the bulb. It was leaking, so I used some silicone on it which should fix the problem.... I don't want to go through the mess of sending it back and waiting for a replacement. Infortunately, I'm about a half inch short of being able to put these devices in a convenient place - at the moment I'm having to hang them over the side. That problem is to be resolved at a later time. Hmmm... I would worry about the sterilizer leaking. That's not a good sign and if it leaks on the inside as well I'd be worried. I would not use it if I were you, silicone is a quick fix and may look like it solves the problem, but it may not really solve it, it may only mask it. I'd return it and get a new one instead. Let me know when you post pictures and I'll take a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 19, 2007 Author Share July 19, 2007 Hmmm... I would worry about the sterilizer leaking. That's not a good sign and if it leaks on the inside as well I'd be worried. I would not use it if I were you, silicone is a quick fix and may look like it solves the problem, but it may not really solve it, it may only mask it. I'd return it and get a new one instead. Let me know when you post pictures and I'll take a look. I wonder if they will exchange it after I put the silicone on it. I didn't open it to see if it's leaking on the inside. I did not have the bulb in it when testing it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 19, 2007 Author Share July 19, 2007 (edited) the skimmer is finally running! I believe there's a little piece missing that is threaded at both ends, but I'm making due without it. At the moment it's hanging on the back of the tank, but will eventually get moved. It's very difficult to adjust - I've spent about 3 hours trying to do it, afraid to leave the room for fear of it suddenly rising and causing a flood. For the last 1/2 hour it's been up to 1 inch from top of tube to collection cup, but I'm tired of messing with it. Either way, there's a nice coating of gunk in the tube at the bubble top line so I know it's working. The sterilizer leaking is just the threads from where pieces screw together, not the cylinder. I may have turned it too tightly.... I've got the same problem with the skimmer where I had to screw things together (drip about once every 5 minutes - not enough to cause an ordeal for the moment. This skimmer has worn me out. Edited July 20, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 24, 2007 Author Share July 24, 2007 here's the update on this skimmer... My understanding is that there is a "break in" period - I certainly hope so because right now the airstone cc is winning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal July 24, 2007 Share July 24, 2007 New skimmers normally need one to three days to break in. This can sometimes be shortened by running them in a vinegar bath for an hour or two before placing the skimmer in operation. Adjusting touchy skimmers takes patience. Back when I used a Coralife skimmer, I learned that it's best to make a small adjustment and wait a few hours to a day before making another adjustment. Large adjustments or many adjustments in a short period usually resulted in overcompensation and either no skimmate or an overflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rascal July 24, 2007 Share July 24, 2007 (edited) the skimmer is finally running! I believe there's a little piece missing that is threaded at both ends, but I'm making due without it. At the moment it's hanging on the back of the tank, but will eventually get moved. It's very difficult to adjust - I've spent about 3 hours trying to do it, afraid to leave the room for fear of it suddenly rising and causing a flood. For the last 1/2 hour it's been up to 1 inch from top of tube to collection cup, but I'm tired of messing with it. Either way, there's a nice coating of gunk in the tube at the bubble top line so I know it's working. The sterilizer leaking is just the threads from where pieces screw together, not the cylinder. I may have turned it too tightly.... I've got the same problem with the skimmer where I had to screw things together (drip about once every 5 minutes - not enough to cause an ordeal for the moment. This skimmer has worn me out. [EDIT: Woops, wrong skimmer. Got your posts confused with someone else who just got a new skimmer and was trying to figure out how to set it up. Sorry about that. I think the rest still applies though.] As for breaking in . . . by 5 days you should be getting some skimmate. If not it is time to trouble shoot. First, make sure the pump and venturi are working as they should. The skimmer body should be filled with a dense white froth. If can see into it, something is not quite right. If you are producing foam but no skimmate, it could be an adjustment problem. Is there a thick film of gunk directly above the the bubble line but nothing coming into the cup? If so drop the riser tube a little and then, like YeBe says, give it a day and see what happens. If you didn't wash the skimmer out before you put it in service, it is also possible that whatever oils were coating it are still in the tank, causing the bubbles to pop before they can form into a foam. There are a lot of things that can cause this. If you have a dense froth of bubbles in the skimmer body but little to no foam forming at the top of the bubble column, this is likely your problem. As usual, that Randy guy explains things better than me. The best article I have ever read on skimmer functioning (scroll down to the part on foam drainage and bubble popping to see what I was talking about above): http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php HTH Edited July 24, 2007 by Rascal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 24, 2007 Author Share July 24, 2007 (edited) This is an in-sump skimmer, not meant to be run externally. How do you have it hanging on the back of the tank? Hopefully you have moved it by now. If not, you really ought to. It can be used either way, and comes with the hanger thing. I don't want to use it as a hang but have to get things better situated. I think it would probably do better in-sump, and I'm worried something will happen and I'll have a flood with it hanging on back. As for adjusting, . . . you should look into doing the gate valve mod on it. Really makes things a lot easier then trying to adjust the riser. There is no riser on it, it's a valve, but 1st, the valve is very stiff so I can't get it to an exact spot, and 2nd, the pump has to be at an exact level to the water surface or else it won't take in air or wont take in enough water. When the balance of air and water is right, the foam quality is much better - if the pump is deep in the tank, there's no point to having a needlewheel (the setup for in-sump shown in the picture of the skimmer is no good in regards to that). Since I can only get the valve adjusted the way it wants to be not how I want it to be, either the level is too low or too high. When it's too high, too much water goes in the cup and all it takes is that slight amount to mess up the water surface level which then affects the balance of air to water in the pump. There's plenty of foam. Bits of food come up to the top of it, but I can't get the thing adjusted properly. What I was doing last night was letting it run a little low, then putting my hand under the outflow for a second so the top of the foam with the bits in it would go over into the cup. Maybe running it too wet just makes it look like there's not much getting pulled out of the water because there's so much water. I feel like messing with the valve until it loosens up. The reason I'm thinking there's a piece missing is that it seems this should be at a different angle when using the hose in order to have the pump at the surface rather than fully submerged at teh base of the skimmer. I don't understand why they are showing it all the way submerged when it really shouldn't be to get max effectiveness. Edited July 24, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rascal July 24, 2007 Share July 24, 2007 Treesprite: Sorry. I was confusing your thread with someone else who just got an ASM Mini-G. I have no experience with the odyssea, but now that I have given you bad info I feel even more obligated to try to help. I did take a look at the RC thread, and it looks like it could be a decent skimmer for the price. Does yours look like this? It looks like some sort of a valve over there on the right of the picture. Is that the one you are talking about? If so, from both the picture above and the one on the web site, it looks like that should be controlling the water going out of the skimmer, not in. There is no riser on it, it's a valve, but 1st, the valve is very stiff so I can't get it to an exact spot, and 2nd, the pump has to be at an exact level to the water surface or else it won't take in air or wont take in enough water. When the balance of air and water is right, the foam quality is much better - if the pump is deep in the tank, there's no point to having a needlewheel (the setup for in-sump shown in the picture of the skimmer is no good in regards to that). The reason I'm thinking there's a piece missing is that it seems this should be at a different angle when using the hose in order to have the pump at the surface rather than fully submerged at teh base of the skimmer. I don't understand why they are showing it all the way submerged when it really shouldn't be to get max effectiveness. Let me take a stab at this. Are you trying to position the pump so that it draws just the right amount of air directly through the intake of the pump itself? And then you have that outflow of the pump running through the pipe with the valve on it and then into the skimmer at the top? And the water is exiting the skimmer near the bottom and then goes through some tubing and back into your tank? If you answered yes to all of those, you have it set up backwards. Here's how it should go: the pump should be in the water, fully submerged. Connected to the intake of the pump you should have a short piece of plastic pipe with a little stem coming off out the side of it. This is the venturi. One end of the airline tubing should go over this little stem. The other end needs to be out of the water. Air is supplied to the pump (and hence, the skimmer), through this tubing. Water enters this skimmer near the bottom, at the place the pump is shown hooked to the skimmer body in the aquatraders picture. There should be some tubing going from the outlet of the pump up and over the tank and connected to the skimmer here. I think this may be where that little threaded piece comes in, since I read something about a double threaded uniseal in the RC post. Water exits the skimmer through the pipe with the valve on it and then goes down and into your tank through the pipe with the sponge on it. The purpose of the sponge is to limit the amount of microbubbles coming back into the tank. The valve controls the water level inside the skimmer. Closing the valve should raise the level and opening it all the way will lower it. Give this a try and let us know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 25, 2007 Author Share July 25, 2007 (edited) LOL originally I did have it set up backwards - kind of embarassing! I corrected that problem a couple days ago and have the setup figured out. The valve on top is not the only valve, there's another one under the sponge. The picture you have has the pump connected directly to the body with no kind of hose or tube, just a screw-on piece which is supposed to have a little venturi connection. There is U that connects to that exact same spot in place of the direct pump connection. The U connects to a hose which connects to a slip-on that is screwed into the pump since the pump is not screwed directly onto the skimmer. The U tube has a venturi connection on it since it is used in place of that little piece. The pump that comes with the skimmer is a needle wheel - if the back of it is exposed to air, i.e., not fully submerged, the venturi can actually be capped off. If the pump is fully submerged, the venturi is the only air source - the bubbles are smaller when the needle wheel is used. Edited July 25, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 25, 2007 Author Share July 25, 2007 Oh gee. I posted that right before I came home - it appears to be doing better than it was last night. The foam needs to be drier at the very top of the column. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 25, 2007 Author Share July 25, 2007 I was awakened to manage a flood that came from an over-filled collection cup because the pump slipped just slightly enough to keep air from getting in. I thought I had enough room to put the skimmer in-sump but the dimensions stated dont account for things extruding from the main body of the skimmer; the only way to do it is to drain 30-some gallons of water, rip out the panel and cut it and re-seal the whole thing back again in a different arrangement. It's going to have to wait for now. Maybe I'll resort to just keeping the pump submerged and using only the venturi for right now so I don't have to worry about it while it's still just hanging on, but the skimmer won't work as well. Shoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rascal July 25, 2007 Share July 25, 2007 (edited) I hate to say it but I still don't think you have it set up correctly. The pump should be fully submerged and the venturi goes before the intake of the pump, so that the air being drawn in is quickly chopped up by the needle wheel. There's a first time for everything, and I certainly haven't been doing this forever, but I have never seen nor heard of a skimmer driven by a needlewheel pump that didn't work this way. Whether the pump is used as a feed pump or recirc, the venturi always goes before the intake of the pump. I definitely have never seen a skimmer that is designed for the pump to suck air directly into its intake from the surface of the water. Maybe there is someone close that will volunteer to stop by and take a look? To solve the overflow problem, you could drill a hole a couple of inches from the top of the collection cup and add a drain. Just be sure to use a large enough diameter to accommodate the amount of flow when your skimmer "goes nuts" and have it drain back into your tank or sump. My method for installing the drain has been to pick out a fitting (either 1/4" airline fitting or an appropriately sized barbed fitting for tubing) from Lowes or HD, drill a hole in the acrylic that is lightly smaller than the fitting, coat it with weld-on and/or superglue, screw the fitting in and then add some silicone around it as a precaution against leaks. This method has worked for me but I'm sure others have better ways of doing it. In any event, the overflowing collection cup will likely reoccur from time to time no matter how you have your skimmer set up (at least it has with every skimmer I've ever owned) so you might as well fix it now if you won't be able to convert it to an in-sump. Edited July 25, 2007 by Rascal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 25, 2007 Author Share July 25, 2007 I'm going to have to look around on the internet some more. Maybe I'll find a picture of the box that the skimmer comes in. The water intake IS fully submerged. The piece with the 3 airholes that attaches in the back of the pump before the water intake, is not submerged. Air goes into there before water goes in the water intake. The 3 holes on that back piece are like airline connectors, but no tubing came with this for those. There is a connection on the skimmer part itself. There is a single airline to connect to that which is shown on the box; the opposite end of the line connects to a little plastic cylinder that on the box is labelled a "silencer". I could dig up some line and hook 3 pieces onto those 3 airholes/connectors, but i have seen no picture of such a thing anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 25, 2007 Author Share July 25, 2007 (edited) This is a picture of the box the skimmer came in. The venturi line is connected to that black part of that U-tube, which is where I put it, just as the box indicates. As you can see, the pump is not shown in the picture at all. http://cgi.ebay.com/Jebo-Odyssea-PS160-Han...bayphotohosting Editting because I found this picture - it's the very last picture on the page. It shows the piece I'm talking about that goes in back of the pump. This person has a single airline connected to it and has it going up through the foam cover that goes over the outlet. There are 3 holes on that piece though, not just 1. I am having to use the skimmer hanging on at the moment, so I can't do it like that. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...mp;pagenumber=3 Edited July 25, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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