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4) Drain Hose Installation (cont.)
Air must be able to flow at all times though the drain hose. If
your waste container will remain uncapped, it is
recommended that the drain hose hangs high on the waste
container, leaving enough room for skimmate to accumulate
without submerging the end of the tubing, as show in Figure 5.
Figure 5 - Uncapped waste container
Alternatively, you can also drill two holes on the waste
container cap, and use the included straight tubing connector
to connect the drain flexible tubing to the waste container as
shown in Figure 6. The second hole is necessary in order to
allow air to exit the container. The holes can be drilled using a
5/32” drill bit.
Figure 6 - Waste container cap with holes
5) Air Pump Installation
We suggest AP-3 Danner, Tetra Whisper 10 or 20 air pump (or
equivalent). Note that limewood airstones require more
pressure than regular airstones. Connect the airline coming
from the air pump to the air valve located on the top of the
rubber stopper.
We recommend that you initially close the valve and then tune
the skimmer following the instructions below.
6) Tuning Your Skimmer
It will take some trial and error to get your skimmer producing
skimmate the way you like it. Please be patient. After you get
it right, your skimmer should operate with a high level of
consistency, requiring little to no adjustment other than
periodic maintenance.
The skimmer is tuned by adjusting its height (using the O-ring)
and air volume (using the air valve).
Skimmer Height: We recommend that you begin by positioning
the top of skimmer 3-4” from the water level Figure 3.
Air Volume: Close the air valve until you get almost no
bubbles. Then start to open the air valve slowly until you get
a large amount of very fine bubbles, but careful not to
overflow through the drain, as shown in Figure 7.
In most cases, you should wait up to a couple of days for the
skimmer to “break in” and start collecting skimmate. After
that, you can start tweaking the skimmer body height and air
volume in order to achieve the desired results.
If the skimmate is too light, raise the skimmer body by lowering
the O-ring. If the skimmer is not producing enough skimmate,
lower the skimmer body by raising the O-ring.
Raising the skimmer will result in less but thicker/darker
skimmate. We recommend lighter skimmate because it is less
prone to clogging the drain.
Figure 7 - Skimmer with abundant micro-bubbles
