b. Press the “Feed” button once and the filter material will advance 10cm (about 4
inches) and this should be enough for the roll to secure itself onto the spool.
c. Setup the digital controller
i.
Make sure the controller is plugged in and display is on
ii.
Everyday, once a day, the motor will turn on and advance the filter roll the
set length. Units are in cm. To convert to inches, divide the displayed
number by 2.5. Most of the time, the motor will be off.
It only turns on
for a few seconds each day.
iii.
It is important to know that as the paper gets collected onto the dirty
uptake spool, the diameter increases. The digital controller accounts for
this using a formula and dispenses the same amount of paper each day.
With power loss, the length is recalled with memory but the time is not.
So, the motor will turn on once a day at the same time, 24 hours after it
was plugged in. If you wish the motor to turn on at a certain time each
day, simply unplug and plug the controller back in at the desired time.
iv.
Because each system has unique properties such as water volume and
dissolved organic matter, the system will require tuning. The tuning is
very easy thanks to the digital controller. A nice dark brown, saturated
filter material is the goal. If you turn down the dispensing rate using the
controller, less material is dispensed and therefore more organics will
adhere to the filter material, resulting in darker color and more filter
material saturation. Increasing the feed rate will have the opposite effect.
Every few days, you can check the coloration of the filter material and
make appropriate adjustments. Even if the system is not tuned perfectly,
the skimmer is still working and its not a major issue. It is not critical to
tune the system perfectly the very first day.
v.
For the first few days, especially if the skimmer is still breaking in and you
are not seeing a lot of dirty foam produced, you can set the controller to
dispense 0 cm daily if necessary.
vi.
If you set the controller to 40cm/day, this will result in a daily complete
refresh of the filter material inside the skimmer body. This is useful if you
are getting really dark coloration on the dirty spool.
vii.
At 40 cm/day the filter material should last about 3 months. The rolls are
about 36M in length. 3600cm / 40 cm/day = 90 days
Troubleshooting
Q. The skimmer pump controller is flashing and pump is not on
A. Make sure the pump is submerged and the pump cable is connected to the pump controller.
You CANNOT connect the pump to the self-cleaning motor controller and expect it to work.
Make sure the pump is connected to the pump controller and the power supply is plugged into
the wall. Flashing indicates standby mode. With power loss the pump will stay off for about 3
minutes. The purpose of the delay is to allow the sump level to equilibrate before turning on the
skimmer. If you want to turn the pump on immediately, press the power / feed button.
