I am a new Marine enthusiast and jst bought a Aqua Reef 200. The protein skimmer does not seem to work as it should. The foam collecting cup is filling up and overflowing with water. Is this right?

im not familiar with the tank u have but the skimmer should have some type of venturi vent to control the air flow try turning that down..

hiya, welcome to fk!
how long has the tank been set up? do you mean literally just got it and set it up? if so skimmers dont start working properly until there is something to skim out ie proteins, so you are best to switch it off for now, wait until you have live rock in there and have started the cycling, then switch it back on, it may still be a bit watery to start with, but should thicken up once its been running for a bit.

Don't know if it helps but most skimmer 'pumps' have a flow adjustment on them.

I had the same problem as yours at first. The adjustment on the actual skimmer didn't reduce it enough to stop it overflowing, so i reduced the pump flow by half, and that kept it at bay. If your pump doens't have this adaptor on the pipe i'm sure you can buy one.

It will settle down over time, mine took a week or so, and then you can increase the flow again.

Thanks for the advice. I had already turned the skimmer off & was going to take it back to the supplier to see if it was broke but will leave it there for now. Someone else has said to turn the flow control down on the skimmer pump, mine does not have one, maybe I should fit one? I have started the fishless cycling, something I didn't realise I had to do... there's a lot to this marine malarky!

hello
i have the same tank nightmare to set up pipework,i had the same problem with the skimmer and found that it was drawing air in at the top of cup so put a small rock on the top,on the side where the water come's out of there is an adjuster to slow it down.
i found it hard to get the filters for it when i needed them so get lfs to order them for you or get the bigger filters and cut them down.
good luck
.lblue.