Skimming and Skimmer maintenance

[mfisher2112]

Ok, couple of questions:

1: Skim wet or dry?

2: What skimmer maintenance/cleaning do you perform and how often?

I seem to have had an issue with cleaning my skimmer TOO often. I think it could be the main reason I was having so much trouble getting it to run consistently. Every time the cup was full, I pulled it, emptied, and scrubbed it out. But everytime I restart the skimmer, I find myself having to spend hours dialing it back in again. And when I think I've got it dialed back in, I'll come back to it the next day and find it either dangerously full, or overflowing.

Is it better to just leave a layer of "scum" on the inside of the cone, or should I clean it more often?

What I've done the past few times is just rinse it out with hot water when I empty it. That seems to be the middle ground. Although, I did have to spend about an hour dialing it back in tonight, it seems to be producing better foam now than before, and it didn't take me nearly as long as previous times to get it to that point.

And as far as the body of the skimmer, do you ever take it completely off line, tear it apart, and clean the entire water chamber?

 

[malulu]

normally, it would not need to keep adjust the dial that much...
my guess is, you have it in sump? if the water level vary a lots from time to time, you may then need to keep adjusting the dial... an auto top-off to keep the water at same level at all time may help.

 

[mfisher2112]

normally, it would not need to keep adjust the dial that much...
my guess is, you have it in sump? if the water level vary a lots from time to time, you may then need to keep adjusting the dial... an auto top-off to keep the water at same level at all time may help.

I guess I should have clarified that. It is a coralife SuperSkimmer 125, and it is hanging on the side of my 20 gallon sump. I have the sump divided into 3 chambers, so the water level does not vary much if at all on the skimmer side, only on the return pump side.

I do have an ATO auto top off unit, but I haven't installed it yet. I'm still rolling around in my head just exactly how to do it. Haven't decided on that yet. I really should get around to that for more than one reason.

 

[malulu]

i have a small skimmer before, with a short tube, it is really a pain when do anyhting changed, it will get crazy fast - like when using any Epoxy-glue or over feeding...
i now use a bigger one, so it have more room as buffer, so i no need to keep adjusting it anymore!

lesson learned:
long tube -> good
short tube -> it works, but a pain some time.


oh, one more thing, i normally empty out the "scum" in a 5 gals bucket, then take it out to rinse it, then dump the junk to my back yard... but the past sunday, i was lazy to go out, cause it is a bit cold outside, so i empty it out in my kitchen sink... :-[ i think you know the outcome! my wife was mad, cause now the kitchen sink was clog when she trying to use it next day!!! : i then need to get off work early to rush back home and open the bottom pipe thingy to get the mud out!! not a fun thing to do!

 

[Carlo]

I started writing and ended up with a few things so I put them into categories. By no means does it cover everything but I think I got some of the most important things I've learned that affect skimming performance as a whole. Some things you may or may not be able to do depending on equipment setup and somethings you may not agree with and that's OK too. Many ways to skin the cat. But here you go.

Tip
The best thing I ever did to my skimmers was drill a small hole in the collection cup and ran a 1/4 hose in it to a collection container. This allows you to empty the waste without touching or turning off the skimmer pump.

Cleaning
Don't clean more then you need to. Only when it effects performance (skimmate production). You'll get a feel for it. Everyone of my skimmers is different and requires a different cleaning schedule. My homemade skimmer hasn't been cleaned in 3 months due to it's design but is a pain in the but to tune. My Aquatic Life Systems Protein Skimmer has a wide opening at the top of the riser going into the collection cup (3") so it can get very dirty without much difference in performance. I clean it maybe once a month. The Aqua Medic Turboflotor 1000 Multi has the narrowing type riser that only has about a 1" opening and it cruds up pretty fast so I clean it every couple of days.

I "clean" them while they are running. I take the lid off and run my finger around the inside of the riser and pull as much out as I can and wipe it on a paper towel. I don't worry much about the collection cup getting mucked up but you can clean this to. If you don't like the finger technique use a paper towel or something else. Basically I take the easy approach and only worry about the riser getting dirty. Again this is while everything is running so I never need to adjust anything.

Wet or Dry
Depends on the particular skimmer and how well it runs at either skim setting. Also depends a lot on your nitrates and water color. If your nitrates aren't zero then you probably want to skim more (wetter) but if zero maybe skim a little dryer. If there is a slight coloring to the water or the fish don't look like they are swimming in air then you probably have excess plankton in the tank which could be removed by skimming wetter. These are rough guides at best but maybe give you an idea. It's subjective.

If you look at the skimmate you produce if it's green tea like in color then you are skimming a lot of plankton from the tank. If it's dark brown/black you are skimming mostly other types of organics and not so much plankton.

If you presently skim the green stuff out of the tank AND you are buying and dosing a plankton product stop dosing for a while and see if you still skim the green stuff out. If you do then stop dosing all together as your tank is producing plenty of plankton on it's own. Save the $20 bottle of DTs a month and send me $10.

Tuning the Skimmer
Depends on the skimmer, but generally I try and open the air valve fully open and then adjust the water valve to get the water/foam level up to the middle of the riser. If the bubbles are big reduce the air and up the water. Keep doing this until you get fine bubbles that "crawl" their way up the riser and into the collection cup. Generally speaking the smaller/finer the bubble the better the skimmer will perform. Of course different designs get tweaked a little different but that a rough starting guide.

Skimmer Placement
Ideally you want to pull water from one compartment and exit the water in the next compartment so you don't reprocess the same water in the sump. Also in an ideal environment you want to process all the water that makes it to the sump. Both are easier said then done sometimes. Some skimmer you can't do this with. In case that's not quite clear I'll explain my setup which might help visualize what I mean.

I have all the tank returns directed into a dedicated skimmer sump. I have a 1.5" hole drilled at the top of the skimmer sump to allow "extra" water to flow into the sump below it (think overflow). If the skimmer(s) can't keep up the water will flow out this hole. I did this so that I can keep a solid level of water in this skimmer sump at all times. I have 3 pumps located in the skimmer box feeding 3 different skimmers. The output of the skimmers goes directly into the main sump. The combination of these three skimmer can process more water then I get via the returns from the tanks so I have my return pump (via manifold) feed additional water from the sump back to the skimmer box. Just enough so I get a slight trickle from the 1.5" hole I mentioned earlier. This gives me a constant water line (no fidgeting with skimmers due to fluctuating water levels). In this setup all water is process at least 1 time per return from tank.

In a typical setup (sometimes no choice of course) you have the skimmer sitting in the sump and it can miss some of the water and process other water twice or more (of course it's all mixed together but you get the idea). This can make your skimmer only 1/2 as efficient as it could be. IMHO the other NO NO is having a return rate back to the tank faster then your skimmer can process. It's the same affect as the skimmer in the sump missing some water and processing other water twice. Even a small skimmer can handle a much bigger system if skimming wet and the return rate to the tank is reduced enough so the skimmer can process ALL THE WATER making it's way to the sump. This is within limits of course!

The main reason why I think it's important to process all the water is that much of the proteins and organics are floating on the surface water that makes it into the overflow. Any water you miss processing with the skimmer is probably high in these proteins and organics and all you do is blow it back into the tank where it mixes with the tank water and needs to "surface" again which can take time.

If you have a fuge and you can pick and choose where the water comes from use send it skimmed water if possible instead of directly from the tank. This will help to keep the fuge a little cleaner. It will still work just fine but will save you a little cleaning here and there.

Carlo

PS malulu, dump in the toilet next time you feel lazy. That's where fish poop is supposed to go.

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

I set my skimmer and forget about it. Sometimes it skims wet but mostly skims dry. I clean the riser when the skimate production goes down. Definitely add a drain hose to the collection cup and an auto shut off it makes life much easier.

 

[Phyl]

When I clean mine (roughly once a week) I clean it all the way down. I have thought about trying to just "wipe it down" so as to leave that skim-coat on the sides of the riser, but I always end up washing it clean.

Our skimmate is generally on the tea-side rather than thick coffee/gummy. Not what I'd call "wet" but no where near dry. Seems to give this skimmer a good range where it might start off the week a bit on the wet side, by the end of the week it is a bit on the drier side.

 

[Subliminal]

As an aside, my JBJ ATO is the best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah. The best.

 

[pgordemer]

I have a AQUAC EV-180 and a Bermuda 3C both draining to a gallon milk jug. I empty the collection cup and jug for each once a week. I do not clean at this time, just empty it. Every 2nd week, I clean the collection cups and wipe down the bubble column is a dish rag.

 

[AnDom1]

Hi

I have a Turboflotor 1000 which sits in my sump but is gravity fed directly from the tank..For the most part, it skims on the dry side yielding the darker brown stuff. I empty and clean the collection cup/riser every 7-10 days. The only time I take it offline is either when I remove it from the sump altogether to clean it or when I do a largeer than average water change and need to shut the feeder valve from the tank.

Dom