Cleaning the collection cup

[frederickk]

I was questionning myself today. Is it true that you shouldn't touch or clean your collection cup so often as to leave all the good bacteria in there.

I have been inform buy a friend but I ain't too sure anymore.

What do you guys think of that?

Thanks

 

[jag1979]

for a skimmer? I have never heard of that, i rinse mine out and add vinegar to reduce the odor of the gunk

 

[J. Montgomery]

Clean the skimmer collection cup.

 

[MJAnderson]

I've seen people say various things on this. Some say scrub it clean, others just rinse. I know on mine if I scrub it clean it takes a day for it to get back to normal skimmate production. I wipe the collection part of the cup but just rinse the "inside" of the cup.

 

[ReefWreak]

Why would you want bacteria to grow in your skimmer cup? I nuke my collection cup clean every time I clean it, because it's really freakin gross. It takes like up to an hour or so for the foam head to return because of the biocoat, which may be what you're talking about, but it returns and continues skimming once again.

 

[ReefWreak]

BTW any bacteria that had the misfortune to end up in your skimmer collection cup do not benefit your tank in ANY way once their in there, so it's a moot point.

 

[MJD 1]

where do you guys dump your skimmate?

MJD

 

[sabodish]

down the sink it goes...and i clean my collection cup with scolding hot water and wipe it down.

 

[UCanDoIt]

A good performing skimmer's collection cup needs to be cleaned at least once a week, but certainly no longer than 7-10 days. On my H&S and Deltec skimmers, I spray down the cup first to loosen all the crude and rinse away. Then I take a dry paper towel and wipe the inside of the neck of the collection cup and one last rinse before reinstalling. The skimmer fires up and begins skimming as fast as minutes, but certainly no longer than an hour. With other skimmers that I've owned before, it usually always taken a day to 3 days to kick in again... not as bad as some of the skimmers that are on client's tanks that my aquarium technician maintains as I've seen some not kick in again until about 3-5 days.

I would clean it out completely with warm water.

 

[frederickk]

I totaly agree with you guys. I might have been badly advise as I think my skimmer needs to be clean too. I'll probably let it run and only take off the top of the collection cup to clean it.

 

[frederickk]

cleaned the cup today