How do you determine skimmer efficiency?

[docwells]

I was wondering how people determine their protein skimmer effiency? This has always been of interest to me and wanted to see what others think. Do you base it on the amount of skimmate? I think that is subjective as I can skim wet and get alot of skimmate, but is this the true mark of skimmer efficiency? Is it based on the lack of nuisance algae growth, clarity of water, etc? Is it the amount of skimmate per watt of energy used? This would be a vote for the recirculating skimmers and air stone driven.
Just wondering what people are thinking these days.

 

[moonpod]

IMO, there's no real straightforward way to determine that. There are too many variables. In general, you can make statements about air flow, how fine the bubbles are, stability of foam column, contact time, but in the end a lot of this is subjective.

 

[familyreefer]

The fellow at my LFS told me I needed to have a rich, black, dry skimate, like coffee. My back pac was set incorrectly and my skimate was light green and wet. I followed his instruction and adjusted the skimmer. Skimmate turned dry and black and the xennias started looking better the very next week! Guess he knew his stuff. I have recently switched over to a sump skimmer and had the same problem but that was due to the skimmer being new and needing to "slime in." After a week or two it thickened up and is skimming well now. Just my 5 cents! Mt question is how often should the cup be cleaned? I have mine overflowing into an old milk container and clean the cup about once a week. Always seem to take a day or two to get skimming again.

 

[Amphiprion]

Well, it depends upon many things. When you say efficiency, do you mean efficacy? The two are totally different things. As far as efficiency goes, it will relate terms of efficacy, power usage, size, etc. Efficacy will depend upon what moonpod said.

 

[docwells]

I think efficacy was more what I was after. Seen alot of claims and talk about skimmers lately. So I started to wornder about changing myself. But it something is not broke, why mess with it. My skimmer seems to be doing fine and I should probably leave well enough alone. Doesn't help that I like to tinker and I am sort of an equipment junkie.