is this what my biocube skimmer should be doing? pic included

[sinful]

This is my first skimmer, and it happens to be a 34$ oceanic biocube airstone powered skimmer. I'm just curious if this is turning out to do what a skimmer is supposed to do. It was brand new and I installed it saterday and it started to produce foam last night. This is what it looks like this morning.

the foam is a bit white, but seems to be getting darker...is this business as usual? Will it gradually get darker and darker ?

 

[osiris4evr]

It looks like you pulling a little to much water up than needed, I would adjust the airflow so that the bubbles are popping just under the top of the center and let the build up accumulate and then it will force the gunk to topple over the edge into the collection cup!

 

[JUICE!]

looks perfect! if it only produced what little has collected in the cup in the picture, I'd leave it where it is. if the collection cup fills up all the way over the course of 24 hours, I might adjust the level down a bit, but judging by the picture, you are doing great!

 

[sinful]

yea it's only produced that in about 2 days. It'ts not getting any water in the collection cup actually...it is all foam that goes in there.

 

[JUICE!]

then you are PERFECT! optimally, you'll want to be emptying stuff that looks something like tea, though feeding phytoplankton, or adding certain additives can produce very green or even blue skimmate.

You could probably turn it up a bit if you like.....but as your tank ages, you will likely produce more and darker skimmate and may have to adjust it back down....but you are on the right track!

 

[sinful]

the tank is about a year and a half old, just added the skimmer last weekend. So it should produce some skimmate soon I'm guessing. Have 3 fish aswell along with corals....I just wanted to make sure that was about normail. when the cup fills with foam do I empty that or just kep letting it foam up in the cup?

 

[JUICE!]

I generally empty mine every day.

you got by for a long time with no skimmer huh?

I took the skimmer of my 75G for a real long time.....the coral actually grew faster, but my coralline died off and I had cyano issues more often.

 

[sinful]

so when I empty it...it takes awhile for it to start foaming back up again...is this normal?