Omg...clean your skimmer cups!

[DT's_Reef]

I'm sure I'm stating the obvious for many, but be sure to clean your skimmer collection cup/neck every day/couple days, particularly if yours tends to collect gunk in the neck.

I had been lazy about this and was wondering why I was getting red slime here and there on my sandbed....began cleaning the cup regularly and poof, it went away.

All that decaying sludge in the neck stays in contact with the water column and that can't be good.

 

[brshriver]

The wetwebmedia.com folks swear by cleaning the throat out every day or every other day. They claim that it increases the efficiency of a skimmer tremendously. I clean mine every week day as part of my getting out the door routine and it seems to perform very well.

 

[sk8rreefgeek]

your supposed to clean/empty that?

 

[mrkalel]

whats a skimmer?

 

[sanababit]

^ yeah what is a skimmer, lol

 

[DT's_Reef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13359164#post13359164 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sanababit
^ yeah what is a skimmer, lol

It's that thing you tend to buy over and over to get the "best". Oh wait, that's lighting....no...recirculation pumps....hmmmm.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13359195#post13359195 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DT's_Reef
It's that thing you tend to buy over and over to get the "best". Oh wait, that's lighting....no...recirculation pumps....hmmmm.

Thats the best quote I've seen in awhile!

 

[chernandez88]

Geeze...No wonder every month when I clean it, its all slimmy and feels disgusting. I should clean it more often then.

 

[Tangweed]

I thought you just throw them away and buy a new one???

 

[Reef Stallion]

I have to be careful who is around when I clean my collection cup. If my wife is around she always says "What's that disgusting smell?"

"Fish poop." I say

"I hope you are going to disinfect the sink when you're done."

Sometimes I do.

 

[theyoda55]

wow, this thread REEKS with skimmer sarcasm.... (pun intended).

 

[aslavatortin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13359742#post13359742 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reef Stallion
Sometimes I do.

And that's the funniest quote I've seen in awhile...

 

[LulusMoogle]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13361093#post13361093 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aslavatortin
And that's the funniest quote I've seen in awhile...

Agreed. :lol:

 

[Playa-1]

I think you all have been sniffing to much skimmer poo

:lol:

 

[Reef Stallion]

I always know when my fish are going to poop.

They stop moving , make a funny face and get that look in their eye.

Next thing I know, the skimmer is going crazy!:eek1:

 

[RokleM]

Re: Omg...clean your skimmer cups!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13357795#post13357795 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DT's_Reef
I'm sure I'm stating the obvious for many, but be sure to clean your skimmer collection cup/neck every day/couple days, particularly if yours tends to collect gunk in the neck.

Sorry, but I and a lot of people will disagree. There are a lot of variables, depending on your skimmer, amount of material collected, wet/dry, etc... There is a fine line between cleaning too much and too little. For the standard setup, about once a week is preferred. The first 24 hours after cleaning is much less efficient, as is the effectiveness after say a week of use as it builds up.

Again, just my opinion. I would get maybe 10-20% of my skimmate I do now if I cleaned it every day, and I have an efficient skimmer. Imagine if you had a "sensitive" skimmer like an AquaC.

 

[DT's_Reef]

Lol.

You likely are aware that in order to make a general statement hold true 100% of the time, an exhaustive list of caveats would need to be included.

As always, people have to make up their own mind whether it applies and make sense for their system. It's a suggestion, not an executive order.

If someone posted something similar months ago and I read it, it would have been great advice for me. Unfortunately, it took me a while to discover this on my own.

If I took your advice of waiting a week to clean, that would be wrong for my set-up.

Fortunately, my skimmer begins skimming immediately after cleaning.

I believe a recent TOTM mentioned he cleans his skimmer every 3 days and he had some of the healthiest looking SPS I've ever seen. Lots of variables to be sure, but it would appear cleaning his skimmer frequently may have been helping.

 

[RokleM]

Granted, but a straight forward post with a suggestion against what many consider the norm without any further info or feedback doesn't exactly help either Maybe list your equipment, how wet/dry it is, how much you were collecting, etc. I can do blanket statements too:

Use septic water to add coral food to your tank! End of post :lol:

My skimmer begins skimming immediately after cleaning as well, but the volume of skimmate drops drastically when tested/monitored over a period. If you've found out why it works in your particular setup, state that so we can all learn.

 

[DT's_Reef]

Advice like using septic water to feed your corals is hardly comparable to what I said in my initial post.

You say many consider weekly cleaning as the norm, and my statement isn't helpful given this seemingly apparent fact.

I'd bet many would also say more frequent cleaning is the norm (buddy told me Calfo supposedly recommends daily cleaning in his book....but maybe that just works for him and not others...odd).

Perhaps you or I need to first conduct a scientifically sound study about what the true norm is before making such a statement.

Hmmm, not practical.... so maybe it's best no one make any posts unless everything said can be proven/substantiated.

Inherently, forum boards are used "at your own risk" and contain a ton of subjective, scientifically unsupported information. Just the way it is.

My "nit-picking-thread-alarm" has sounded, so time to go.

 

[RokleM]

Not trying to nitpick, just trying to figure out why it seemed to work very well for you. It's contrary to the majority of threads (and I did a quick search again to confirm before posting) I've read in the hardware hardware/advanced sections. It would benefit us all if we knew why it worked well in your situation. If it was applicable to a lot of people, it's something we could try and see the results.

Here is a recent thread where skimmer cleaning was discussed.

You're right, forums are extremely at your own risk and everyone is their own expert. We're all guilty of that at one time or another

Don't give up, just help us understand. Hopefully most use this forum to exchange information and learn. I'm not trying to step on your toes. I'll leave your thread since it's apparently causing issues. Back to the poop and smell jokes :lol: