Relationship between feeding and skimmate (9010)

[FortyFour]

Hello,

So I just received my slightly used Tunze 9010. I plugged it in and it immediately started producing a thick foam (to my delight). However, after feeding my tank, the foam went away. I treated my food with ReefPure vitamin supplement.

Please explain to me the relationship between feeding/vitamins and skimmate. I noticed in the manual that it mentions feeding affecting surface tension (hence skimming), but it wasn't too detailed about it. Will this happen every time I feed and treat with vitamins? I like to feed twice a day. How long does it take to adjust after feeding? Did the vitamins affect it, or the food, or both?

Thanks in advance,

Joe

 

[FortyFour]

It has been about 2 hours, and the foam is back. I really like this skimmer, just would like to understand it a little bit better (particularily the questions mentioned above).

Prior to this, I was running a Nano skimmer in my system. I must say, it feels GREAT to actually have a real skimmer.

 

[shawnz28]

Pretty much any skimmer you own will do the same time to an extent, though time will vary depending on skimmer model and type along with water volume and additive or food quantity etc.... Anything that will change the surface tension of the water will change how a skimmer reacts due to the surface of the bubbles. Many oily foods such as mysis shrimp and vitamins will cause the bubbles to break faster until the oils are broken down. As well as many additives such as Nov-aqua, 2 part epoxys, or red slime removers will have the opposite effect and increase surface tention thus skimmers will overflow. Often times you will see threads about skimmers suddenly going crazy and can be linked back to an additive

 

[FortyFour]

Thank you. I didn't realize mysis was that oily.

 

[shawnz28]

Some mysis seems to be more so than others and is likely due to how packaged. PE while one of the best seems also to me one of the oilier ones. I always rinse it thru a net for this reason prior to feeding.

 

[w2aiq]

The oil is the most beneficial nutritional component (fat) of the shrimp, so the better ones probably will have more...so if you rinse it too much your washing away "nutrition" which is partly what you paid for.

 

[shawnz28]

I think like anything in the hobby there will be varying opinions and neither are completely right or wrong and therer are merits to both

Couple recent threads discussing
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1768337
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1722697

 

[rvitko]

Just to expand on what Shawn said, oils and fats as well as many vitamins and amino acids affect the surface tension much the same way as detergent would. The water no longer forms and holds bubbles as it would normally. There is no reason to stop what you are doing, in most cases the skimmer will start skimming again within a few hours and pick up the slack. In extreme cases where vitamins are added directly to the water it can take a few days.