The skimmate thread

[RiOnRoxXx]

Let's get dirty! Jake posted a pic of skimmate from his Tunze skimmer in the biopellets thread. I thought it was pretty cool to see what his skimmer was doing. Thought maybe the rest of us can share lol. Here is mine

Skimmer: Reef Octopus In-Sump 150 w/OTP2000 pump, Enkamat Mesh Modded
Tank: 40gal br w/20gal +/- sump
Feeding: Once a day, 6 small fish bioload
Skimmate: Wet/Dry

2 days of skimmate, skimmer sits a little crooked without the suction cups on the pump...

 

[lanxang]

Old Tank

Tank: 60g plus 15g sump
Bio: Mix reef, 1 feeding/day,
Skimmate: dark tea
Skimmer: Itech 100 with Tunze Pump (Itech mod volute, stock needle wheel)

I think this was about 4 days worth.

When It was breaking in (24hrs)

 

[Original Fin]

These pics are making me think I need to upgrade my skimmer. I have to change mine daily, sometimes 2x if it's acting up. Adjustment of what I have (CPR Aeroforce HOB) is kind of a joke. I either get super wet skim, or nothing at all. My skimmate always looks like a weak, foamy phyto culture.

 

[Diamond Jack]

Tunze Doc 9410

2-3 days worth of junk. Blowing off rocks once daily and have 1 clownfish im feeding twice daily. A little bit on wet side, but thats how I want it right now.

 

[bwade209]

Just be glad you can't smell this...has to be cleaned every 2 days or the smell runs us out of the house.

Skimmer: Aqua Euro 250
Tank: 300gal with 65gal sump heavy bioload
Feeding: Once a day mysis/brine, 3-4 sheets of Nori daily, every other night feed corals Cyclops/Rotifers/Reef Chilli
Skimmate: Stinks

 

[Suohhen]

These pics are making me think I need to upgrade my skimmer. I have to change mine daily, sometimes 2x if it's acting up. Adjustment of what I have (CPR Aeroforce HOB) is kind of a joke. I either get super wet skim, or nothing at all. My skimmate always looks like a weak, foamy phyto culture.

A better skimmer could definitely do a lot, but there are many reasons for poor skimmer functionality. You should reduce the amount of stuff the skimmer has to process, reduce the amount of nasty compounds getting to the skimmer, and even out the distribution of nutrients throughout the day.

There are ways to achieve these things: use activated carbon, employ a clean up crew of the proper size and function, use a feed mode function when you feed or if you don't have a timer with that function shut off your main pump for 30 min during feeding, spread your feedings over the day rather than a bunch at once, don't just dump all the food in at once but provide it in a way that leads to the fish getting as much of it as possible, provide a lot of water flow inside the tank and randomize the flow as much as possible as well, etc. There are a lot of things that help the skimmer do its job.

 

[Suohhen]

Yum

Skimmer: Old EuroReef RS 135
Skimmate: Dark Brown Sugar
Feeding/Load: 2 Cubes a day of Frozen Food and Half a Strip of nori every other day in a mixed reef with 7 small-medium fish.
Tank: 100g Tank, 20g Sump, and 20g Refugium.

3 Days worth of skimming

 

[DZs]

EuroReef RS80
Seems to be running wetter then normal. Time to back the water down lower. Mine normally looks more like Sean's.
Yesterday morning.

This morning

 

[Suohhen]

Yay another Euroreef. I was starting to feel like I was alone, it's been years since I have seen someone with a Euroreef and yet they used to be one of the most popular skimmers on the market. I can see why your skimmer would be running wetter, bio pellets definitely excite the skimmer a lot, but Euroreef skimmers in my experience don't handle fluctuations as well as some other skimmers.

My skimmer cup needed cleaning every day when I added the Bio Pellets, but now I clean it every other day and it creates a much darker and even skimmate with far less gunk.

 

[sneakyonesix]

my diy skimmer

my diy skimmer

I dont know if it works well let me know, but my friend has a sea clone and his is never as dark as mine. this is the only thing i have to compare. this is three days worth if i negelect it dont change it for a week smells bad and is mud, but my wife doesnt like it so she reminds me to clean it. it is amazing to me cause i spent so much time and it works. The only thing i would have done different is used a pump with a needle wheel impeller.

 

[Suohhen]

Hey Pete do you want to know how we make the images show on the thread? I use Photobucket which is free and lets me upload pictures, I take the link to the picture and click on the image icon above the message box, says Insert Image, and paste the link there.

The skimmer looks great, it's hard to get a good idea of what it is pulling out because of the perspective of the shots. Could you snap a few shots like the rest of the posts in the thread so we can get an idea of scale and what the skimmate looks like? Also what do you feed, how much, and how often?

 

[JoshuaG]

My SWC, few days worth. Love this thing, thinking of upgrading to the 180 soon.

 

[JoshuaG]

Here is a pic when I'm skimming very dry.

 

[brianbigoats]

ATB Med

 

[brianbigoats]

in my old tank Bubble master gen 1

 

[DZs]

Almost smells as bad as gear oil.

 

[asmozre]

Looking at what you guys are skimming I'm actually not too disappointed with the SeaClone 150 that I was given. I have modified it by cutting the inner riser tube, changed the pump, replaced the air valve and done the bioball impeller modification. I read everywhere that people hated these so I went ahead and modified it before using it at all. Adjusted it once and have never had to again. This picture is about 2 days of skimming on my 55g reef with a 20g sump. I think I'll be sticking with this gift for a bit

 

[Suohhen]

Man Josh that first shot with the skimmer cup on the counter for a while I thought it was in your sump and the counter top looks like really bubbly water. It looked like your skimmer went crazy when you had the cup off and turned your sump into a skimmer.

Donna, your skimmate is definitely looking different. In regards to your other post on the bio pellets thread I think it really comes down to what you prefer, your first shot was right in the ideal point of wet skimming, and this shot is right in the ideal point of dry skimming. If you want to run it wetter you can, but it doesn't much matter imo.

Azmozre, your Pete's friend? Post something on the introduction page with some information about your setup. The skimmer looks great. Seaclones are terrible but your modifications have made a huge difference. The one thing to consider is that its volume is very small so the amount of water it can process is as well. Your probably pushing it on a 55 gallon tank but it really matters on what you intend to keep, most soft corals do better in high nutrient conditions.

 

[DZs]

Josh's cup looks like he has road side snow on the top. You been out snowboarding??? :lmao:

I can get the skimmer to run dryer then picture above. I think for now, I'll run it like this due to the new pellets less then two weeks old.

 

[asmozre]

Sean, sorry not Pete's friend. Was looking through the forums and saw a nice looking skimmate thread

My girlfriend's mother gave us some of her older equipment from a fish store she owned several years ago. We were given a 140 which we had and was dominated by SPS however last time we moved, that tank torqued and cracked Since we will be moving again within the next year we setup the 55g instead. Right now we have a fairly light load. Some leathers, a nice white bubble coral. Some dragon eye zoa's and several other zoa's. Some ricordea that is covering about a 10lb piece of LR, a christmas tree rock with lots of the colorful dusters, several other dusters. A green and a pink mushroom that I haven't been able to identify as well. Fish load is very light. Just have a small green chromis, grown coral beauty and 2 occelaris clowns. We are planning on putting some SPS back into this tank once we move however we're just waiting to move before we add it.