Thick, Dark Skimmate?! Yuck!!!!!

higorc

higorc

Higor
Have you ever got yelled at when cleaning your Skimmer's collection Cup? I have. As a matter of fact, now more than ever"¦. My wife went off at me last night for "œStinking up" the whole apartment :lmao:.


I guess she doesn't get as excited as I do when I see a Dark, Thick and Stinky Sludge in the Skimmer Cup LOL.







Joking aside, I have had to empty the Skimmer cup more often now since I upgraded from my Vertex IN-100 (Which was way under powered to my 120G upgrade tank) to a Super Reefer Octopus SSS5000. The Skimmer is a lot bigger, so I thought I wouldn't have to empty it as much"¦ WRONG!!!! The Skimmate is so much thicker/stinky I have to do it every 3-5 days or my living room smells like Sewer/Poop! Good stuff :thumbsup:.






How often do you have to empty your Skimmer Cup before somebody complains?


Higor
 
I like to mask it by laying down a cloud of my own "skimmate fumes".

In all seriousness, that's good quality skimmate you got there.
/swirls it around in a wine glass
 
LOL

I like that... She does ask if I did something from time to time... now I just tell her "It's the Skimmer Honey..." :spin3:
 
My method is this:

Get the water running COLD, dump the skimmate down the drain as quickly as possible with the garbage disposal on, then rinse off the stinky surfaces in the skimmer cup. Then I get the bottle brush and go to town. There is a cloud of stink, but it goes away quickly if you have the water running.

If you use hot water, it will definitely stink up the room. In my experience, there is no need to use hot water until you're giving it the final rinsedown.
 
thebanker said:
My method is this:

Get the water running COLD, dump the skimmate down the drain as quickly as possible with the garbage disposal on, then rinse off the stinky surfaces in the skimmer cup. Then I get the bottle brush and go to town. There is a cloud of stink, but it goes away quickly if you have the water running.

If you use hot water, it will definitely stink up the room. In my experience, there is no need to use hot water until you're giving it the final rinsedown.
Click to expand...

that's what I do. I definitely notice the running water helps with the smell
 
thebanker said:
My method is this:

Get the water running COLD, dump the skimmate down the drain as quickly as possible with the garbage disposal on, then rinse off the stinky surfaces in the skimmer cup. Then I get the bottle brush and go to town. There is a cloud of stink, but it goes away quickly if you have the water running.

If you use hot water, it will definitely stink up the room. In my experience, there is no need to use hot water until you're giving it the final rinsedown.
Click to expand...


I will try this method... I usually use Hotwater and leave it running the whole time...
 
I do it every Saturday.
If I don't, it starts to get stinky.
Pour the crap down the daring, wash the cup in hot water and vinegar.
 
Avast Marine makes a skimmate locker with a carbon chamber that helps with the smell and you don't have to empty the cup as often. They also have a Swabbie which is a motorized squeegee blade that cleans the skimmer neck. They rock.
 
LeslieP said:
Avast Marine makes a skimmate locker with a carbon chamber that helps with the smell and you don't have to empty the cup as often. They also have a Swabbie which is a motorized squeegee blade that cleans the skimmer neck. They rock.
Click to expand...

I was just going to ask if anyone had any feed back on something like that!

I have thought about getting an Avast locker but wasn't sure if it would help keep the smell away...

Higor
 
Last edited:
Here's the locker when I first set it up and it wasn't that nasty yet. Really, the stuff in there is black.

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null_zpse6104e72.jpg


I really don't smell anything at all and I've been getting some nasty stuff out of there. Now cleaning the locker is another story - that's nasty sulfurous malodorous mess!
 
I dump mine in the rose bed and then hit the cup with the garden hose. Easy peasy. :)

But that's only when cleaning it cleaning it every couple weeks or so. Every few days i just open the valve and let the gunk flow into another container which i then dump down the utility sink.

20130711_7110829_200gReef-XL.jpg


20130711_7110832_200gReef.jpg
 
Joe0813 said:
I would think you would kill a garden with skimmate. Only because of the salt
Click to expand...

I don't know about a garden (flowers, vegetables, etc.) but I have a row of 4 Giant Bird of Paradise in front of my house (large leaf moderate climate plants). During the summer months I pour out my skimmate on the one closest to the door of my fish room.

That Giant Bird of Paradise is twice the size of the others and puts out twice as many blossoms.

Coincidence? I don't think so..............
 
KyleO said:
I don't know about a garden (flowers, vegetables, etc.) but I have a row of 4 Giant Bird of Paradise in front of my house (large leaf moderate climate plants). During the summer months I pour out my skimmate on the one closest to the door of my fish room.

That Giant Bird of Paradise is twice the size of the others and puts out twice as many blossoms.

Coincidence? I don't think so..............
Click to expand...

Oh ya, it's probably great for plants, tons of nutrients. I knew someone who went around his garden peeing everywhere and swore that helped. Basically the same thing.

All I can say is he had an amazing garden, but I wouldn't eat from it.
 
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