When is my skimmer "DIALED IN?"

[RussC]

I have a Reef Octopus Regal 150ENT skimmer. My tank is three months old. I get a little skimmate every once in a while. But I 'feel' like there should be more. But how do I know?

I have followed some suggestions to adjust the outflow so that the crest of the bubbles tend to remain at or around the cone of the skimmer. I have a build up of crud there. I'll clean it. Don't really see a difference in skimmate when its clean or not.

88 gallong display, 112 gallon system. In short, I now have enough life in the aquarium that I'm finally beginning to see a small reduction in parameters between my two week water changes. I feel as though I should be getting more skimmate. For you experienced reefers, I'm hoping that will give you some sort of benchmark.

 

[BlueMoods]

I use a different skimmer but, it does use a venturi pump. Whether right or wrong, I adjust mine until after two hours of running, there is foam coming over the top and, into the collection cup. In general as much air as you can give it without having any large bubbles, keeping them all 0.45 inch diameter or smaller and, get foam coming over the top after a couple of hours.

Assuming you aren't over feeding and, have a fairly light bioload in the tank, you may see as little as 0.25 inches of waste collected per week. I've got a decent bioload on my tanks so, I empty the skimmer collection cups twice a week with about 0.75 inches of waste in them. All of my tanks are sump free setups.

 

[RussC]

That helps. I really just don' know what I should really expect.

 

[Sk8r]

Not much for 3 months. After a year, you should start to see a larger effect.

 

[mcgyvr]

You basically decide how much you want... (wet or dry skimmate)
I can easily adjust to pull a full skimmer cup load (being very wet..tea like color/consistency) in a single day to pulling out a just small bit less than 1/8th the cup in a week (dry/tar like.. uber stinky)..
I usually shoot for the middle and pull maybe a skimmer cup every week..

If you want more simply close the drain hole on it some.. The bubble level should rise and you will likely get wetter but more skimmate by volume..

 

[Dr RBG]

The dry stuff is concentrated; the wet dilute. but do they contain the same amount of stuff if the water was evaporated? Or is one better than the other?

Thanks

 

[mcgyvr]

The dry stuff is concentrated; the wet dilute. but do they contain the same amount of stuff if the water was evaporated? Or is one better than the other?

Thanks

And how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?




The world may never know...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php#21

 

[Uncle99]

What is called "dry skim" usually is dark and smelly, lot of crap, little water.
Wet skim is the opposite, lot of water, little crap.
What comes out is a derivative of what goes in....in terms of DOC.....if DOC is low then skim is low......
You can start by setting on the lowest flow....wait a week.....turn up a bit.....wait a week....until you get dark smelly foam.....then stop....I get the same result every week, exactly 4 cups of crap every 7 days..

 

[AlSimmons]

IME with a skimmer it's always a different song. It/they work, but there is a ceiling and a floor. As long as everything looks good though just try to stay within the "range" so to say. GL. (watch that SG)