Reef Discussion

[macca_75]

I know the idea might sound a little lame however I thought it might be a good visually aid for beginners.

Q. What/how much skimmate should I be getting?
A. It depends.

Sounds like a lame answer but there are so many variables (stocking, skimmer make/model/condition, food fed to tank (amount, type, frequency, etc), additives (what, how many, how often), etc - the list goes one.
So I thought if people could offer a quick pic of their skimmer cups in action with a brief description it might help others down the track.

The pic should include something for color/size reference.

 

[macca_75]

So I'll go first with one I prepared earlier.

Skimmer: Tunze 9420 (in sump running about 1/2 up the hydrofoamer)

Stock: light/medium fish load.Mostly Softies, a clam and a few SPS

Feed: NLS pallets.Fed 7 times daily using Eheim auto feeder + 3 sheets nori per week.

Skimmate collected:

The below pic is 2 days worth of skimmate.Turns out to be a little over 1100mls. In my opion it's also a pretty wet skimmate. refernce is a 1.5L Coke Zero bottle.

Skimmate collected:



The below pic is 2 days worth of skimmate. Turns out to be a little over 1100mls.

 

[slin1977]

Would say that my dissolved organic compounds collected vary with feeding. KZ Sponge power seems to make my skim thicker.
My skimmer has been tuned to where I collect just less than a cup a day.

 

[Felicity goodall]

This is a good start for the thread. Thanks for the effort. Beginners like me can do the same and ask if people can give any tips to improve from other that have the say skimmer or regime.

 

[Agent M]

I know the idea might sound a little lame however I thought it might be a good visually aid for beginners.

Not lame at all - I wrinkled my nose when I saw the thread title as we all know how gross skimmate is Its like checking your tanks nappies - no one likes doing it and it stinks, but its good to keep the tank clean and tells you a lot about whats going on in there :p

 

[ezza]

My skimmer sucks and it's pissing me off because the tank isn't expelling sufficient toxins. I either have very wet skimmate which simply pours into the bottle I have for overflow, or it just clogs up the tube thingy. I have watched several videos and read heaps about getting the Aqua One skimmer tuned properly, and it is... But it's useless. The difference between it being at the preferred level of "once inch up the tube" as opposed to "too high" so it's overflowing is so very minimal. It's about one dot on the flow dial. I don't want to empty my tank of all its water, I just want concentrated crap to actually come out of the skimmer and enter the cup as it's supposed to. I think I'll have to change the skimmer because I just am not happy with it and it's the reason behind my nitrate issues.

 

[Rob]

I only get ~200 mls a week.
Tea colour and a
wet. Although the neck of the skimmer has a ~2 mm thick scum on the inside and seem to have more floaty bits in the skimmate.

Nowhere near the qty as maccas gets, even on a volume to volume ratio.

350 ltr tank
Mixed reef
3 tangs, 4 smaller fish
Feed pellets 2 x day, ocasional frozen block.
Skimmer : tunze 9410
Ozone injected at ~10 mg 4 hrs a day.

Actually glad i dont get too much as emptying once a week for me is just fine :)