Show me your working skimmers!

DracoKat · Jul 31, 2016

I am not sure if I have the correct foam output on my skimmer.. I am trying to dial it to where the foam is not pushing the cup's lid off.. but I am not sure if it's correct. I have it to where the foam is just peeking over into the cup.

Can I see videos or photos of your working skimmer so I can see how much foam output in the cup it's supposed to have?

chriscq · Jul 31, 2016

How long have you had the skimmer running? I generally keep the foam level mid neck

DracoKat · Jul 31, 2016

it's been running for about 4 weeks with the water line attached to the cup to break it in. I recently plugged the cup to get it foaming.

So the foam should be in the neck, not spilling into the cup? I had it wrong?

DracoKat · Jul 31, 2016

It'd help if I had a visual.. I can't seem to find any good images on google to help me

DracoKat · Jul 31, 2016

actually, I found this video that really helped me figure out the level of the foam. hope it's right!

chriscq · Jul 31, 2016

I keep my foam/bubble line right above my finger in the pictures it works pretty well for me

DracoKat · Jul 31, 2016

thank you!! I am trying to get my foam down to that low. not happening, lol. may need to give it a bit more to break in

chriscq · Jul 31, 2016

It should be broke in after 4 weeks. The one in the picture has been up for 4 days. Keep your adjustments small and wait awhile until you adjust it anymore. With small adjustments you'll find your money spot in a few days

DracoKat · Jul 31, 2016

ah, so give it time in between adjustments. I'll try that. I might be adjusting too fast.

thank you again

I hate being a newb with these things sometimes

chriscq · Jul 31, 2016

No worries. Good luck!

hybridazn · Jul 31, 2016

Bpb · Jul 31, 2016

Yeah another important trick to skimmers is once you have it tuned to skim as wet or dry as you prefer/need. Don't mess with it further. If you have to feed something, turn it off, remove the cup for cleaning, ect, that's fine, just don't mess with the foam level adjustment. Skimmate production will vary by the hour of the day and how much/often you feed. Once it's set, the water tension itself based on available organics in the water sort of make them self adjusting to a point. As in, feed a lot more, and you'll get more skimmate, stop feeding entirely and skimmer production will drop. If you use certain foods it'll kill the foam head and drop it low inside the skimmer body, and some epoxy putties will cause it to overflow for hours sometimes days. Don't adjust it though just let the skimmer react and it will stabilize again. Once you start chasing settings what will happen is you'll check back two hours later and it's not where you left it. When you increase or decrease the flow through the skimmer body it can take hours for organics inside the skimmer to build up or deplete to the point that the foam head will indeed move from where you set it. Best to set it low, say...at the base of the collection cup, and run it like that a few days. If the neck gunks up and you get nothing in the cup, clean the neck, and do a couple millimeter turn of the adjustment knob to raise the foam level, leave it a couple days. See if it's producing the way you want. That's always worked for me. Recently got a new skimmer and took a couple days to find the sweet spot for a heavy but dry skimmate production. Now I just leave it as is and clean the neck with a toothbrush every 3-4 days

TherealplexiG · Jul 31, 2016

Bpb said:
Yeah another important trick to skimmers is once you have it tuned to skim as wet or dry as you prefer/need.

What are the pros and cons of wet and dry skimming?
What's better, i have always dry skimmed.

R_C · Jul 31, 2016

If the foam level is too high maybe your skimmer is in too deep water. Check with the manual to make sure you have it within the right depth. Once you have that right then you can adjust it but in very slow increments. It took me about a month to get mine running the way I like it.

Bpb · Aug 1, 2016

TherealplexiG said:
What are the pros and cons of wet and dry skimming?
What's better, i have always dry skimmed.

I don't necessarily think you can qualitatively prove one better or worse. Seems like most people like their skimmate to look like coffee though. On my 90 gallon I use a bubble magus curve 7, and fill the cup with solid black skimmate about once a week. I do have to scrub the neck mid week though because as gunk cakes the neck the foam head tends to stop rising and spilling over.

DracoKat · Aug 1, 2016

manual says skimmer should be about 8 inches up.

Does that mean 8 inches from the water line to the top of the cup? or 8 inches from the bottom of the sump?