Reef glass nano skimmer tuning

[razorskiss]

Having never turned a skimmer before, I was hoping to get some feedback on this. I've started running a reef glass nano skimmer on my 25 gallon fishless cube after noticing some foam accumulating on the surface and going through a bacterial bloom. The guide states to skim on the lighter side to prevent the waste line from clogging but I wasn't sure what the spectrum looks like. Here's what the foam looks like at the top of the skimmer:

And here's what the initial skimmate looks like after running for about 6 hours:

Any advice on whether this is a good starting point or if I should play with the water level a bit would be appreciated!

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

No that's a good staring point.
Fwiw mine turned into a air bubble trap and stopped excepting water into the body of the skimmer. Kinda like turning an upside down bucket in the bathtub. Just a big air pocket trap. I ended up not using it in the end. Maybe it just needed more cleaning more often. Not sure.
D

 

[razorskiss]

No that's a good staring point.
Fwiw mine turned into a air bubble trap and stopped excepting water into the body of the skimmer. Kinda like turning an upside down bucket in the bathtub. Just a big air pocket trap. I ended up not using it in the end. Maybe it just needed more cleaning more often. Not sure.
D

It seems like it's a bit harder for skimmate to escape from this design vs a traditional cup style skimmer. I wonder if some combination of the air stone gunking up and the organics in your tank dropping made it harder for the foam to be carried out. I have mine on a wifi timer switch and currently plan to run it only at night to reduce the noise from the air pump, based on how it affects nutrient levels in the tank going forward. I know the air stones eventually become irreversibly clogged, no idea how long that would take though.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Ya I swapped mine for an airstone from petsmart. Bought new ones. Ect.
Also I used an marine200 dual output air pump and Td it into one so maybe I was pushing too much air.
I had mine empty into a cptn Morgan bottle I had lying around. Pretty kool. Lol
D

 

[razorskiss]

I had mine empty into a cptn Morgan bottle I had lying around. Pretty kool. Lol

Haha, I could imagine an inebriated party goer getting confused by that and going for it...

I'm pretty impressed at how dramatic of a difference it made to water clarity just overnight

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Glad it's working for you. I always start a skimmer day 1 of a sw tank. If the foam head and bubbles don't collect particles out of the water as well as nutrients I call it a crappy skimmer. Lol! No point intended. I really enjoyed that little micro glass skimmer well it worked but like I said it eventually became an air bubble trap. Lmk 3-6 months from now if yours does the same. Think I still have it somewhere. Tried to mod it or re use it but ended up scraping it out and was gonna diy a micro skimmer but ended up taking the tank down and letting the tank go to crap. Mine was on a flex 9g.
Which I took the AIO wall and back compartments out after I broke it all.down. again. Glad it's working for you and the timer running only at night is a smart idea. I ran mine 24/7 and ya the air pump is a little loud.
D

 

[Torqu3d]

I have the same thing on my Tideline 20gal AIO.

Def run it a little wet, will keep it from clogging up which from my experience is easy to do.

Would recommend cleaning it every week during your normal Maintenace. It seems to be very finicky, so anything little thing will make it stop working properly.

Besides that, it seems to do the job. Can't complain so far.

 

[afrokobe]

I didn't have the reef glass, but I did have another air stone driven skimmer. I will say the weekly maintenance is such a hassle in order to get the skimmer to skim properly. any changes in water height. It would skim fine for a few days then after that, you would either need to clean the entire thing or try to readjust it.

I thought it was a huge hassle and Im glad I upgraded to a sump, but if you can keep up with the maintenance it should be fine.

 

[razorskiss]

Glad it's working for you. I always start a skimmer day 1 of a sw tank. If the foam head and bubbles don't collect particles out of the water as well as nutrients I call it a crappy skimmer. Lol! No point intended. I really enjoyed that little micro glass skimmer well it worked but like I said it eventually became an air bubble trap. Lmk 3-6 months from now if yours does the same. Think I still have it somewhere. Tried to mod it or re use it but ended up scraping it out and was gonna diy a micro skimmer but ended up taking the tank down and letting the tank go to crap. Mine was on a flex 9g.
Which I took the AIO wall and back compartments out after I broke it all.down. again. Glad it's working for you and the timer running only at night is a smart idea. I ran mine 24/7 and ya the air pump is a little loud.
D

I was cleaning my reef glass.and thought of this so I thought I'd report back. The reef glass skimmer still skims like a champ, I run it 6 hrs a day at night and it fills up a 1L waste bottle every 5 days or so. I do find that I have to clean the fittings as the waste hose ~ once a month otherwise it clogs up, but a few passes with a pipe cleaner and some hot water and it's back to normal.