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Unread 07/20/2013, 10:58 AM   #1
Psychotrshman
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Join Date: Sep 2011
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Protein Skimmer

Hey all,
Thank you for reading this post. I have a protein skimmer that's been running about 4 days. In that time I have yet to get a foam that comes to the top of the skimmer cup, but I am getting nasty water in the cup. This water is the color of dark urine. Is this how it should be working? I have never had a skimmer before and I'm not sure what the skimmate should look like in the cup.


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Unread 07/20/2013, 11:00 AM   #2
YoungREEFA
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Thats skimmate allright, and as for never seeing he foam at the top im not sure, it should be always at the top


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Unread 07/20/2013, 11:09 AM   #3
jimmyj7090
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Skimmers can take a while to settle in. If you are seeing some yellowish water in the cup then it is producing some foam, just not when your looking.

Give it some more time, if you don't start to see skimmate that's a little darker you may want to try fiddling with it a little. Cleaning the air intake, raising or lowering the water level in the skimmer, and raising or lowering the depth of water the skimmer is sitting in will all affect how it works. If you make any changes/tweaks on these things, do so then give it at least a day to see how the adjustment affected the performance. If it looks right, right after you adjust something chances are it will be overflowing in a couple of hours.


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Unread 07/20/2013, 11:17 AM   #4
reeftivo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychotrshman View Post
Hey all,
Thank you for reading this post. I have a protein skimmer that's been running about 4 days. In that time I have yet to get a foam that comes to the top of the skimmer cup, but I am getting nasty water in the cup. This water is the color of dark urine. Is this how it should be working? I have never had a skimmer before and I'm not sure what the skimmate should look like in the cup.
Its still breaking in and should get darker over time.

What skimmer is it?
How old is your system?
Do you at least have a foam head in the neck?
Have you recently performed a water change?
Can you post a pic?

If the system is new and has cycled then the bubbles are collecting DOCs judging by your description of urine colored skimmate. They are just prematurely popping because the slime coat in the skimmer hasn't developed yet. The bubbles get close to the top but pop and spray some DOC laden water into the cup.

Post a pic and give it some time


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Unread 07/20/2013, 11:47 AM   #5
Psychotrshman
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I have a sea clone skimmer that's been running since Tuesday night. I've already emptied a 3/4 full cup this morning and its about 1/4" deep again already. Its still urine colored water. The foam head comes to about 2" of the top and that's where it stops. Does more air into the chamber make the bubbles go higher? I gave the valve a 1/4 turn this morning to let more air in and I'll see what it looks like in the morning. My system is a 25gal half moon that's been running since January and running with a fish (three stripped damsel) since April.


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Unread 07/20/2013, 02:31 PM   #6
jimmyj7090
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Location: Sudbury
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Actually you probably want to either restrict the air a little, or lower the level in the skimmer body. I say that because it sounds like you are getting a very light, wet skim. By lowering the foam a bit you will let it build a thicker, darker head and that's probably what you want. It may seem counter-intuitive, but that's how skimmers work.


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Unread 07/20/2013, 03:22 PM   #7
Psychotrshman
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Awesome! I restricted the flow some and I'll check it again in the morning. Thank you all so much!


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Unread 07/20/2013, 11:44 PM   #8
Percula9
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Honestly it is not a good skimmer. You should get a better skimmer. The Seaclone is known on the forum as the Seaclown.


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Unread 07/31/2013, 12:58 PM   #9
uwish
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skimmers can be a pain to dial in. Once they are established, only small changes are needed but finding the sweet spot can be challenging. It does require some patience... I have a SWC 280 Cone skimmer and was running it for about two weeks before I finally got it dialed in to nice soupy black skim mate.


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