Protein Skimming optimization

whiterushen · 11/05/2019, 08:00 PM

Hey All,
I'm old school. When i was in the hobby in the 90s, protein skimming was just taking off. The fundamentals of operation I learned through hands on experience and the school of hard knocks. Today I have 2 Eshopps nano 10-35 protein skimmers for both of my nano tanks. The two main adjustments I see on my protein skimmers are height adjustment and air flow adjustment. Now, back in the day? We basically looked to play with the air adjustment until it was running in a middle zone or resonant level of a crackling or churning sound and max bubble creation within the verticle tube. 2nd, is then I adjust the height adjustment just so the top of the bubble mix creation is at or just below the height level of the collection cup. Within the next to days i observe the skimmet collection. If the skimmet is maybe 15% or higher within a day or watery, then i raise the skimmer height or adjust the air mixture slightly lower or both. If after a day, i see a small or decent amount of just bubbles just overflowing into the skimmet cup, this is where I want to be. After a few days, if the collection of skimmet is about 10% of the cup and a very dark thick brown, this is where i want to be. About every 2 weeks, I check the performance of the skimmet production and empty the collection cup----its then i make slight adjustments if i feel the skimmer needs that. Can anyone else add to this---in regards to how i'm running my protein skimmers? Much appreciated.

bertoni · 11/06/2019, 12:13 AM

I don't think there's much to add. I would make sure that the bubbles going into the water are very fine and keep the volume up, but we don't have much in the way of hard data describing how to tune a skimmer.

mcgyvr · 11/06/2019, 05:14 AM

Nope.. seems like you have over analyzed it just fine

whiterushen · 11/06/2019, 11:46 AM

Yeah, most of everything i qouted was just tribal knowledge i've seen over the years---of course my info is from 20 plus years ago. Back in those days, the ETSS downdraft protein skimmer was all the rage. I had the smallest unit Reef Devil---cost a pretty penny. But i used to go to my LFS because we had zero information out there and on the net to operate a protein skimmer properly. Back then, there was a lot of playing with the equipment to get the desired output.

11/05/2019, 08:00 PM	#1
whiterushen Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2019 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 61	Protein Skimming optimization Hey All, I'm old school. When i was in the hobby in the 90s, protein skimming was just taking off. The fundamentals of operation I learned through hands on experience and the school of hard knocks. Today I have 2 Eshopps nano 10-35 protein skimmers for both of my nano tanks. The two main adjustments I see on my protein skimmers are height adjustment and air flow adjustment. Now, back in the day? We basically looked to play with the air adjustment until it was running in a middle zone or resonant level of a crackling or churning sound and max bubble creation within the verticle tube. 2nd, is then I adjust the height adjustment just so the top of the bubble mix creation is at or just below the height level of the collection cup. Within the next to days i observe the skimmet collection. If the skimmet is maybe 15% or higher within a day or watery, then i raise the skimmer height or adjust the air mixture slightly lower or both. If after a day, i see a small or decent amount of just bubbles just overflowing into the skimmet cup, this is where I want to be. After a few days, if the collection of skimmet is about 10% of the cup and a very dark thick brown, this is where i want to be. About every 2 weeks, I check the performance of the skimmet production and empty the collection cup----its then i make slight adjustments if i feel the skimmer needs that. Can anyone else add to this---in regards to how i'm running my protein skimmers? Much appreciated.

11/06/2019, 12:13 AM	#2
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	I don't think there's much to add. I would make sure that the bubbles going into the water are very fine and keep the volume up, but we don't have much in the way of hard data describing how to tune a skimmer. __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

11/06/2019, 05:14 AM	#3
mcgyvr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 20,050	Nope.. seems like you have over analyzed it just fine __________________ Who me?

11/06/2019, 11:46 AM	#4
whiterushen Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2019 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 61	Most of my info goes off of different type of protein skimmers i've seen over time Yeah, most of everything i qouted was just tribal knowledge i've seen over the years---of course my info is from 20 plus years ago. Back in those days, the ETSS downdraft protein skimmer was all the rage. I had the smallest unit Reef Devil---cost a pretty penny. But i used to go to my LFS because we had zero information out there and on the net to operate a protein skimmer properly. Back then, there was a lot of playing with the equipment to get the desired output.