Discussion of the Week ~Protien Skimmers~

[mojoreef]

OKie dokie the new discussion of the week is Protien Skimmers. Which are the best, injector, counter current or so on. Is it good to even run one (got to let the skimmerless folks play to), lets see you home made ones. when is it best to run them, 24/7 or 1/2 days or less.


bring it on folks the boss is out of town



Mike

[Rick O]

I've owned four skimmers so I think I can say this with some authority. Stay away from the cheap ones. There are a bunch out there that either don't work or work poorly. If you can't afford a good one now then don't buy one at all, just wait til you can afford a good one.

The only one that I have owned that works well is an Aqua C EV-150. It's powered by a Sen 700 which does a great job on this skimmer. I have never had to make any adjustments after the initial tweaking except when I switched from a Mag 7 to the Sen 700. I prefer a dry darker skimmate but this setup gives me the option of adjusting for a lighter wetter skimmate.

[Pirate]

I'm a Berlin HO guy powered by a Mag 5. I have 225 gals of water with a display tank of 125. No problems, easy adjustment, more gunk than I dreamed possible. I do disagree with Rick though. I say if all you can afford is a cheap skimmer than you better get one. My first was (what else ?) a Sea Clone. Which was as we all know junk out of the box, but with some modification it worked well. Anyway for what it was ! They now come with the mods right out of the box. The cheap ones are what they are, but still better than nothing at all.

[Doug1]

I agree with Rick as far as cheap skimmers, having said that, I thought I might inject a little info for the new reefers, please bear with me, those of you who know better
Protien skimmer, or fractionators are an option for nutrient export. Basically they work because most molecules of dissolved organics and other stuff have a positive and negative polarity to them(if you will) Simply put, molecules of unwanted crud are attracted to the fine bubbles produced in a skimmer, causing them to cling to the bubble and follow them to the surface. The reason this is significant is that the bubbles occur in a reaction chamber, and are pushed up and out into a collection cup.
How does this differ from most typical mechanical filters
Do you need a skimmer? Maybe, maybe not. They are a handy tool when first establishing a reef tank, but as the tank matures, assuming one goes with the deep sand bed(live) and or macro algae, or some of the other popular bio filtration setups you may find you rely less on the skimmer down the road, depending on the types of animals you keep

[Harpo]

Our first skimmer was a SEA-CLONE, what a total waste of plastic . After that, we went with a BERLIN, it was OK, but I was not satisfied. We now run a EURO-REEF, in both our systems and could not be more pleased. It takes out in a day, more than the BERLIN did all week.

Harpo

[cath]

Here's my 2¢ worth...

I run a Bak Pak 2R on my 29. Of course it came with %$%# Rio power head, and I replaced that with a MJ 1200. Works much better now. I have nutrient rich water (goodness knows why that is...) and the skimmer seems to do a pretty good job. Before I added my DSB, I had the darker skimmate that Rick mentioned, and but now it's much lighter. It seems now that I have to clean the impeller more often than before the DSB. Maybe none of those observations have anything to do with the DSB, but there it is. Another problem that I have is that periodically I have a greasy looking skim on the water surface. I suspect that is from not enough water surface movement.

[alf2]

I have a remora pro with the mag pump. I really like it a lot too

I started with the seaclone, YUK is all I can say lol. I run the remora on my 75 gal works really great too!

[Piero]

I don't know what all the problems are people have with their skimmers, but I've never had a problem with mine. Euroreef rocks!

[seafishes]

I currently am running a Nautilus powered by a Mag 9.5 on my 120. I'm impressed with it, it's easy to adjust and pulls a nice rich skimmate. I am in the process of switching from a Seaclone in my 60 g...it's located in the sump and all I end up doing is tweaking it to get it to skim

Cath, I had the same problem with the oil slick. All I did was adjust the ball socket tubeing on my return to agitate the surface more and it seems to have done the trick.


Lori

[Darkfrog]

Originally posted by cath
HAnother problem that I have is that periodically I have a greasy looking skim on the water surface. I suspect that is from not enough water surface movement.

Do you have one of these?

It is a surface skimmer CPR makes for the Bak-Pak.

[scubadude]

I have owned a berlin classic and went with the standard Rio that came with it then upgraded to a mag 7 wich made it perform MUCH better...and even tried a mag 9 on it one time....it really made it cook then but I had to make sure it was vented well so no backpressure was created. Then I bought an Aqua-C brand EV-240 for my 220g tank and it was a great skimmer. I made a couple of Becket skimmers DIY for the GH and they skimmed great, and my newest approach has been away from becketts and using the Counter Current skimmers which IMO are the most effecient skimmers! I now have 3 of these running in my Greenhouse one of them is 11ft. tall and is for the Rock tank Im only using a mag 2 for water circulation but am driving a piston air pump for air supply to this I get such effecient skimming out of these skimmers that they actually over skimm So I only have to run them periodically, and the skimmate is SOOO dry by the time it overflows (no collection cups in the greenhouse) it is VERY dry and almost turns to dust, it will actually crumble.

[Flatlander]

[cath]

Originally posted by Darkfrog
Do you have one of these?

It is a surface skimmer CPR makes for the Bak-Pak.

Thanks Lori and Darkfrog. I'm not sure I understand your description, though, Lori. Sometimes I need to be lead by the nose...well, that's actually most of the time

Darkfrog..that's a good idea on that surface skimmer...I'll take a look into that.

[spsphreak]

I have an Aqua C EV120 on my 75 gallon, and I love it. I just ordered a MLA Predator 2 for the 135 I am setting up, and I hope I am gonna love it too. Everyone I have talked to has said these skimmers kick it, but I don't know. The LFS I frequent uses one on their SPS tank, and he highly recommends them, so we will see.

Scott

[bigjohn]

My 2 cents.

When I set up my tank 3 1/2 years ago, I decided on the Reef Devil 3 by ETS.

I have been running it non-stop in the sump of my 135 gallon "wanna be" reef system. It is powered by a Mag 7.

This skimmer is very touchy. The addition of any substance (ie. food, top-off water, additives) will stop it from skimming, but once it is adjusted and broken in, it produces a tremendous amount of foam. As with everything else in my system, I have had to learn patience in adjusting this skimmer. With a slight adjustment to the outlet valve, I can produce a wide range of wet to dry foam. Of course, whenever an adjustment is made, I won't see the results until a couple of hours later.

Once I learned its personality, I have been very happy with it!!