Skimmer production

[stilmas]

I'm using a US Aquarium Hang-on skimmer w/rio 600 venturi pump. Is it normal to not get any skimmate at times? There is plenty of air and water flow going through it since there is about a 1/4-1/2 inch of foam ontop of the water in the reaction chamber, but this seems to be normal saltwater foam cause it doesn't accumulate and overflow into the cup. From time to time it will foam up and flow into the cup, but mainly after feeding. Does this lack of skimmate at times mean the water has hardly any waste to be skimmed out? My bio load is pretty low at the moment, (1) 7" blue spotted Goby, (1) 5" silver scat, (1) percula clown, (2) Condy Anemones, (1) coral banded shrimp in a 44gal. I am slowly but surely adding more life to the system. Could the lack of skimmate also be due to having lots of bio filtration which may be breaking down the organics rather quickly? I have an Eheim wet/dry canister and a Red Sea Merlin Fluidized biofilter also in the works. Thanks for any info.

 

[loonz]

Sorry I am not here to help you with the answers, but I have a somewhat similar situation as yours. My air-stone driven skimmer isnt skimming out anything either, not even when i turned the airpump to the maximum output.Sometimes I wonder if the skimmer is placed too high but then again, it used to be able to skim even when the airpump output was on low..i tested the water and is surprised to find that nitrates are not detectable. I wonder if it could be the higher amount of flow in the tank that i introduced not too long ago. i have 5 powerheads and a Eheim canister totalling of about 24x flowrate when everthing is switched on at maximum.My tank is a 65g.

 

[stilmas]

loonz,
I did some more research on it and found out that this is normal. Once the organics level out the skimmer will not produce anything, well, maybe a little. When they increase, the skimmer will work again. I came home from work today and my collection cup was loaded with foam. Also, the very low nitrates could be a good indicator that things are leveling off, mine are also at 0.