New protien skimmer...no scum (yet)

[mooner]

Just curious. I recently added a Red Sea Berlin 60 to a 15 day old 44 gallon tank that has 35 lbs of CLR, 4 small starter/cycle fish and 2 medium coral and a few small house keepers.

The unit is running fine and has a thick column of very fine bubbles, the reverse flow channel is working great keeping the finest of bubbles in a "floating pattern", and it appears to be ready to go. So far it has produced no scum and I was curious if my tank is just too new to have heavy protiens or if the skimmer just takes time to start up.

I have been feeding the inhabitants regularly and there is surely some food waste in there from days gone by.

Thanks.

 

[Len]

Skimmers always take time to get going. It's perfectly normal to not see any skimmate production for days.

 

[Droggy]

The skimmer will need time to get a coating in order for the skimmate to start producing,just be patient.Don`t overfeed! :roll:

 

[mooner]

Now I am getting some mostly white froth and thereare small chunks of brown gunk in it. I think it is on the way. The stuff (skimate?) in the collection cup looks like yellow tea when the foam falls apart and goes down in there.

I think it will settle down and produce some more solid and stable foam soon. Whatever it is pulling out of my sump now is sure some nasty smelling gunk. It has a hint of roadkill trailed by a rotten milk's bouquet.....Mmmmmm.

 

[Bleeding Blue]

Mooner,

Although this has nothing to do with your skimmer, that webcam is pretty cool. I like the live feed.

Mike

 

[mooner]

Glad to hear it, BB! You are the first to respond to it about from the outside world and I was wondering how it would do in "Live Feed" mode. The software is free but I registered mine for $19.99 to get the *%#@* ads off of it.

I thought it'd be kinda fun to let others watch my reef-world function and there is a HUGE reward to the aquarist who has one: Being able to sleep better while on vacation knowing his babies are safe at home under the care of the fish-baby sitter! We are going on vacation to Illinois next week and you can bet I will be watching my reef for regular feeding and general health. I have my buddy (also a reefer) doing the care while I am away.

My camera is rather limited and I have been pondering getting one of those really nice rotating ones for a better sense of what is going on but I just use the old $49 Intel for now. I'd also love to have lo-lux capabilities for nocturnal viewing. Not sure if that is out there though.

Enjoy!