Protein skimmer efficiency question

[ufotofu]

I've got a Top Fathom TA200 skimmer powered by a Mag Drive 7. The skimmer is of an older design - it produces a lot of bubbles so I have to use a 100micron filter sock to clear the water up. It's being used to skim a moderately stocked 50gal reef with a live sand bed (2-3" depth). All incoming water is RO/DI. I do water changes to the tune of about 10%/month. I dose Kent 2pt Ca/Buffer system every wk, Two Little Fishies Iodine every 2 wks, Kent Essential Elements every 2 wks and that's it. The only filter supplement I use is the Two Little Fishies PhosBan reactor. I feed Mysids and Reef Formula once/day - not a heavy feeding; only what they'll eat while I'm standing there). My livestock is as follows:
Fish - Coral Beauty, Royal Gramma and Yellow Sleeper Goby
Clams - 1 med Crocea and 1 small-med Maxima
Softies - 15 Xenia, 10 mushrooms, 20 buttons
Hards - Candy Cane, Hammer, Frogspawn
I have about 60lbs of rock in there.

I have a 10 gallon refugium with small hermits, xenia, macroalgea, live sand (4" depth) and rubble. It has a ton of microcrustaceans and other critters in it. It is inline (post-skimmer, pre-return), being fed with water from the main tank sump area.

My question is this: I am not getting (and never have really) the dark, rich skimmate that I see many folks on here getting from their skimmers. I've have adjusted the heck out of my skimmer, cleaned it regularly, but still no change in production of skimmate. I empty the collection cup about once per week or so. The contents look yellow/green, but not dark and certainly not thick/frothy. Moreover, it has no foul smell about it. It just smells like seawater.

Should I be looking for another skimmer? My tank looks great, but I sometime test positive for low ppm nitrates and once had a low level of nitrite when I was feeding heavier. I was having a red slime problem before I began using PhosBan.

 

[SnowManSnow]

I'm not familiar with your particular brand of skimmer, but a lot of people (myself included) like to skim wet. If it is pulling green water out.. I would say it's doing a pretty good job.

I have a modded Octopus recirc150, and have actually SET it to skim wet, as opposed to dry.

The rule also applies: IF it ain't broke.. don't fix it.

That being said. IF it is an older skimmer there is something to be said about advanceds in skimmer design over the past few years. If you have the $$ and feel the need u could drop 6 or 700 $ and get yourself a skimmer that you KNOW functions correctly. Deltec... Euroreef... Bubbleking (major $$ though), MRC... even AquaC all make great
skimmers.

OH.. Also.. do you have a DSB in your display tank? IF so, it COULD be the source of your nutrient issue.

B

 

[Anonymous]

If your skimmer is ejecting lots of air bubbles, it probably means there is too much flow going through it. In short, the pump is producing plenty of bubbles by entraining air, but not allowing those bubbles to reside in the skimmer long enough to catch a bit of protein and foam to the surface. This results in poor skimmer efficiency.

One "advance" in skimmer design that's been gaining favor in recent years is to use recirculating loops to inject air into the skimmer. In short, your Mag 7 pump would intake water from the skimmer reaction chamber instead of from the sump, and pump it right back into the chamber. This gives the bubbles a very long residence time and you'll get the thick rich skimmate you're looking for assuming all other variables are working correctly.

This is an easy enough mod to DIY if you have drilled acrylic before. I am not familiar with your brand of skimmer. The Euro-Reef line of skimmers was getting DIY'ed in this manner so much that the company went ahead and started making them like that. Here is the "old style" skimmer:

And the newer recirculating skimmer:

The only important change is where the intake of the pump is located. All else is fundamentally the same.

 

[Anonymous]

I like how they are all using Hartford loops. Something I was putting on the skimmers I built back in the days where the gate valve was all the rage. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I like how they are all using Hartford loops. Something I was putting on the skimmers I built back in the days where the gate valve was all the rage. :lol:

They're not really useful HLs though. You still have to restrict the output down a little bit with a valve. Bad way to do it. They should make the HL height adjustable, which is how the very first ER skimmers worked. I don't know why they went away from the original design.

All it would take is one of these in place of that red ball valve:

 

[Anonymous]

And another thing! :lol:

The intake of the pump has 2 elbows where it could have zero. Flip that pump 90 degrees clockwise, plumb the intake straight into the skimmer body, and place an elbow on the output. Or a smooth curve on the output. Either way it would put less wear on the pump.

 

[Anonymous]

They're not really useful HLs though. You still have to restrict the output down a little bit with a valve. Bad way to do it. They should make the HL height adjustable, which is how the very first ER skimmers worked. I don't know why they went away from the original design.

To me it looks they're putting them too low. Which means you would indeed have to throttle them back on the output to keep them operating correctly.

 

[ufotofu]

I see what you're saying...

Here's a couple of pics of the skimmer new and what it's doing as of right now. I really need more room in my sump for a skimmer this size. I basically have a 20gal tank paritioned off using 3 baffles. The skimmer is elevated on a stand about 5" off the floor of the sump.

 

[Anonymous]

They're not really useful HLs though. You still have to restrict the output down a little bit with a valve. Bad way to do it. They should make the HL height adjustable, which is how the very first ER skimmers worked. I don't know why they went away from the original design.

To me it looks they're putting them too low. Which means you would indeed have to throttle them back on the output to keep them operating correctly.

Exactly.

 

[Anonymous]

I see what you're saying...

Here's a couple of pics of the skimmer new and what it's doing as of right now. I really need more room in my sump for a skimmer this size. I basically have a 20gal tank paritioned off using 3 baffles. The skimmer is elevated on a stand about 5" off the floor of the sump.

What does the pump look like? Does it have a venturi attached to it? Does it hook up to the fittings on the left?

 

[ufotofu]

The pump is a stock Mag Drive 7 - no venturi. I have it connected to the fittings on the left via a short section of 1/2" tubing.

 

[Anonymous]

The pump is a stock Mag Drive 7 - no venturi. I have it connected to the fittings on the left via a short section of 1/2" tubing.

Where does it suck in air?

 

[ufotofu]

on the intake port (left side fittings above) there is a nozzle where airline tubing connects to provide air infusion via the venturi. An air regulator is connected up to the end of the tubing. I run it about 95% open. The blue valve controls venturi:water ratio. Red gate valve controls the output of water, of course.

The above photo shows typical skimmate production over the course of a week. I have to watch the bubble-catcher sock because when the sock gets mucked up with particulate matter the skimmer flow gets artificially reduced and the cup starts overflowing. At that point, the skimmer is pretty much worthless. Fortunately, this doesn't happen often. It would be nice to mod this thing so as to render the sock unnecessary.

 

[leftovers]

Wow...i havent seen a TF in like....5 years....even then they were on their way out....they do work well if maintained well and thats about as easy as it gets in the skimimer world...in a a nut shell a TF is a counter current skimmer.

You could go with an Aqua-Medic Turbo Floater 1000 if your tank is just 50Gl, its just as easy to maintain and would probably skimmer better.

It has multiple versions hang-on multi or in sump model.

I use their 5000 baby and now have Euroreef CS8-3 for sale that while it produces great skimmate just requires too much maintenance for my liking.