Protien Skimming Question??

[Phiberop]

I am new to this and have a Q about protien skimming. I have it running now and it is causing a large amount of small bubbles at the point of water return in the tank. Is this normal? Will it keep doing it? Is there a way to prevent this so the clarity stays in the water.

Thanks for the help.

 

[fishtender]

What kind of skimmer is it? How long have you been runnig it? What other kind of mechanical filtration do you have? How old is your tank?

It is somewhat normal for a hang-on model to have some bubbles in the overflow. How many depends on the amount of DOC you have built up in you tank. Eventually the amount of bubbles will decrease to a manageble minimum. How long this takes depends on the quality of the skimmer you bought, how often and what you feed, and the size of the tank.

All things said, the presense of the bubbles means that the skimmer is doing its' job. What you are seeing is that the more DOC you have in your tank, the harder the skimmer has to work and more of the bubbles escape back into the tank. This will get less and less as DOC are removed. HTH

Howard

 

[yaksplat]

Mine's been doing that for the last two weeks now. I've heard that it can last up to a month or so.

Jim

 

[Phiberop]

Protien Skimming

My tank is new. About 3 days. The kind of skimmer that i have is a Sea Clone 100. It seems like it was a niec skimmer. Should i have it running duing the maturation process of my water? I also have a Penguin 330 Biowheel for filtration and an areator with a small stone in case its needed. I am just confused as to what to do at this point. I have a good salinity level and temperature, a little cloudy but i think that i am alright. I just hear and read so many things that i get confused as to what to do. This is why I am seeking help from people that have tanks.

Thanks for the help.

 

[reefrunner69]

Should i have it running duing the maturation process of my water?

Unless your cycling with uncured LR, then there is no need to run it, but it doesn't hurt anything either.

All new skimmers have a breakin period where they won't skim and until they get a good coating of DOC on the skimmer the bubbles will return to the tank. That is the only complaint I have with my remora, I don't have room for the bubble trap overflow....and it returns microbubbles to the tank, the longer it runs the smaller the amount. You will also see an increase in the amount of bubbles returned to the tank after waterchanges and feedings.