Protein Skimmer? White Foam?

[Mikeaq]

I have a 36 Bow reef & I use a coralife bio cube protein skimmer on it just because I had one from my old tanks. I do have a remora skimmer sitting in my closet but I have to move the tank to fit it in the back and I really don't want to empty and move the tank.

This bio cube protein skimmer never produces anything brown. It fills up with white iridescent foam almost daily.

Is it doing its job or should the foam be brown?


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[Sniperhank]

The foam should be white. As it collects in the cup, it will turn into a brown or green liquid or dry skim.

 

[lujp16]

I have white foam but brown "water" in the cup.


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[Sniperhank]

Then you win. All going well.

 

[lujp16]

Then you win. All going well.

Lol
On a side note. The water conditioner and my skimmer doesn't work well together. Every time I do water change with this water conditioner, my skimmer go crazy and my collect cup is filled up with water daily. Just foam and tank water. After a couple days, it go back to .25-.5 cup per day and decrease to half cup a week.


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[BigRedsReefs10]

Why are you using water conditioner in a reef?


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[Animal-Chin]

First, to be honest, those skimmers are the worst. I tried one on my biocube for a while and had to stop because it's almost imposible to dial in. If your cup is filling daily, you have the bubles turned up to high. Use the dial on the hose coming from the pump and cut the air back a bit. You don't want the bubbles overflowing into the cup when you set it up, you want to see them down in the cup chamber. The problem is after you tinker with it for 20 minutes adn get it just right, it will have adjusted itself by the next day and either stopped working or overflowed filling the cup up. After playing with that skimmer for months I got it to produce tea colored water daily but you have to empty the cup every day.

hang that ramora off the side, its 1000x's the skimmer that the biocube one is. Airstone skimmers just don't work properly...

my 2 cents as I've had both the biocube and the ramora...

 

[Mikeaq]

First, to be honest, those skimmers are the worst. I tried one on my biocube for a while and had to stop because it's almost imposible to dial in. If your cup is filling daily, you have the bubles turned up to high. Use the dial on the hose coming from the pump and cut the air back a bit. You don't want the bubbles overflowing into the cup when you set it up, you want to see them down in the cup chamber. The problem is after you tinker with it for 20 minutes adn get it just right, it will have adjusted itself by the next day and either stopped working or overflowed filling the cup up. After playing with that skimmer for months I got it to produce tea colored water daily but you have to empty the cup every day.

hang that ramora off the side, its 1000x's the skimmer that the biocube one is. Airstone skimmers just don't work properly...

my 2 cents as I've had both the biocube and the ramora...

Wow you know what I just realized. I took the canopy off my tank last week. I have a few fish that can potentially jump, but it's worth the aesthetic risk. I can definitely hang the ramora off of the side now.


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[Animal-Chin]

Can you cut a hole in the back or side of the canopy? Thats how I fit my ramora on, I just used a dremel cutting disk but I'm sure there are lots of ways to cut though plastic to fit the skimmer...