Got a protein skimmer today

[zacdl]

Is the foam supposed to be at the bottom of the cup or at the top of the cone thing in the cup?

 

[Phyl]

The water will bubble up over the tube in the middle and hit the cap, breaking the foam, causing collection of hopefully nasty looking skimmate in the bottom of the collection cup. The more air the clearer (wet) your skimming is. You can fine tune this a bit so that you're not wasting good water producing the yuck. These are usually VERY fine adjustments with a microturn causing a huge change in the behavior of the skimmer.

HTH!

 

[zacdl]

OK. Since I havent started cycling yet its not collecting anything yet so ill just dump it back in since I think it is going too fast.

 

[malkore]

I wouldn't even run it until the cycle is completed.

 

[copi]

OK. Since I havent started cycling yet its not collecting anything yet so ill just dump it back in since I think it is going too fast.

Yep -- you shouldn't be producing any skimmate right now since there is nothing in the water to skim. Like Phyl said, once you've got something to skim out of the water, you'll be able to fine tune it to produce a nice dark cup of yuck.

IMO, no sense running it until your cycle is complete.

 

[copi]

Also, the skimmer will require time to "break in," so don't expect too much out of it in the very beginning.

 

[zacdl]

I mean, even if all i do right now is adjust the bubble flow?

 

[copi]

I mean, even if all i do right now is adjust the bubble flow?

No matter what you're going to have to re-adjust it later once you've got some organics in the water to skim out. If you want to fiddle with it now in order to get comfortable with it, I'd probably adjust it so the bubbles rise to the bottom of the cup. The bubbles will stay at that level until there are organics to skim, at which time the bubbles will last long enough before popping that they rise into the collection cup.

The instructions for your skimmer should tell you where to set the bubbles initially.

I'm sticking with my initial suggestion that theres really not much sense in running it right now, though. Save the electricity

 

[malkore]

Save the electricity...and the life of the pump. If its a Rio pump, it's on borrowed time already.