How to evaluate a skimmer.
- Thread starter goodisor
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I would love to hear a reply to this one. I just got a skimmer myself and I am pulling a wet bright greenish brown gook out of the water. My tank itself is looking better than ever and my fish seem very active and healthy! I have read that there should be a foul odor to what is pulled out! Mine does not have a strong odor. It's not great but overall not what I expected. I have a Coralife superskimmer 65 on mine and I am pulling about half a cup of green stuff every 4 days. I also know that since I started using mine a week ago, my ammonia is 0! and my nitrites are 0. Nitrates are still at between 10 and 20 ppm. I hope this helps and maybe someone with more experience with these things will respond.
Jeff Davis
Jeff Davis
everyones tank has a different bioload so how much your skimmer pulls out will vary. the optimum skimmate should have the consitency of oil almost and be a very dark brown. its very hard to get most skimmers to produce this kind of skimmate (unless you're one of those people who can afford a Deltec). If it helps any I have a 75 gallon lightly stocked reef. My Remora Pro pulls out about 2.5 - 3 cups of brown gunk (not quite the oil consitency but close) per week. HTH
You can adjust the type of skimmate on certain skimmers depending on what you want. For example, on the AquaC Remora, you get lighter, more watery skimmate if the further down the collection cup is set.
As mentioned, different tanks and different skimmers will produce different kinds of skimmate. But generally speaking, it should have at least some colour and bad smell since the skimmer should be removing decomposing organic waste.
As mentioned, different tanks and different skimmers will produce different kinds of skimmate. But generally speaking, it should have at least some colour and bad smell since the skimmer should be removing decomposing organic waste.
my remora doesn't dissapoint. I don't know how much it pulls in a week, I empty it everyday. There is usually about 1/2 inch deep dark green sludge in the bottom. As far as the smell, I don't even like to open the lid on that bad boy till I'm at the sink. It will sting the nostrils for sure. I had switched to the remora from the bak pak 2. I didn't get great results from it, and it was a bit undersized.