#AskBRStv idea

[VJV]

Hey guys, how about looking into how long can you go without cleaning your skimmer neck before it significantly looses efficiency.

Say measuring the amount of skimmate pulled over a week on a skimmer that is not cleaned during that period vs one that is cleaned every 3 days, one every other day and one with a auto neck cleaner.

I bet most people only clean the skimmers once a week but in my experience after 2 days of gunk accumulation in the neck it almost stops skimming.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply Verified Sponsor]

I think this might be a little subjective based on the amount of gunk in the neck, size of neck, and brand of skimmer, but I like the idea and will add it to our ideas board :)

 

[VJV]

I think this might be a little subjective based on the amount of gunk in the neck, size of neck, and brand of skimmer, but I like the idea and will add it to our ideas board :)

The idea would be to use exactly the same skimmer in a container with a known amount of skim mate (perhaps daily additions of a defined quantity). Not sure there will be too much variance across skimmers and it would provide a good baseline indication as to how oifgten one should clean the skimmer neck to keep it at peek performance as well as whether or not an automated neck cleaner is a must for those who can only clean the skimmer once a week.

The test could also be extended using three different skimmer models (with approximately the same rating in terms of tank size) so you would setup 4 containers for each skimmer model. All in all, you would have 12 containers.

In my experience after 3 or three days most skimmers will not be doing much as the dirty neck prevents the foam from rising into the collection cup. If a test corroborates this I bet you would sell a tone of neck cleaners

 

[Cyricdark]

The idea would be to use exactly the same skimmer in a container with a known amount of skim mate (perhaps daily additions of a defined quantity). Not sure there will be too much variance across skimmers and it would provide a good baseline indication as to how oifgten one should clean the skimmer neck to keep it at peek performance as well as whether or not an automated neck cleaner is a must for those who can only clean the skimmer once a week.

The test could also be extended using three different skimmer models (with approximately the same rating in terms of tank size) so you would setup 4 containers for each skimmer model. All in all, you would have 12 containers.

In my experience after 3 or three days most skimmers will not be doing much as the dirty neck prevents the foam from rising into the collection cup. If a test corroborates this I bet you would sell a tone of neck cleaners

I really don't think it makes much difference my skimmer collects pretty much the same amount of skim mate whether I clean the cup every few days or every few months. So it's possible different skimmers do perform very differently with regards to the neck being clean.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Skimmers always seemed to be a bit of dark magic to me. The fundamental principles are the same, but neck design, wet vs dry skimmate, etc seems to be something that people like to focus on without any evidence whatsoever that they matter.