Fluval mini skimmer

[sidneyhill11]

Hello everyone I'm new to saltwater and have my fluval evo 13.5g for about 3 maybe 4 months now and I just purchased the skimmer on Sunday I'm curious as how long it should take to fill the cup? I know you can adjust it but I want it clean good I have 2 firefish and 1 clown and 4 crabs

 

[AshwinRavi]

sorry, I don't have experience with that particular skimmer. I would adjust the skimmer for your skimmate consistency, you don't want it to be too dry or too watery..

 

[sidneyhill11]

Nobody else has any input on this?

 

[ahiggins]

Hi! I’m not familiar with that model but anyone will tell you that a new skimmer will pull “wetter”/not dense skims until it gets broken in. Best advice for any skimmer is to adjust until the bubbles are just topping the collection cup. Once you see it isn’t skimming at that level, then adjust it. Keep adjusting until it only pulls dense dark skims. FYI there are tons of oily food that will take it from perfect to pulling all kinds of good water (most notable, frozen mysis). You want that deep dark green/brown skimmate. I had a smaller eshopps skimmer and it would fill a cup in a week (their skim cup was probably 3/4 cup to judge). My 25 gal always had 10-20 ppm nitrates with a handful of fish.
Hope this helps

 

[sidneyhill11]

Hi! I’m not familiar with that model but anyone will tell you that a new skimmer will pull “wetter”/not dense skims until it gets broken in. Best advice for any skimmer is to adjust until the bubbles are just topping the collection cup. Once you see it isn’t skimming at that level, then adjust it. Keep adjusting until it only pulls dense dark skims. FYI there are tons of oily food that will take it from perfect to pulling all kinds of good water (most notable, frozen mysis). You want that deep dark green/brown skimmate. I had a smaller eshopps skimmer and it would fill a cup in a week (their skim cup was probably 3/4 cup to judge). My 25 gal always had 10-20 ppm nitrates with a handful of fish.
Hope this helps

Yes thank you my cup is about the same size an I'm dumping every 2-3 days

 

[ahiggins]

Post a picture of what your cup looks like before you dump it. We can give you a second opinion on whether it’s wet/dry

 

[sidneyhill11]

Post a picture of what your cup looks like before you dump it. We can give you a second opinion on whether it’s wet/dry

Will do I'll post a pic in a bit

 

[sidneyhill11]

Post a picture of what your cup looks like before you dump it. We can give you a second opinion on whether it’s wet/dry

Here it is is that a good skim or not?

 

[ahiggins]

It’s getting there :)
Personally I like mine a little less watery/wet but if it’s decreasing your nitrates then this can work for you.
Everyone has different opinions on what they want out of a skimmer.

 

[bluprntguy]

Doesn't look too bad for a nano skimmer. If you had a larger skimmer in a sump you might be able to get it a little darker, but smaller skimmers have less bubbles and less contact time. It will also break in over time.

 

[Water Dog]

Skimmate is looking good for a nano skimmer. Judging in by the looks of that skimmer, it almost looks identical to the Aquaticlife 115 that I ran on my Biocube 29 years ago.

 

[sidneyhill11]

It’s getting there :)
Personally I like mine a little less watery/wet but if it’s decreasing your nitrates then this can work for you.
Everyone has different opinions on what they want out of a skimmer.

Ok what so you mean by less watery? Again I'm new so I'm trying to learn before I turn my 90g fresh into salty. You mean more bubbles?

 

[sidneyhill11]

Skimmate is looking good for a nano skimmer. Judging in by the looks of that skimmer, it almost looks identical to the Aquaticlife 115 that I ran on my Biocube 29 years ago.

Yes it's been running for a week and 2 days thank you

 

[ahiggins]

Less watery to me means thicker, darker, umm less watered down if you get where I’m trying to go with it lol
I tried to keep mine like a dark seaweed green like the pics. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s pulling out nitrates, that’s great!