Fluval mini skimmer

[Nanoreefer1999]

I don’t understand fully what a skimmer does but this skimmer sucks if someone could help me understand it more, much appreciated. It works and sometimes it doesn’t work right. But when it does work I’m happy lol. But is light yellow a good skim color? How often should I keep it on?

 

[pshootr]

I don’t understand fully what a skimmer does but this skimmer sucks if someone could help me understand it more, much appreciated. It works and sometimes it doesn’t work right. But when it does work I’m happy lol. But is light yellow a good skim color? How often should I keep it on?

Dissolved organics in the water column attach to the air bubbles. The air bubbles carry these organics to the top of the skimmer and are collected. For all practical purposes skimmers are generally run full time. There a couple of reasons why the skimmer may not produce skim. One reason is there just aren't enough dissolved organics for the skimmer to collect, or if it is not tuned correctly, that will also affect its performance. Yellow skim-mate is likely due to low organic load, if there are other reasons for this maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[Nanoreefer1999]

Dissolved organics in the water column attach to the air bubbles. The air bubbles carry these organics to the top of the skimmer and are collected. For all practical purposes skimmers are generally run full time. There a couple of reasons why the skimmer may not produce skim. One reason is there just aren't enough dissolved organics for the skimmer to collect, or if it is not tuned correctly, that will also affect its performance. Yellow skin mate is likely due to low organic load, if there are other reasons for this maybe someone else can chime in.

Is that a good thing that it is yellow then?

 

[pshootr]

Is that a good thing that it is yellow then?

I suspect the yellow color may translate to a low volume of organics which yes would be good. I imagine when we see dark colored skim-mate, it is because the tank has a heavy bioload.