Skimmer Gunk?

[radiata]

Roger ~~~ I was wondering if there is a downside to not frequently cleaning the green-grey gunk off the inside of a skimmer cup riser tube. (Is there a more correct word for "gunk"?) My 9410 DC fills up every few days, and I'm considering hooking up a spare 50mL/min peristaltic pump to the cup and running it for 10 minutes each day. I think this should help me overcome the accidents that can befall the use of a gravity drain from a skimmer cup that is constantly open.

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

Yes, this gunk pops the foam column and reduce the amount that is skimmed, a clean cup always skims more. In general you can set up a drain to be safe, you simply place the hose in a container so when it is full the hose is blocked, the air then cannot escape if you are using a foam extractor, this then pushes the foam column down and skimming stops. This wont work if you drill the factory cup as the cup has air vents as well