Skimmer question

[m0nk3y69d]

I have a reef octopus 110 skimmer and I was wondering is it better to get a little bit of dark green skimmate or a bunch of lighter skimmate

 

[Reefing Madness]

Plenty of different opinions on this one. I run the dark dry skimmate.

 

[m0nk3y69d]

Mines not really dry just really dark lol

 

[bearjohnson]

I don't think it's a question of which is better but more of a question of how much you're looking to pull out. Some run a wet skim which will require more top off water to be added while others (like myself) just let the skimmer stay some where in the middle of the road. Some times during the day, my skimmer isn't foaming if at all while other times a day it's earning its keep.

 

[JMSKI333]

The color of mind varies from a green to a brown depending on what I've been doing. I try to a clumpyish water solution.

 

[KoleTang]

If it is liquid and not "mud" then you are skimming wet. You can't skim wetter than wet, at that point you are just diluting the skimmate. So darker is better.

 

[m0nk3y69d]

Ok thank you very much everyone I think I'm going to try to make it more of a mud then a liquid lol

 

[KoleTang]

Ok thank you very much everyone I think I'm going to try to make it more of a mud then a liquid lol

I think you misunderstood. Some people like wet skim, some like dry skim. IMO, dry skim just seems like the junk is sitting in the tank longer before it is skimmed. Dark, wet skim is perfect. If you purposely go from "dark wet skimmate" to "light wet skimmate", you would just be hindering the efficiency of the skimmer. At that point you would just be diluting it. So to be clear, I recommend getting the skimmate as dark as possible while still skimming wet.

 

[m0nk3y69d]

It's almost black right now and wet like this