December 23, 200520 yr comment_81062 whats so funny about stayin in a motel? anway, before i left yesterday i emptied the waste collectr which was almost full of nice dark green skimmate. when i get home i expect ill have to empy it again so almost a litre every ther day. i also find i enjoy opening up the cabinet to look t the new equiptment Report
December 23, 200520 yr comment_81065 good to hear its all working well the equipment looked real nice but great to hear its workin well Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81162 Here it is bubbling away some skimmate in the waste collector had to empty it after taking the pic Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81179 ok you have a cup at the top of your skimmer witch will never fill coz of the drain at the bottom of the cup. unless it gets blocked somehow but why the other canister why just not use the skimmer cup ??? seems to be more to look after have to wash the cup out and wash and empty the overflow tube out to Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81181 Is this the consistancy you are aiming for or is it still warming up? I set my weipro up and got a similar colour skimmate(probably a little lighter) - first time I fired it up and left it for ~ 3 hours got about half a cup of skimmate. I was impressed - made the water quite clear, (probably about 30L in the system it was running in). I couldnt see 20 cms in it to start with, then perfect. Brian did my payment go through ? :lol: So what are your thoughts on your new toys so far? Any problems or are they as good as they look? 8) (I ask because I'm quite interested in one of those skimmers myself.) Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81191 yip got the money, just waiting for the post shop to open the skimmate in the pic is not bad it could be darker but i find that consistancy acceptable. its still breaking in so i cant give it a final vote yet. the waste collector holds alot more than the collection cup can and i can take the waste collector off while the skimmer still runs and only need to take the neck off unless i need to for maintanence/cleaning Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81196 When you run with this skimmate - can you detect a drop in salinity? (because that is one of the arguments against wet skimming), just wondering if you have noticed? Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81197 one litre out of 500 isnt going to make a marked difference. but some people replace the skimmate with new water (asw or nsw) Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81201 Even though it is thin skimmate, it is still an impressive amount of crud coming out of Brians tank, which I believe still has a very low bioload. I'll bet your tank must be sparkling Brian! Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81205 I was just worried that I might have to use heaps of artificial salt if I used my Weipro 8) , but as you say it appears to be a non issue. Do most people here run wet? I think I'm gonna run quite wet - it worked for my sump I have seen some people on foreign forums with ridiculously thick stuff, and the logic behind that doesnt make too much sense if the only problem with running wet - is loosing more water. Does skimming pull out ions at different rates? or does it leave the ion balance totally intact? I'm surprised that there is very little qualitative data available about skimmers - I would have thought that with the money involved someone would have looked into a serious scientific comparison. I spose the different running specs would make it difficult though...... Report
December 25, 200520 yr Author comment_81216 Wet skimming normally happens with less efficient skimmers as they pull out more water. If a skimmer is working well it will remove organics quickly so you will get dark brown skimate. Some do raise the water level in the skimmers so they can skim wet, but I doubt it really helps and maybe it gives them the feel good factor thinking that the skimmer is working better. Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81218 Even though it is thin skimmate, it is still an impressive amount of crud coming out of Brians tank, which I believe still has a very low bioload. I'll bet your tank must be sparkling Brian! well untill yesterday morning i was nice and clean but then a darn coral decided to spawn and so the tank went milky for about 7 hours. all clean again though. the bio load untill two days ago was one small perc clown and corals. Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81219 Wet skimming normally happens with less efficient skimmers as they pull out more water. If a skimmer is working well it will remove organics quickly so you will get dark brown skimate. Some do raise the water level in the skimmers so they can skim wet, but I doubt it really helps and maybe it gives them the feel good factor thinking that the skimmer is working better. at the moment im still getting tuned in so i cant really say how i will end up running it in the end, but running it wet keeps the neck of the skimmer cleaner meaning you have to clean it less. i wouldnt call it innefficient (unless i was trying to sell somehing else that is) Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81229 Hello fishy friends Glad to see you didn't lose any of your 'competitive' spirit over Christmas! Just to ask a general skimmer question (if there is such a thing) once you get your skimmer 'tuned in' and a constant flow of water through the sump its in, should it need adjusting after that? eg what about when, over time, its a good little skimmer and reduces the protein available, won't it affect the way it performs? :-? (How much show we stop playing with it once its going 'right'?) From a newbie skimmerer.... Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81233 your deltec should perorm really well, i would imagine once its all up and running you shouldnt need to play with it much at all. Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81238 Ain't got it yet - the old owner has to replumb his house first (to accommodate his NEW skimmer) I'm still playing with my old one! Report
December 25, 200520 yr comment_81239 yeah i visited your skimmer on the way back from holiday up in auckland. not sure how he will fit it all in that sump room. (im sure he will manage with some of his great plumbing) Report
December 26, 200520 yr comment_81259 Wet skimming normally happens with less efficient skimmers as they pull out more water. I don't think I can agree with this. I tested two of my DIY skimmers along time ago which were the same as each other, I tuned one wet and the other dry. The dry one stopped pulling yet the wet one was still getting slightly discoloured water. My conclusion was that tuning it slightly wet was helping to suspend the waste for longer which aided the removel. It could be differant for other skimmers but I don't think it would be. Report
December 26, 200520 yr Author comment_81260 i dont think can compare your diy to any of the top performing skimmers. i run 3-4 makes of skimmers and all the better ones produce a darker liquid becaus they are pulling the dirt out quicker. all the cheapo skimmers produce a light liquid. Report
December 26, 200520 yr comment_81261 i had a weirpro that i ran as dry as any deltec ive seen. colour of skimmate would be the worst possible judge of a skimmers quality. Report
December 26, 200520 yr comment_81264 Agreed I have a Weirpro, A Deltec, A Bubbleking & an Aquamedic- I can tune ANY of them to run wet or dry. and to be honest i prefer the Deltec just not the price! Must get a Becket Report
December 26, 200520 yr comment_81267 i dont think can compare your diy to any of the top performing skimmers. Sorry I didn't know you new anything about my skimmers. Let me inlighten you. They use a seriously modified version of a Becket which by the time I finished with my design looked nothing like one. Its operation will not be discussed or shown on any Forum or other means so don't ask. The skimmers are all acrylic and recycles the chamber as do about 20 other brands of industrial and marine tank skimmers. They do not have a pinwheel which is another thing that people like to keep reinventing as they improve on previous designs. It has another system which is far more efficient and again will not be disscussed or shown. Maybe now you guys will undestand why I'm not happy about showing pics. I will soon as I will be starting over and rebuilding alot of my systems as they aren't tidy but I will not show details about some of the systems that I have created. The one I have running at the moment pulls 1.5-2 litres of thick syrup a week which means nothing and you should all stop comparing this way because every tank is differant and cannot be compared with each other. It can run dry or wet as can the cheap $120.00 skimmer I use on my 1000 litre storage tank which has a 1280 pushing it, this pulls about 1 litre a week of thick syrup which comes from the life in the rock that I have in there. There are far better skimmers out there and they are designed to deal with far greater problems than marine tanks can throw at them. I am yet to see anything they have to offer that hasn't been done before by someone else in and outside of the marine tank industry. Report
December 26, 200520 yr comment_81269 Its operation will not be discussed or shown on any Forum or other means so don't ask. It has another system which is far more efficient and again will not be disscussed or shown. ... but I will not show details about some of the systems that I have created. Why even bring it up if you aren't going to talk about it? Ohhh, I've got something really, really cool, but don't ask me about it because it is my little secret!! :roll: :roll: :roll: Patent pending?!?! Report
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