How much Skimmate?

[kirkwood]

How much skimmate should I be pulling out of a 60 gallon system each week? Bio load is not too heavy, just 1 damsel, 1 solarensus wrasse, 1 coral beauty, 1 pj cardinal, and 1 mandarin dragonet.. Skimmer is a Berlin X2 Turbo.

And also, has anyone noticed a difference in their system if they set their skimmer to skim faster and produce a lot of liquid vs skimming slower and producing that think dark sludge?? Since my skimmer is set up outside of my sump, and always run the risk of overflow, I have set up the skimmer to skim very slowly and only allow dense/compact bubbles to overflow, which over time creates a buildup of that dark thick sludge skimmate in the overflow chamber... I have been running my skimmer like this for about 5 months now and all seems to be good in the tank... I rarely have to dump the overflow chamber, but I cleaned it the other day for the first time in months, and I needed a toothbrush to clean out all the sludge..

 

[crewdawg1981]

Depending on how much LR you have, 5 fish in a 60 isnt too bad, so I wouldnt expect to fill your skimmer with skimmate too fast, especially with a drier setting.

Once your skimmer builds up too much "sludge" along the top of the neck, it really cuts down on its effectiveness. I understand your wanting to run it with more of a dry skim due to being an external, but you should consider cleaning out the neck (and lid) much more frequently.

I skim wet and still need to wipe about 1 inch of sludge off the inside of my skimmer neck twice a week to keep it running optimally.

 

[wbrown]

I also run an external skimmer, I have a remote jug to drain my cup into, so I can go a little wetter. I adjust to where it takes about a month to fill a 1 gallon koolaid jug, but usually empty and clean the skimmer cup every other weekend. It may be worthwhile to look for a smallish dishpan container to set the skimmer in for peace of mind if you don't have a remote drain.

 

[kirkwood]

thanks for the feedback... I guess I could skim a bit wetter and drain to an external 2 liter coke bottle or something, so that i could skim with better piece of mind when i leave the house... Do you run your skimmer 24/7 or do you have scheduled intervals when you run it??? i don't have a set schedule per say but I probably only run mine about 12 hours/ day on average... sometimes I may go a full 24 hours, or sometimes I may not skim at all in a day... also i always turn the skimmer off for several hours after I feed the fish, dose with phyto, or dose any additives....

 

[wbrown]

the only time it's off is when it's out for cleaning.
never thought of a schedule..

 

[crewdawg1981]

Generally, you should leave your skimmer running 24/7. Not only does it take time to build up the foam, or head, the skimmer also helps your tank by aerating the water. No need to turn off the skimmer when you feed your fish. I generally let everything run when I feed. The only time I turn off my skimmer are for water changes, skimmer cleanings and when I dose bacteria or amino acids.