cleaning of beckett skimmers

[zorden]

I clean my beckett skimmer once a week. Is there anyway i can reduce the cleaning...it foams...and very soon the collection cup will be dirty.

btw..i am using RM minature beckett.

[roidan]

you mean the inner neck?

you can try the "deltec type" of self cleaning device or some other ingenius DIY gadgets...approach RM for suggestions since that's where your skimmer is from

[weileong]

You see his beckett in-sump type, almost hitting the roof already. "Self-cleaning" head won't help.

I think those nuts used to secure the different section must be quite tiring to loosen/remove.

You can try tunning the skimmer for wetter skimmate and that will reduce the frequency of cleaning and it'll run more efficient too.

[zorden]

You see his beckett in-sump type, almost hitting the roof already. "Self-cleaning" head won't help.

I think those nuts used to secure the different section must be quite tiring to loosen/remove.

You can try tunning the skimmer for wetter skimmate and that will reduce the frequency of cleaning and it'll run more efficient too.

not so much of a hassle..

but cleaning it too often..troublesome...lei

1 week dirty liao...

lucky not 1 day...

[zorden]

is it common for you guys to clean your skimmer once a week???

[roidan]

i just ask my maid to pour the coralife tub of skimmate away as part of her household routine (like clearing the wastepaper basket)....

as for my inner neck, it's always kept clean so i don't really have to do anything to my skimmer nowadays.

if u ask me to climb ladder to maintain my skimmer every week, u will see a slimmer me for sure

[zorden]

but the neck always so dirty..should i meet it wetter then use a collection cup for the wet skimate??

will the skimmer become inefficient after the neck gets dirty with skimmate

[roidan]

if u want u can try to adjust for wetter skimmate like weileong suggested but be careful not to induce flooding while adjusting. this will shorten the length of the dirty inner neck but will not eliminate it totally also..

definitely, the foam will burst prematurely and this premature reaction takes place lower and lower the neck and it ends up as a bottleneck for your skimmer's performance.

what you really want is for the dirty stuff to be collected in the cup/waste collector, not collected on the internals of the skimmer

[zorden]

well...if i adjust the skimmer to produce wet skimmate will it affect the skimmer performance?

[weileong]

Skimmer works more efficiently when they are tuned wetter (wet skimmate).

[roidan]

this one is pretty subjective...and there are those who prefer dry skimmate and those who prefer wet ones..

one thing for sure is that if you have wetter skimmate, you are going to have less waste per volume of skimmate than a dryer skimmate....

which means.....u need to *sacrifice* more usable tank water to bring up the wastes to collection point, but some feel that this leads to faster collection of waste==> due to less bottlenecking of dryer skimmate

end up on the extreme end of the wet spectrum and it will mean you will lose tank water very fast.....end up on the extreme end of the dry spectrum and you will lose skimmer performance when all the waste on the internals are impeding the rising foam

so it's a matter of finding a balance, your personal sweet spot also..

doesn't it sum up reefing as well?

BALANCE is the key.

[zorden]

thanks bro, need to top monitor the water level then

[zorden]

what should the color of the wet skimmate be?

[roidan]

what should the color of the wet skimmate be?

lol...this one i also wonder how to help you....

can be light greenish...light yellowish..light brownish or other colours depends on your system mah...

but the confirmed colour is DILUTED-colour...

then you may ask, how diluted is diluted? then i will say, personal preference of the wet-dry spectrum

[zorden]

i been to some reefer house.

the bubble king wet skimmate i saw in one reefer house is light yellow but some is greenish..

well...okay..thanks for the help.

need to trial and error then know

[weileong]

Don't till it is so dry that the skimmate all stuck to the neck then you should be fine.

Once a week cleaning of the neck is quite good already.

[zorden]

actually the once a week skimmate is okay to me..but i don know is this common..

as me new into this pocket burning hobbies..

[zorden]

does my overall post seems to be LPPL.

[Achilles Tang]

If you want to go for wetter skimmate in a beckett design skimmer... just tune the water level to be higher in the neck, so you can get more wet foam.

Personally, I don't want to waste saltwater by skimming wet. Using a FW top-up system, there may be a tendency to have your salinity drop over time if you skim wet... some people can skim a gallon of pale water skimmate over a few days, I wonder what happens when you have a gallon of freshwater added to replace it!

Anyway, IMO, even if the waste don't up into the cup, they are still collected on the neck... cleaning the cup or cleaning the neck, what's the diff? You still have to do work!

[zorden]

If you want to go for wetter skimmate in a beckett design skimmer... just tune the water level to be higher in the neck, so you can get more wet foam.

Personally, I don't want to waste saltwater by skimming wet. Using a FW top-up system, there may be a tendency to have your salinity drop over time if you skim wet... some people can skim a gallon of pale water skimmate over a few days, I wonder what happens when you have a gallon of freshwater added to replace it!

Anyway, IMO, even if the waste don't up into the cup, they are still collected on the neck... cleaning the cup or cleaning the neck, what's the diff? You still have to do work!

thanks boss for the advice

some far..me getting diluted skimmate.

i think better for me to get those normal skimmate

learning value here ....

[roidan]

Anyway, IMO, even if the waste don't up into the cup, they are still collected on the neck... cleaning the cup or cleaning the neck, what's the diff? You still have to do work!

that's why the deltec self-cleaning devices come at a premium.....or if RM can make one for their skimmer users, then it would be great..

because you don't have to clean the internals of the skimmer (the foam has a clear and clean path all the way to collection point)....and you dun have to clean the cup since nowdays collection cups come with drainage fittings....

great for lazy reefers

[zorden]

great for lazy reefers

[roidan]

don't worry you are not alone....

many lazy reefers out there....me included

[blueheaven]

well, i'm sure not a lazy reefer

I clean my skimmer neck every 3 days