IMO the first line of defense in the battle of degrading water conditions is the protein skimmer. As with the marine hobby in general the advancement of the protein skimmer has kept pace as aquarists demand better performance from their skimmers all the time, to the point now where you can get a skimmer that can over skim your system and remove too much from the water column. Some of the skimmers in the market at the moment have been developed by hobbyists that have not been happy with the performance of the “off the shelf” skimmers and have become leaders in the war of mixing water and air with the least amount of power used. Unfortunately to evaluate the quality of skim mate produced you would have to have it analyzed in a laboratory I have not read or been aware of any analysis to date. But despite this, the hobbyist [myself included] likes to see a quantity of smelly skim mate, as aquarists all over the world brag about how many cups produced in X amount of hours, but more importantly you should note the quality of the skim mate. It should be a dark brown smelly substance.
With the demand for the quantity of skim mate that is being met by some of the newer skimmers the older skimmers that were considered fine skimmers now find them selves being relegated to smaller systems by hobbyists.. In our small but growing society of the marine aquarist in South Africa this demand has led many of the importers to start importing some of the “new age” skimmers to satisfy the demand here, some of these skimmers do command a fairly hefty price tag. Our local hobbyist now has a fairly wide range of skimmers to choose from and this leads to a certain amount of confusion especially for somebody just entering the hobby as every hobbyist will swear by the skimmer they are using. Never mind the new comers even the experienced hobbyists often struggle trying to get to grips with the ratings. Let me give you an example and for this example I am not saying that any of the brands are right or wrong. In fact for now let’s call them brand A and brand B. Both these skimmers use the exact same pumps to drive their in sump skimmers.
Brand A
The pump used is the Italian made Sicci pump with the modifications specified by company A.
Air delivery is 800L per hour
Water delivery is 1200L per hour
Power consumption is 23w
Uses needle wheel technology
Single pump rated 2000L
Dual pump rated 4000L
Triple pump rated 6000L
Quad pump rated 8000L
Brand B
The pump used is the exact same Sicci pump, with modifications made by company B.
Air Delivery 1200L per hour
Water delivery 1500L per hour
Power consumption is 20w
Uses thread wheel technology
Single pump Rated 2000L
Dual pump rating 3000L.
Comparison
Single pump A. Air – 800Lph B. Air – 1200Lph
Water – 1200Lph Water – 1500Lph
Rating – 2000L system Rating – 2000L system
Dual pump A. Air – 1600Lph B. Air – 2400Lph
Water – 2400Lph Water – 3000Lph
Rating – 4000L system Rating – 3000L system
The dilemma
Which skimmer is over rated or under rated or is skimmer B just setting the new standards again for the future. I chose these 2 skimmers as they are both in sump and both use the same pumps for water delivery and air intake. Both the brands are very well known and both are well designed skimmers and both are of similar size. I know which skimmer I would buy here especially as brand B is considerably cheaper than A. But what is the proper rating? To reach a conclusion here I would say if skimmer A has the correct rating I would not push the limits of this skimmer and I would be very aware of stocking levels in a 4000L system, where as skimmer B I would comfortably run it on a 3000L heavily stocked system, I would even push it to 4000L. There are many such comparisons that can be made, which really makes it confusing. This is why it pays to do research before the purchase of a skimmer it will pay in the long run.
Operation of a skimmer?
Very simply put it mixes air in the form of bubbles and water from the water column and hopefully will form foam that can be removed from the system. Pretty much like the ocean on a windy day when the waves and wind form scum on the top of the water and the wind blows it away.
Although a fairly simple process, chemically it becomes fairly complicated, I have never found the need to go that deep though. Simply put, the dissolved waste in our systems has a polar attraction to air so when the water is passed through the skimmer the particles / molecules stick to the air bubbles and are removed from the water column before they are broken down by the filtration. Why remove when we can filter? The reason for this is to keep nitrates and phosphates to a minimum. If we can remove the waste before filtration then the end products of filtration won’t pollute our systems. If you have ever seen a tank that runs with out a sump you get an oily build up at the water surface, this is the polar attraction to air that I spoke about.
To skim or not to skim?
It is certainly possible to run a marine tank with out a skimmer, but beware of your fish stocking levels and maintenance schedule. I think a system that has a decent skimmer is far more forgiving and stable than a system with out. I would always advise the use of a good skimmer. A skimmer can be an effective weapon in the constant war against algae and high nutrient loads in fact if a tank has an algae problem you can often overcome the problem by upgrading the skimmer.
Which Skimmer?
This is a very difficult question to answer, at the end of the day it depends how much you can afford and how well stocked your system is. This is one piece of equipment I personally would not cut corners on as stated before, it is your primary tool to keeping your water healthy. Most hobbyists when starting off in the hobby start with the Jebo/Queen skimmers, personally I don’t think this is a bad thing and must be considered a learning curve because if you can get these skimmers to perform [and they can be made to perform] you will start to understand how a skimmer works and how to set a skimmer to produce foam. Most of us move away from them onto the more expensive, less fiddly and more efficient skimmers. Here is where we as aquarists have to do the research and ask questions as to which our next skimmer will be.
With the demand for the quantity of skim mate that is being met by some of the newer skimmers the older skimmers that were considered fine skimmers now find them selves being relegated to smaller systems by hobbyists.. In our small but growing society of the marine aquarist in South Africa this demand has led many of the importers to start importing some of the “new age” skimmers to satisfy the demand here, some of these skimmers do command a fairly hefty price tag. Our local hobbyist now has a fairly wide range of skimmers to choose from and this leads to a certain amount of confusion especially for somebody just entering the hobby as every hobbyist will swear by the skimmer they are using. Never mind the new comers even the experienced hobbyists often struggle trying to get to grips with the ratings. Let me give you an example and for this example I am not saying that any of the brands are right or wrong. In fact for now let’s call them brand A and brand B. Both these skimmers use the exact same pumps to drive their in sump skimmers.
Brand A
The pump used is the Italian made Sicci pump with the modifications specified by company A.
Air delivery is 800L per hour
Water delivery is 1200L per hour
Power consumption is 23w
Uses needle wheel technology
Single pump rated 2000L
Dual pump rated 4000L
Triple pump rated 6000L
Quad pump rated 8000L
Brand B
The pump used is the exact same Sicci pump, with modifications made by company B.
Air Delivery 1200L per hour
Water delivery 1500L per hour
Power consumption is 20w
Uses thread wheel technology
Single pump Rated 2000L
Dual pump rating 3000L.
Comparison
Single pump A. Air – 800Lph B. Air – 1200Lph
Water – 1200Lph Water – 1500Lph
Rating – 2000L system Rating – 2000L system
Dual pump A. Air – 1600Lph B. Air – 2400Lph
Water – 2400Lph Water – 3000Lph
Rating – 4000L system Rating – 3000L system
The dilemma
Which skimmer is over rated or under rated or is skimmer B just setting the new standards again for the future. I chose these 2 skimmers as they are both in sump and both use the same pumps for water delivery and air intake. Both the brands are very well known and both are well designed skimmers and both are of similar size. I know which skimmer I would buy here especially as brand B is considerably cheaper than A. But what is the proper rating? To reach a conclusion here I would say if skimmer A has the correct rating I would not push the limits of this skimmer and I would be very aware of stocking levels in a 4000L system, where as skimmer B I would comfortably run it on a 3000L heavily stocked system, I would even push it to 4000L. There are many such comparisons that can be made, which really makes it confusing. This is why it pays to do research before the purchase of a skimmer it will pay in the long run.
Operation of a skimmer?
Very simply put it mixes air in the form of bubbles and water from the water column and hopefully will form foam that can be removed from the system. Pretty much like the ocean on a windy day when the waves and wind form scum on the top of the water and the wind blows it away.
Although a fairly simple process, chemically it becomes fairly complicated, I have never found the need to go that deep though. Simply put, the dissolved waste in our systems has a polar attraction to air so when the water is passed through the skimmer the particles / molecules stick to the air bubbles and are removed from the water column before they are broken down by the filtration. Why remove when we can filter? The reason for this is to keep nitrates and phosphates to a minimum. If we can remove the waste before filtration then the end products of filtration won’t pollute our systems. If you have ever seen a tank that runs with out a sump you get an oily build up at the water surface, this is the polar attraction to air that I spoke about.
To skim or not to skim?
It is certainly possible to run a marine tank with out a skimmer, but beware of your fish stocking levels and maintenance schedule. I think a system that has a decent skimmer is far more forgiving and stable than a system with out. I would always advise the use of a good skimmer. A skimmer can be an effective weapon in the constant war against algae and high nutrient loads in fact if a tank has an algae problem you can often overcome the problem by upgrading the skimmer.
Which Skimmer?
This is a very difficult question to answer, at the end of the day it depends how much you can afford and how well stocked your system is. This is one piece of equipment I personally would not cut corners on as stated before, it is your primary tool to keeping your water healthy. Most hobbyists when starting off in the hobby start with the Jebo/Queen skimmers, personally I don’t think this is a bad thing and must be considered a learning curve because if you can get these skimmers to perform [and they can be made to perform] you will start to understand how a skimmer works and how to set a skimmer to produce foam. Most of us move away from them onto the more expensive, less fiddly and more efficient skimmers. Here is where we as aquarists have to do the research and ask questions as to which our next skimmer will be.
