sea clone 100 protein skimmer question?

Question

its says the turn the nob on the air when i do that more froam start its that good and can anyone plz tell what this thing does and how to use it i have the box doesnt work can anyone help me out how and what is this thing good for i want to know everything about this thing

Answer 1

There are a few different designs for skimmers, but the basic components are a pump (to move the water), a column or box chamber, a method if introducing fine air bubbles, and a collection container.

Their purpose is to remove small organic particles and dissolved proteins in the water. The proteins are the result of decomposition or digestion of food and dead organisms. These proteins have an "end" that's attracted to the air-water interface. So the particles are pumped along with the water into the chamber where a stream of fine bubbles is injected. The particles adhere to the surface of the bubbles and are pushed upward (by the bubbles beneath) into the collection cup, where they can later be removed. This prevents the organics from decomposing further where they can add to the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate inthe tank (and thereby reducing the nutrients available for algae growth). That's the simple explanation of what these are good for. They don't replace a filter, but work along with them to remove wastes from the water.

When you adjust the air flow, you want to adjust it so there isn't a constant stream of bubbles into the collection cup - if you do this, the cup will fill in no time and draw a lot of water out of the tank with it. But if you haven't used one on the tank yet, there may be a lot of dissolved organics that need to be removed (if your tank is a months or less old, you may not have that much accumulated yet). I'd say to adjust your air so the top of the bubble column is about 1/2 inch below the top of the column in the cup. As dissolved debris accumulates at the top of the bubble column, they'll get pushed up the rest of the way, but won't cause your cup to fill and overflow overnight. It may take a few days for the skimmer to operate at a consistent level, so keep an eye on it.

At best, these take some playing with so you get them adjusted to a good level. The density of the water changes with the salinity, so if water evaporates, the bubbles will get smaller and more material can be removed. Also, if you add medications to the tank, this can change the surface tension of the water, and cause a quick overflow, so keep this in mind. Since some medication will be removed with the bubbles, it's best not to use the skimmer if the medication affects it. Turn the flow to the skimmer completely off, then adjust it slowly back toward the normal setting until you're sure if/how much the flow will change.