Skimmer Thread

[jhale]

NS-1000 Update

well I have been away for about a week. while I was gone Herman was over twice to check on the skimmer.

this is what I found, about 5 days of skimming.




this was extremely thick and nasty skimmate, the amount of sludge on the neck indicates to me that the skimmer worked well up to the point the neck got clogged, then stopped producing. the smell of the skimmate was also intense, perhaps a dirty baby diaper could beat it, maybe.

my thoughts on the skimmer; so far it's been very touchy to dial in, and it seems to need cleaning almost every day. the air valve also needs cleaning often. for whatever reason the air valve will clog which stops the skimmer from producing anything at all. when the skimmer is working it seems to produce a great quality skimmate in sufficient quantities. Keeping the skimmer dialed in is the hard part so far.

Jesse, and Nick, the owner of elos, will be sending the larger collection cup to try out, we'll see if running the air wide open will make a difference.

I did order a DAS EX-2 to run next to the elos. I spoke to Jesse about this and he was all for it (he's not buying the DAS so sure )

I want a good needle wheel skimmer to see what the difference will be.
one important thing to note is that the elos is set up to NOT skim the plankton. this is where the NS / natural skimmer, comes from. to be fair this may be why the quality of the skimmate has some wondering.
If possible I will have samples from each analyzed by one of our board scientists (Shaun and Ebby are you reading this?) to see exactly what they are each pulling out. nothing like having access to electron microscopes not that you need to go that small to see plankton.

 

[jhale]

skimmer pump question

this is the top end of the impeller from the ehiem 1260, is this normal?

the end is all chipped, I was wondering if this would be effecting the performance of the pump.

 

[elosusa]

I will check my eheim here and tell you if this is normal. The touchy thing may have something to do with break in because that is one of the things that I like about my 1000. It is not touchy, at all. The needlewheel that I had on the system before was much more touchy. Let's see what happens after a week or so when you get used to the skimmer and it settles down. I have a feeling it is something that we are not thinking of. Perhaps the air tube should be longer and away from the sump so it doesn't take in moist air. My skimmer has a longer thinner air tube that is away from the sump. Just an idea but I am sure we will figure it out. Nice sludge. That is a lot better than the first shots. Talk to you later. Jesse

 

[kimoyo]

jhale - that is some nasty looking stuff.

one important thing to note is that the elos is set up to NOT skim the plankton. this is where the NS / natural skimmer, comes from.

How does this work?

 

[jhale]

jhale - that is some nasty looking stuff.
How does this work?

paul is has to do with using a non-needle wheel pump, and the way the water is injected into the skimmer, I think. I would defer to Jesse's explanation for this.

 

[jhale]

dialed in?

this is where the ns-1000 is at now, I'm not going to touch it till friday, when I get back next.

 

[elosusa]

I took a look at the end of a 1260 I have here and it looks the same. I can take a pic if you want but it is the same. Never noticed that. Not the most finished look. On the natural skimming. Is it possible to get someone to analyze this? I've had a few conversations about this and for the most part we have covered it here. The key to this type of injection (top down injection) is contact time and not using a modified impeller to "chop bubbles". Jhale, you mentioned that some are confused at the "quality of the skimmate". I think that 5 day picture put that concern to bed. I look at the color of that and I am having second thoughts on the "natural" thing.:scratchch Anyways, keep in touch with me on how the "touchy" thing is going. I am curious to see if it was the air tubing bringing in moist air, like we talked about. By the way thanks for keeping it honest. Oh and one more thing I got my ocean freight and customs bill today and the price you got will be changing for people after the pre-orders. I am still getting over the shock:Yikes: Jesse

 

[ShaunW]

If possible I will have samples from each analyzed by one of our board scientists (Shaun and Ebby are you reading this?) to see exactly what they are each pulling out. nothing like having access to electron microscopes not that you need to go that small to see plankton.

I would be willing to do this, but you are opening pandora's box! :smash: :lol2:

 

[ShaunW]

BTW Jonathan, YOUR TANK IS NASTY!!!!!!!!!!!! do a water change already and maybe you wouldn't be pulling out all that nasty $hit :tongue1: .

 

[ctxmonitor]

ditto that.. That is the nastiest skimmate I have seen. And I thought Shuan was nasty, lol

 

[prattreef]

Hey Shaun,

If you really analyze skimmate in a thorough and serious way, it would be a tremendous asset to the hobby. To my knowledge this has never been done. My understanding is that it is incredibly comlplex material and difficult to analyze. If you are interested, I could put you in touch with Craig Bingman who has given this more than a little thought. Randy

 

[jhale]

damn there is no pleasing you people, first my skimmate is too weak, now it's too nasty?!!

I can't wait to see what happens when the DAS and ELOS are running at the same time.

and for the record my water has 0 Po4, and maybe 1.0 of No3 now
how nasty can it be? I bet that's just leftover snail jizz the skimmers pulling out. and there is about 2.5 pounds of ESV carbon in the sump, that must be helping also.

analyzing skimmate sounds like a fun spring project Shaun
can I come to your lab and wear a bunny suit, and pretend the skimmate is toxic nuclear waste? and Tom I don't mean an easter bunny suit

 

[ShaunW]

ditto that.. That is the nastiest skimmate I have seen. And I thought Shuan was nasty, lol

I try, :pimp: :bunnies: :party: .

 

[ShaunW]

Hey Shaun,

If you really analyze skimmate in a thorough and serious way, it would be a tremendous asset to the hobby. To my knowledge this has never been done. My understanding is that it is incredibly comlplex material and difficult to analyze. If you are interested, I could put you in touch with Craig Bingman who has given this more than a little thought. Randy

Who's Craig Bingman?

Yes I know it hasn't been done before, hence the "pandora's box" statement thown in in my last post.

The reason it hasn't been analyzed is not because it is hard to do (a microscope and a mass spec. would be enough to perform the task to the satisfaction of the reef hobby community).

 

[jhale]

shaun is nastier than the skimmate? or shauns skimmate is nasty?
there's a big difference...:skull:

 

[ShaunW]

I bet that's just leftover snail jizz the skimmers pulling out.

The snail jizz in my tank looks nothing like that, but your snails certainly had a crazy orgy in your tank :bunnies:, so who knows? :scratch:

analyzing skimmate sounds like a fun spring project Shaun
can I come to your lab and wear a bunny suit, and pretend the skimmate is toxic nuclear waste? and Tom I don't mean an easter bunny suit

You know that isn't the only reason that you want to come to my lab,
:party: . It is the company I keep at work.

 

[jhale]

Who's Craig Bingman?

Yes I know it hasn't been done before. Why do you think the "pandora's box" statement was thown in in my last post.

The reason it hasn't been analyzed is not because it is hard to do (a microscope and a mass spec. would be enough to perform the task to the satisfaction of the reef hobby community).

re: the resources, if you have to work after hours I'll buy the :beer:

realistically could you do this? and if you can what exactly would you be able to analyze? how many samples would you need? would comparing just two skimmers be a good experiment? Could this be an article that you could publish?

You could become the Sanjay of skimmate

 

[jhale]

You know that isn't the only reason that you want to come to my lab,
:party: . It is the company I keep at work.

doh, you caught me, I know where the party is :party:

 

[herman]

Man, to think that I volunteered sticking my fingers through that sludge for that photo. :irked:

I still believe that the NS1000 has the potential to be one of the better skimmers out there. I will definitely be playing with it to get some steady skimmate out of it.

Yeah I would love to know what is in the skimmate!!

 

[jhale]

Yeah I would love to know what is in the skimmate!!

I wonder how long the list would be.
That would be some seriously cool information to have.

would it be correct to analize a sample of the tank water to see what the skimmer is not taking out, like a before and after? :scratchch